Mathis Weber ’20 spun around his defender to score Andover’s third goal.
According to Deveau, who scored three goals in Friday’s game, Andover was able to display its offensive talent in front of a large home crowd. The team built momentum from its big lead at the beginning of the game, according to Marcel Montemayor Fontes ’23.
“I think the best part of Friday’s game was putting on a show for everyone who showed up. It was the biggest turnout we’ve ever seen, and it was super nice to be able to run the score and just really showcase what we’re made of,” said Deveau.
“The first couple of goals really got us motivated to score more goals and really got us moving,” said Montemayor Fontes.
Andover was successful in consistently making fast breaks, but according to James Isenhower ’22, the team wishes it had been stronger in terms of setting up on offense and passing the ball.
“We have a lot of strong swimmers and a lot of strong fast breaks, so if we get stopped on those, I think it is a little harder for us to set up and move the ball down the pool. I think the thing that we definitely need to work on is just slowing things down a little bit,” said Isenhower.
In addition to its offensive prowess, the team showcased its strong defense and aggressive blocking strategy in Friday’s game, according to Deveau.
“There have been huge blocks by everybody, my brother even said—he was here for a family weekend—‘man, you guys were so good at blocking the ball.’ I told him we don’t practice that much, but when we do, everyone is able to get a hand on the ball and it’s super nice to help out the goalies,” said Deveau.
In the coming weeks, Andover will face-off against Phillips Academy Exeter and Brunswick, two teams it played earlier in the season. The team hopes to defeat both Exeter away next week as part of the Andover/Exeter competitions and Brunswick in its postseason play.
According to Isenhower and Deveau, in order to succeed going forward, the team must begin strongly and maintain its composure throughout the games as it did against St. John’s Prep.
“We know there’s gonna be a lot of tough teams, but of course we’d like to win, but I think we’d all be very satisfied if we played as best we could and we worked on everything we said we wanted to work on, if we just we went out intense and we tried our best and just slowed things down.” said Isenhower.
Deveau said, “I think we just need to be communicating on offense, instead of just sitting where we are, moving around, and trying to confuse their defense. We seem to get too comfortable where we are, that’s how we generate turnovers.”
Andover will travel to Exeter on October 30 for its last regular-season game.
