Although the first half ended with a 0-0 score, Andover Boys Soccer failed to secure victory against Deerfield Academy this past Sunday. Deerfield netted a goal early in the second half, and Andover ultimately suffered a 1-0 loss.
Prior to the game, the team trained with increased intensity because Deerfield is a challenging opponent, according to Adam Hassanein ’22.
“After our game against Cushing, a lesser opponent compared to Deerfield, we focused on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday on increasing the intensity and tempo of play to match the game-like atmosphere that we would be playing at Deerfield,” said Hassanein.
According Hassanein, the team persevered despite harsh weather conditions while playing.
“It was a very intense game amongst some very terrible conditions. It was absolutely freezing out, with lots of rain. But nonetheless, our team persisted for the majority of the game. We all worked very hard and gave it our all. Unfortunately we didn’t get the result [we wanted], but I’m very confident in our team going forward,” said Hassanein.
According to Giovanni Pagliuca ’23, the team succeeded in maintaining its intensity throughout the game, though its efforts went unrewarded.
Pagliuca said, “Our intensity was good overall. We definitely worked hard and created a few opportunities. Definitely not as [many] as we wanted, but I guess in the end we just didn’t come out with a result… I think our communication could have been a little bit better. Certain times in the game we got in a bit of a funk and weren’t able to find as many passes as we would have wanted to.”
The team played Worcester Academy on Wednesday in its last home matchup of the season. The team lost 3-2, with Will Godbout ’20 and Daniel Cho ’21 each netting a goal, bringing its record to 5-7.
Although the team finished strong, its did not enter the game with the right mentality to find succeed, according to Mason Tuller ’22.
Tuller said, “I think it’s just the general mentality going into the game. Worcester was a team that only had one loss and one tie, and everything else was wins. Going into the game we knew that [Worcester] was a good team, so the mentality wasn’t what it needed to be. After the first half it was only 1-0 which was good, but our mentality didn’t really shift until the end of the second half where we realized that we could hang with this team.”
As the end of the season draws near, the team hopes to improve its defensive positioning and offensive scoring, according to Pagliuca.
Pagliuca said, “I think our team did well by not giving up and pushing for more goals. I think we should continue to work on our defensive shape and finishing in practice this week as at times we lacked on [those] fronts.”
Andover will travel to Kimball Union Academy this Saturday.
