Boys Soccer tied Exeter 1-1 in last year’s A/E contest.
“The scrimmage was really close, we lost 1-0 to a lucky bounce. I feel like both the teams are a lot different now compared to then, so we’ll see how that goes. We didn’t play our best, considering that it was our first game together as a team. We’re really looking forward to being able to play them and show them what we’ve got compared to a few months ago,” said Hassanein.
Pagliuca added, “The last time we played Exeter we were a lot more of a newer team, we weren’t as much of a coherent group as we are now. So I feel like last time although we did something well, I think our offense was good, I think we weren’t clicking as well as we are now and I think that’s going to be a big difference between the upcoming game and the scrimmage.”
Andover hopes to use the energy of the crowd to fuel its intensity and energy level during the game, according to Alan Fang ’21 and Hassanein.
“I’m just looking forward to the excitement of Andover/Exeter. It’s one of the few games where we get a huge crowd and it’s super exciting to feel the energy in the air and play in front of a huge crowd,” said Fang.
“Every year it is always exciting to play Exeter, we’re all very fired up for the past two weeks just looking forward to the game, we know they’re a good team and we’re gonna just give it our all. It’s going to be really competitive and really intense so we’re all really looking forward to it,” said Hassanein.
After last year’s Andover/Exeter matchup ended in a tie, Andover is looking to claim victory this year, according to Daniel Cho ’21.
“We want to win this year to finish off what we started last year and see if we can put an end to a good season,” said Cho. “I think Exeter has had a pretty good season, so it will be a tough match.”
For practice this week, the team will focus on strategy and use its game against Tabor on Wednesday to prepare for Saturday’s matchup.
“We’re gonna train with a lot of intensity, but in the end we want to treat it like any other game, because we should treat every game like how we would treat Andover/Exeter. I think it would just be more or less the same to keep working hard and putting in our best and seeing what happens,” said Fang.
