Adam Landry ’24 is the quarterback for Andover Football.
Running across the field to the right sideline, Lincoln Beal PG’24 caught the football over his shoulder and went on to score a 40-yard touchdown — a memorable moment from Saturday’s game. Despite this moment, Andover lost 28-57 to Williston Northampton (Williston) in its season opener.
Leo Sim ’25 believed that Andover came into the game with something to prove. He emphasized that the team spent three weeks preparing, whether it was studying Williston’s film, or on-field training.
Sim said, “I guess it was a big game for us as our starting quarterback from last year, Davian McDonald [’25], transferred to Williston and is now their starting quarterback. It was our first game, our season opener, and at home. It was very important to us. We started looking at their film as soon as possible, trying to scout their players and see who their best receiver was, what their plays were. All that film helped us know what they might run and what they would like to do.”
Quarterback Andy Du ’25 reflected how the weeks before the game consisted of integrating new players like himself into the team’s offense. Adapting to the new offensive strategies was also key to the team’s success on Saturday.
“We had a lot of new kids this year, including myself. We were new to the offensive playbook, so during the preseason camp at Williston, we were installing the entire playbook: the basic plays, route concepts, and pass plays. Those plays should be automatic at this point, and I feel like the concepts that we worked on translated into the game as second nature, which was a good thing for us considering a lot of our offensive players were new,” said Du.
Sim stated that the team had a strong start, and were able to score two touchdowns in a row. However, he noted that a fumble right before the half allowed Williston to seize the momentum of the game.
“The start of the game was really back and forth. They started with a touchdown, and we responded with one, and kept going like that until it was 21-14, Williston. But on our drive to tie the score, we had a fumble at their 30-yard line and that cost us to be behind 28-14, which had a big impact on the game going into halftime. We could have been tied, but instead, we were losing by 14. From then, the gap started to get bigger. We still could have done something, as our offense was really good and our defense was in good positions, but we were just missing tackles and we couldn’t cover some passing plays,” said Sim.
Du noted that the team’s spirit and enthusiasm was very high throughout the entire game and he praised the captains for their ability to help maintain that energy. Despite losing, he felt like the energetic environment and physical nature of the game motivated each player.
“I thought that there was a lot of energy on the sideline. You could really feel the atmosphere before the game, during halftime. We were able to take care of ourselves and our leaders, being good leaders, helped us have that extra motivation. All our captains stepped up and it was clear that we have a very strong core group of kids who are able to push the team both mentally and physically when we are down. I think that coming out of half time we were all very pumped up and ready to play. It was a good game, and we brought the energy, but at the end of the day, it just wasn’t our day,” said Du.
Du highlighted Lincoln Beal ’24 and Adam Landry ’24 as two key offensive players who led the scoreboard, and Alex Armour ’24 as a defensive playmaker. Their athleticism and hard work significantly contributed to the team’s success.
Du said, “We came out of the game pretty strong with a touchdown from Adam Landry, our quarterback, to Beal, our PG wide receiver. And our next play was another touchdown from Landry to Beal. We had a great offensive start with those two touchdown passes. And later, Beal scored another touchdown on a jet pass from Landry. He [Beal] had three touchdowns for us which was super impressive. Defensively, Alex Armour was in the back field the entire day, stuffing runs. He sacked the quarterback three times and he was a big difference maker on defense.”
Andover will play its first away game of the season against Salisbury on Saturday.
