11/4 – Andover: 4, KUA: 0
11/8 – Andover: 4, Tabor: 0
On Saturday, Andover Boys Soccer (11-2-2) defeated Kimball Union Academy on its Senior Night and played the most ‘complete’ game Head Coach Edwin Escobar had ever seen in his entire coaching career at Andover. Boys Soccer then won again against Tabor Academy, finishing with the same score as its game against KUA.
When using the word ‘complete’ in regards to Saturday’s game, Lam believed Escobar was pointing out how Andover possessed the ball well throughout the entire game and the team was strong in both its defensive and offensive efforts.
“Actually as we were finishing the game, we had a team huddle and the coach said this is the most complete game he’s ever seen in his whole career at Andover,” said Lam, “Any sport is composed of defense and offense and in this game I think we played especially well in both. For the full ninety minutes as well, we possessed the ball and we had a lot of intensity.”
Saturday was KUA’s Senior Night and Andover faced loud fans scrutinizing the team’s every move and a fan section almost entirely rooting for the opposing team.
“It was Kimball Union’s Senior Night and obviously they had a big crowd of parents that were cheering for them, and were really vocal when they made a good tackle play as well as when we messed up or something. So I would say that the energy was especially high for them, but we did a really good job of having our own energy to contest theirs and everyone pitched in,” said Lam.
Kai Myles ’27 reflected on what the team worked on in anticipation of Saturday’s game. In particular, Myles mentioned the formation change and how players tried out new positions against KUA.
Myles said, “We worked on a new formation, trying a bit of new tactics, switching up roles which we worked on for about a week. Just stuff like that, having our offense getting behind more, the ball playing midfielder [sending] complete balls and playing the ball easier and faster, [allowing us to] just go forward looking for that breakthrough. I think those tactics really helped us win this game and helped us get those results”
According to Lam, KUA had scouted Andover and its formation. In anticipation of this, the team changed its formation from previously having two center attacking midfielders and one center defending midfield, to having two center defending midfielders and one center attacking midfielder.
“This game we tried something new in terms of our formation and a lot of new players played in new positions because we knew that the other team had a scouting report on us, so we wanted to come out there and surprise them. Even with the changes, our team adjusted really well, clearly, with a 4-0 win,” said Lam.
Myles looked ahead to the game against Tabor, which he believed Andover was well prepared for.
“Wednesday’s game I think it’s just about getting back fitness, resting. We’re all very excited and I would say that everything I think we needed to improve on we improved on already in the last week or two, or three. I do think we should focus on connecting the passes,” said Myles.
Liam Rorke PG’24 highlighted a goal scored by Myles with an assist from Spencer Madge ’25. Despite the four goals Andover was able to score against Tabor, the team found it difficult to find its way through Tabor’s defensive line.
Rorke said, “Tabor played a really defensive game and closed a lot of their gaps in the back, so we had to work really hard to try to penetrate through their line and find chances to finish. We had a really nice move in the first half where Madge found Kai for a goal and finished on the goalkeeper quite well and we scored. That really gave us momentum for a bit, but then they started shutting us down for a while until we gained more momentum in the second half and we were able to finish on the goalkeeper.”
Similarly to Myles’s feelings going into the Tabor game, Rourke feels confident going into Andover/Exeter weekend. Rourke emphasized the team’s high performance and believes it will continue on into Saturday.
“We’re on a high right now, we’ve been playing some really good stuff and we’ll just go in there and play it like any other game. It’s a big occasion but I think if we stick to our plan and keep on going how we are right now, we’ll be just fine, if not better,” Rorke said.
Boys Soccer will travel to Phillips Exeter Academy for its final regular season game on Saturday.
