4/20 Andover: 10 Choate: 15
4/24 Andover: 6 Holderness: 14
After two wins, on Saturday, Boys Lacrosse (6-3) faced Choate at home, ultimately losing. On Wednesday, the team also fell against Holderness.
Kele Gregory ’26 shared that although the team was putting in effort, it lacked connection. He noted that in the future, the team needs to work on staying consistent in the second half.
“I thought the score could have been closer, but in the second half, we started falling off. The work ethic was there, but some of the boys just needed to stick together as a team and work harder throughout the game. [We] definitely have to finish the games off strong. We had trouble on face-offs… Next year or whenever we play them, it’ll definitely be a better game,” said Gregory.
Leading up to the game, Jacob Keller ’24 shared that the team put a lot of work in during practice. He also highlighted the motivation that the crowd’s energy offered.
“The atmosphere is a lot different than a lot of the games because leading up to it, practice has been a lot more intense, because we really, really wanted to win. So we were a lot more focused in both our warm-up and practices leading up to the game. The actual atmosphere at the game was awesome. We had a pretty good show of fans and the team was really pumped to play a good team that would be fun and worthy competition,” said Keller.
Keller commended Gregory for his strong efforts on the face-offs, a position he was switched into mid-way through the game.
“I would say the biggest moment was when we put our hold on the draw. Their draw guy was beating our two draw guys, and they were getting the ball more. Then we put Kele Gregory in, and he actually went 80 percent on the draw which gave us a fighting chance and around the same amount of possessions, so we could fight back a little bit,” said Keller.
On Wednesday, Boys Lacrosse fell to Holderness. Alex Dimnaku ’27 shared that Holderness’ defensive strategy proved to be an obstacle for the team, preventing it from keeping possession of the ball and providing scoring opportunities for Holderness.
“Today, we struggled a lot in the clear, Holderness ten man ride which means they use their goalie to try to take the ball away from us when we try to clear it, and so that really held us back today and made a lot of possessions that we should have had turnovers, and they can score off those,” said Dimnaku.
Dimnaku highlighted Paul Harrison ’25 for his impressive play in goal. He noted that at the end of the first half, the score was close because of Harrison’s saves.
“I thought the MVP of the game was Paul Harrison because he’s an [Upper], and he was our goalie in the first half, and he absolutely stood in his head and saved so many shots for us. By the end of the first half, it was 4-2, and Paul was such a big part of that. He made so many big saves,” said Dimnaku.
Looking forward, the team plans to focus on clearing. Dimnaku noted that in order to prepare for its next game, the team will be looking at Deerfield’s play.
Dimnaku said, “We’re going to work a lot on clearing in the upcoming practices. Then also we have Deerfield on Saturday and they’re a very good team. We’re also going to work on just scouting them and making sure we’re ready for that game.”
Boys Lacrosse will face Deerfield away on Saturday.
