Jake Saalfrank ’25, defensive end looks warily across the field
On Saturday, Andover football opened its first regular season game with a loss to Williston Northampton School. Despite starting with a fourteen-point lead, Andover was unable to maintain its lead in the second half.
Although the final score was 38-14 Williston, new Upper and quarterback Nate Parker ’26 reflected on how the team had successfully dominated the first half of the game with two interceptions on defense and multiple touchdowns on consecutive offensive drives.
Parker said, “I threw a nice ball to [Co-Captain] John Bancone ’25 for about 45-yards and then Denzel Pierre [PG ’25] punched in from like two-yard line. And then on the next drive, I got the ball and drove down the field on him and then threw about a 15-yard touchdown pass to Nate Cook [’25],”
Andover also saw a familiar face in Davian McDonald ’25 who originally was Andover’s starting Quarterback before transferring to Williston. Senior offensive tackle Byron Johnson ’25 reflected on how the team tried to create gameplans to exploit McDonald’s distinguishable playing style.
Johnson noted, “It was definitely a pretty surreal moment. We played against him last year, but I don’t know. I just feel like now that we’re both Seniors, it felt a little bit different. And then because he was here before, we knew he has tendencies. He’s a scrambler. And so we prepared for that as best we could. Picked him off twice in the first quarter on defense. And so that was also a kind of feel -good moment for us. I mean at the end of the day, he outperformed us.”
Taking this loss as a learning experience, Parker reflected on how Andover’s 14-10 lead was taken by the time the second half started. The team did not continue with the same energy and mentality as before.
“We could have kept competing the whole time but got down on ourselves when we should have been picking each other up more… A few things we could have done better in the second half would be each person knowing our individual jobs and understanding what our goal is for each player,” said Parker.
Andover Football has welcomed new additions to the team that will be major contributors for the season. New Upper and wide receiver, Matthew Saleh ’26, applauded one such player, Denzil Pierre, on his athleticism and contributions to the team thus far.
“Our breakout player of the year is definitely going to be Denzil Pierre. He’s a crazy athlete. He’s a freak athlete with his size, his speed, and honestly, after our first game, all you see is just bodies jumping right off of him. You need at least four or five guys to break him down. He’s an absolute unit,” said Saleh.
Johnson applauded the team and the captains in leading an impressive unit.
Johnson said, “Even though it’s only week one, this is definitely the most I’ve ever seen the team integrated sort of as one… The PG’s help the freshmen, even the freshmen can teach us older guys. I think that John Bancone, our captain, [is] definitely doing a great job leading the team along with Sebi Haferd, I think they’re both doing great jobs and we have our honoring captain system going on… We do have a lot of leaders on the team and so I think that leadership and also everyone being super coachable, it’s been really good.”
Although Andover had a rocky start of the season, the players are optimistic about the season’s trajectory. Parker is prepared to face off against his next opponent and is hoping to propel the team into having a successful season.
Parker remarked, “We look to compete for the rest of our season and we have a goal of focusing and competing against each team one week at a time. Our team comes in with the mentality each week and of us trying to go make it to a bowl game. We are going to go at least 6-2, maybe 5-3 to achieve that goal. And I think we can definitely achieve that by coming to practice each day with a good mentality and we should be successful.”
Andover football hosts Salisbury for its home-opener on Saturday.
