Liam TenHarmsel ’26 skating with the puck
Boys Hockey showcased resilience and grit in an overwhelming comeback victory against Loomis Chaffee (Loomis), with all goals coming in the third period. At Deerfield, albeit a strong performance, the team lost in a physical game.
Assistant Co-Captain Charles Sabre ’25 praised the team for its performance against Loomis. After giving up a goal in the second period, the team raised its energy and responded with a dominant five-goal third period to win.
“We played well throughout most of the game, we were following our systems well but we were not able to score. It was just one of those games. They had the first goal in the second period but then in the third period we turned up the intensity and ended the game with three regular goals and two empty net goals to finish five to one,” said Sabre.
Sabre highlighted Assistant Co-Captain Peyton Militello ’25 for his reliability in the defensive zone against Loomis. Sabre specifically praised his strong checking, awareness, and ability to create opportunities on the ice.
“I want to shout out Peyton Militello. He is the other assistant captain on the team and I thought he played a really solid game. Forechecking hard, backchecking hard, lifting guys sticks. He’s a very consistent player in the [defensive] zone. He knows where to support the puck and how to use his teammates, very good vision on the ice and I thought yesterday he had a particularly good game,” said Sabre.
On top of that, goalie Chase Anderson ’25 praised Rui Han ’25 for his performance in the Loomis game. In his first game back from injury, Han scored a decisive, go-ahead goal and followed up with a crucial second goal to give Andover a comfortable two-goal lead.
“[Rui] had a big game, first game back from his injury and he got the goal that put us in the lead and the third goal to give us a two goal lead as well. [Rui] Han was a big player for us in this game,” said Anderson.
Sabre spoke highly of Anderson, praising both his leadership as a role model and his goaltending performance against Loomis. He described Anderson as a cornerstone of the team, providing a reliable presence in the net.
“Chase Anderson, our goalie, has been one of the role models that the younger kids look up to. He doesn’t talk a lot. He’s very stoic in the locker room but he’s a brick wall between the pipes and he played well yesterday allowing only one goal. He’s really been a backbone of our team and is playing really well,” said Sabre.
Alexandre Theodore ’27 commented on the game against Deerfield, commending the team’s performance yet expressing the need to rebound from this in the coming weeks considering the importance of the upcoming games.
“It was a three-two game, but overall the team did play pretty well, we’ve been playing pretty well. We need to bounce back, we still have a couple of huge games in front of us,” said Theodore.
Theodore recalled both of the team’s goals. First, when he scored off of a pass from Captain Grayson Robertson-Palmer ’25, and then, when a pass from Nathan Kreppner ’27, allowed Alexander Small ’26 to add on another goal.
“A crucial play was [Roberston-Palmer] giving me a pass in the slot and then I just kind of buried it. But another play was by Nathan Kreppner. He had a nice pass in front of the net to Small and it was a good play in front of the net to score,” said Theodore.
Sabre and Theodore both went on to describe areas the team hopes to refine in the coming weeks, including adjustments to the penalty kill, improving the defensive zone, and fine-tuning all of the team’s strategies.
“We will continue to work on all of our systems. [Penalty kill] is something that we’re still working on. We are shifting around some pairings for the penalty kill,” said Sabre. Theodore, added on, “We’ll work on our [defensive zone], I think getting pucks out of our zone is key and getting pucks deep.”
Boys Hockey will host Belmont Hill on Friday and then travel to Dexter Southfield for a game on Saturday.
