A three goal performance by Joe Kruy ’12 led Andover Boys Lacrosse to a close 8-7 victory on Saturday against New Hampton. “Kruy has been very crucial for us offensively,” said Co-captain Jay Dolan ’11. “He is such a threat when he’s driving from the midfield, and he has also been huge for us defensively as a defensive midfielder.” New Hampton opened the game by taking a quick 3-1 lead, but Andover refused to give up. Andover scored an early goal in the beginning of the second quarter, and Larken Kemp ’13 assisted goal by Ben Green ’11 with five minutes left in the half to tie the game up at 3. Kemp had three assists in the game. Andover eventually took the lead and headed to the locker room up 6-4 at the half. Andover began the second half with two fast goals, including one from Kruy, and the team carried an 8-6 lead into the latter half of the fourth quarter. New Hampton scored with three minutes left to bring the game within one, but Andover held onto its lead to seal the win. “We switched to our zone defense and Tom Szymanski [‘11] and Ricky Goldstein [‘11] came in and were absolute difference makers on the defensive end in the last minute which helped preserve the win,” Dolan said. Dolan had an amazing game, stopping 20 of New Hampton’s 27 shots on target. “Jay is just a great leader,” said Ben Scharf ’12. “He’s the voice of our defense, which made a tremendous stand at the end of the game. He also made countless saves on shots from point blank range.” Scharf, who had two goals and two assists on the game and is now averaging 4.3 points per game, has been very impressive thus far in the season. “I’ve really been playing well off of my teammates, especially [Co-captain] Will Walker [‘11] and Joe Kruy [‘12],” said Scharf. “Will is so good at dodging and finding me for easy crease goals, while Joe has such a great shot that he turns my passes into assists.” Against NMH last Wednesday, Andover was not nearly as successful. NMH took charge right from the beginning, jumping out to a 7-3 lead in the first half. Andover did not improve much in the second half, and lost by a score of 14-7. Scharf had 3 goals and 1 assist while Walker, Green, Kruy and Stephen Fehnel ’13 each had one goal. “We just had too many defensive lapses, not enough communication and we let them get too many uncovered looks from near the net,” said Dolan. Kruy said, “The offense looked good until we started throwing the ball away. We got a little out of control and that killed us.” This week, Andover will play Tilton (1-1) at home on Saturday at 3:00 and at Brewster (4-0) on Wednesday.
