With a tremendous individual effort, Tebs Maqubela ’11 netted both of Andover’s goals last Saturday to lift Andover past Choate in its 2-0 win. Last year, the match-up between Andover and Choate resulted in Andover coming out on top 3-1 after a tough game. This year, even though Choate has not yet won a game this season, Andover prepared for a very long, difficult match. After a 30-minute delay due to traffic, Choate finally took the field against Andover against a late afternoon sky, and it was clear that Andover took control early on. Despite great ball movement that lead to several scoring opportunities, Andover could not put the ball in the back of the net. Disaster struck for Choate about 20 minutes into the second half when Connor Hickey ’11 put a great ball through to Maqubela, who blistered a shot perfectly into the right corner of the net to gain the early lead. Andover stayed strong for the entire half and did not let up on its ferocious attack, though the scoring streak remained cold after Maqubela’s icebreaker. Halfway through the second half, a great ball was sent up from the back and headed on by Co-captain Garnet Hathaway ’10 to Maqubela, who once again hit a powerful blast into the back of the net for his second goal of the day. Despite Choate’s best efforts, they were unable to score for the rest of the game and Andover came out on top. The back line showed great improvement after some trouble last week, and it showed on the scoreboard after maintaining the shutout. Post-graduate Sam Percival ’10 played especially well in this game, showing off his good footwork and smart decision making in the back. Despite the great team win, finishing off opportunities to score is still a slight problem for Andover. If these opportunities are taken advantage of in the future this Andover team could be even more dangerous as the season progresses. “We need to make sure we cash in on our scoring opportunities,” said Co-Captain Mike DiFronzo ’11. In the next game against Winchendon, Andover seemed to cure all of its scoring woos by exploding in the second half. After scoring just one goal in the first half, the goal total for Andover in last year’s 1-1 tie, the team came out firing in the second half, scoring five unanswered goals. The first goal in the game came from Hathaway, who put a shot in the lower right corner from the top of the box off of a scramble at the top of the 18. Hathaway then went on to score two more goals in the game and earned the game hat with his performance. Andrew Woonton ‘11, Gabo Cordero ‘12 and DiFronzo scored the other goals in the match, helping Andover put Winchendon away 6-0. With two successive shutouts, Andover has built up good momentum going into its next game against Tilton Academy this Saturday.
