Spencer Macquarrie ’10 and Joe Kruy ’12 both scored hat tricks to lead Andover to its first win of the season this week as the team defeated NMH 8-5 on Wednesday. “We were able to possess the ball very well, leading to more time on offense where we could get better shots. With the longer possessions we were able to have more rest between sequences of being on defense, thus allowing us to retain more energy and be able to play at a higher level,” said Jay Dolan ’11. Andover came out playing quality lacrosse, both offensively and defensively. Although NMH held possession for much of the first quarter, Andover took advantage of its few opportunities while holding its opponent to zero goals. Tom Shannon ’12 had two goals in the first quarter and Kruy soon added another. In the second quarter, Andover added two more unanswered goals and went into halftime up 5-0. Jay Dolan ’11 played excellently in net throughout, making several clutch saves when the defense broke down, especially at the end of the first half. The second half started out shakily for Andover. After a quick goal by Macquarrie, NMH went on to score three unanswered goals to bring the score to 6-3. “They just caught some breaks. One of the three goals was a shot that was picked off by another NMH player at the crease and then redirected, and another was during a complete frenzy when we didn’t know where the ball was,” Dolan said. The highlight of the third quarter for Andover was a brutal hit dished out by captain John McKenna ’10 that uprooted the opposing player with the ball and sent Andover on a break. Andover was easily able to hold on to its lead in the fourth quarter and finished the game with an 8-5 win. This victory came at the right time as Andover brought a two game losing streak into the game. Earlier in the week, Andover lost a close game to New Hampton. Andover just did not seem to be able to keep possession, especially in the second half. “We got a little too anxious and tried to rush a shot when we really needed to just hold on to the ball. We also took a few too many penalties,” Co-Captain Luke Duprey ’10 said. The score was kept close throughout the first two quarters, and Andover was playing fairly well for the most part. Joe Kruy ’12 scored an amazing goal about midway through the third quarter. Will Walker ’11 followed with his third goal of the game before New Hampton went on a run. In the last half of the third quarter New Hampton seemed to be able to break through Andover’s defensive line with ease, scoring four unanswered goals in a matter of minutes. Andover hardly had possession of the ball at all in the second half. “The main problem we ran into during the third quarter was that we lost the battle with ground balls and face-offs. We’d get the ball in a good position to scoop it up and take it into the offensive zone, but we just didn’t execute,” said Dolan. Andover did pick it up a little in the 4th quarter, but by then it was much too late and Andover couldn’t tie it up, falling 11-10. “We were just at loss for the fundamentals, and it killed us,” Dolan added. Andover will face off against Tilton on Saturday.
