Goalkeeper and Co-Captain Derek Polanco PG’22 (pictured above) made at
least 15 saves in Andover Boys Soccer’s 2-0 defeat away at Taft.
Entering the second half of the match in a 0-0 tie, Andover Boys Soccer was narrowly defeated by Taft 2-0 as a result of defensive errors on Saturday. With a 2-1 loss to Bridgton on Wednesday, the team’s record now stands at 1-2-2.
According to Max Huang ’24, Andover was not able to compensate for Taft’s strong individual players. Huang describes how the team hopes to use this loss as motivation to improve its gameplay throughout the season.
Huang said, “I think on Saturday, it was a really tough game; they were a really good team. Going into the game, I think we [knew Taft would play] as a team and [had] some individually good players. I think we gave a really good effort, but [the end product] just wasn’t there at the end of the day.”
Despite conceding first in both games, the team did not give up and continued to play united together, according to Garret Holman ’24.
“We put all our effort into everything we do, when we go down, we don’t give up. We play as a team, but that’s still something that we need to work on a lot,” Holman said.
According to Huang, it is important that the team puts the two losses behind the team and focuses on the future.
Huang said, “I think we all put in a really good effort. I think we just need to regroup as a team; forget about our last two results and move forward. Because we know that we can play well as a team and we know that we have the players to do it. So, I think that we just need to trust ourselves and play better.”
“On Saturday, our goalkeeper, [Co-Captain Derek Polanco PG’22] played very very well. He had some very, very nice saves and put on a strong performance. I think we need to acknowledge that even though we lost, he put in a really good effort and performance. [On Wednesday,] [Co-Captain Christian Merritt PG’22] was able to find the back [of the] net and score once and I think that those two players motivate us to do better as a team. I think that if we all match their effort and their energy, we can all play well as a team,” added Huang.
Boys Soccer will seek to end its losing streak as it welcomes Choate at home on Saturday.
