Ethan Skowronek ’24 scored one goal against Pomfret on Saturday.
Dartmouth-commit Grayden Robertson-Palmer ’25 made his Andover Boys Hockey debut on Saturday against Pomfret.
Peyton Militello ’25 is a forward for Andover Boys Hockey.
12/2 — Andover: 4, Pomfret: 2
12/3 — Andover: 4, Proctor: 2
12/6 — Andover: 5, Thayer: 4
Record: 3-0-0
Andover Boys Hockey (3-0-0) opened its season undefeated across all three games, totalling 13 goals.
Over the weekend, Andover hosted Pomfret School and Proctor Academy (Proctor) for the Andover Jamboree, dominating both schools. Nearing the end of Wednesday’s game against Thayer, with points already on the board for both teams, Andover used a penalty kill to score two shorthanded goals. Although Thayer countered with two more, Andover maintained the lead until the end.
Before the Jamboree, the team focused on building a solid hockey system in its practices. Benjamin Skowronek ’24 emphasized the importance of each individual player knowing their duties on the ice.
Skowronek said, “It is really important to know what everyone is going to be doing, especially in the defensive zone and offensive zone. So in the practices leading up, we were working really hard on making sure we were on the same page and knowing what system we should play.”
Co-Captain Drew Smith ’24 highlighted strengths in all positions on the ice in the Jamboree. According to Smith, Co-Captain Sam Myles ’24 served as a powerhouse on the offensive line, scoring half of the team’s goals over the weekend.
“We played really well both offensively and defensively. Our forwards did a really good job working the puck in the offensive zone and getting some goals, like our [Co]-Captain Sam Myles had four goals this weekend, so that was cool. Also with the guys who are new to prep hockey, new to the team this year, all of them played really well, both the forwards and defensemen, and our goalies played phenomenal,” said Smith.
Skowronek highlighted the team’s improvement with its finishing compared to the previous season.
“Everyone did what they were supposed to do. We didn’t have anyone make any really bad mistakes and everyone was playing very well and our passing was very good. We also did really well finishing… eight goals in two games, which is a good amount. Which is a big step up from last year because we had trouble scoring last year, and it is great to see us succeed in that part of the game,” said Skowronek.
According to Peyton Militello ’25, Wednesday’s game against Thayer was highly competitive.
“We were pretty resilient, there were a couple times where we didn’t have as much energy as we probably should have, but we kept battling and got back in the game and through those stretches, everyone knew we had to bring the energy up and everyone worked together to do that,” said Militello.
Looking ahead, Militello shared that the team will work on maintaining its energy throughout the games. He also noted how Thayer capitalized on gaps in Andover’s defense, which revealed another area of improvement for the team.
Militello said, “[We’ll] probably [improve] just playing strong the whole three periods. We sometimes slow down a little bit, for a few stretches, and for each of the games. So probably we are going to work on that… also they [Thayer] were a really skilled team so we had to be very careful positionally, which sometimes we weren’t defensively, so they got us into a little bit of trouble, so that could also be something we work on moving forward.”
Andover Boys Hockey will host Brewster Academy on Friday and New Hampton School on Saturday.
