Kai Myles ’27 scours the field for a teammate.
Louis-Thomas Vincent ’25 avoids an encounter with Bridgton opponent, skillfully working around the ball.
9/28 – Andover: 2, Taft: 1
10/2 – Andover: 0, Bridgton: 1
On Saturday, Boys Soccer (2-1-3) won a highly anticipated game against Taft, who was undefeated so far in the season. Alex Mitarachi ’25 opened the second half with a free kick cross from Co-Captain Spencer Madge ’25 and with ten minutes remaining, Marc Nelson ’25 followed with the game-winning shot. On Wednesday, Andover fell short against Bridgton Academy.
In its win against Taft, Aaron Huang ’25 commended Nelson for his crucial goal, a shot in the top-right corner of the goal post. He also applauded Mitarachi for his consistent goal-scoring this season.
“[Marc’s] was the winning goal which led to a lot of celebrations and he was put on the New England Soccer Journal. The entire team did pretty well in that game… Alex Mitarachi [’25], he’s been doing really well. He’s scored in all the games that we have scored [at least one point in]; he’s been a goal scorer,” said Huang.
Huang noted the physicality and stature of the Bridgton team, which was difficult to compete with. However, he highlighted three players who held up against the team well.
“It was a pretty tough game and the opponents were pretty physical, so I think that we needed to have people that also [matched their size]… I think the people that stood out the most were people that were like that. Our Co-Captain Sebastian Mejia-Rivera [’25] also made a lot of good tackles and same with Louis-Thomas Vincent [’25]. He was doing a lot in the midfield. Marc Nelson also had some good dribbles,” said Huang.
Jeff Shen ’26 praised Co-Captain Jack Alexander ’25, for his crucial saves in the goal post, which kept the team closely trailing behind Bridgton.
“Jack Alexander, our goalkeeper, made some very crucial plays and honestly, he kept us in that game. What we conceded was a very tough goal from the corner. Jack was definitely a key player on our roster and he has been throughout the season,” said Shen.
Recalling the loss against Bridgton, Michael Staii ’27 commented on the team’s shortcomings. Although applauding the team’s elite ability to consistently execute long passes, they were rarely able to generate counterattacks.
“We just didn’t come into it with enough intensity. I think that we were kind of lacking will… And I think that they just wanted it more than us and they came out ready to play and we had a little bit of off day… We had a couple of good shots. We didn’t really create as many opportunities as we would have wanted to,” said Staii.
Looking ahead, Andover is preparing for its upcoming matches by focusing on fitness and conditioning.
“This week we will play a lot of games consecutively. We play Choate on Saturday and then we have [games on] Monday, Wednesday and I think Friday next week. So I think that next week, we’re just going to focus on staying healthy and staying in shape as a team and as players for the next couple games,” said Staii.
Boys Soccer will travel to Choate this Saturday.
