In the one hundred twenty-fifth meeting of Andover-Exeter football, the Andover football team left yet another opponent in the dust by soundly defeating Exeter 24-8. Charlie Houghton ’06 and Matt Fernandez ’06 ran all over the Exeter defense for over 300 yards, and the Andover defense shut out the Red until the final minutes when the game was already decided. With the victory, Andover improved its record to 8-0 to finish the regular season, completing Andover’s first undefeated regular season since 1995, and recording its first victory against Exeter since 2001. Andover began the game with two long drives deep into Exeter territory, but neither drive yielded points. 110 yards of penalties in the game nullified two touchdowns and kept Exeter drives alive. The game remained deadlocked late into the second quarter until, on Andover’s fifth possession, Joey Lokitis ’06 fired a 25 yard pass down the middle of the field to Tom Tassinari ’06, who ran untouched into the end zone for a 6-0 lead that Andover carried into the second half. In the second half, the Andover coaching staff adjusted their offensive gameplan as the Exeter defense wore thin. “Charlie and Matt were hitting the holes so fast, that we had to alter our blocking scheme a bit,” explained Coach Modeste. The adjustments paid off when, with just over a minute to go in the third quarter, Lokitis ended a 50 yard drive with a one yard touchdown dive, making the score 12-0 in favor of Andover. Less than three minutes after Lokitis’ score, Fernandez danced his way through the Exeter defense for a 53 yard touchdown, bringing the score to a comfortable 18-0 margin for Andover. As time wound down in the fourth quarter, Andover clinched the game with a five-yard touchdown pass from Lokitis to tight end Brendan Gallagher ’06 in the center of the end zone, raising the score to 24-0. With the Andover second team defense in the game, Exeter went for one last score, and a 40-yard touchdown pass finally put Exeter on the board. Coupled with a two-point conversion, the score rose to 24-8. Andover ran out the clock successfully for the first win versus Exeter in four years. The Andover offense recovered from a terrible start to dominate the Exeter defense and control the ball for two-thirds of the game. Along with scoring his first touchdown of the season, Gallagher recorded a sack and led the defense in tackles with ten. Peter Casey ’07 also had a fantastic game, pressuring the quarterback and stuffing the Exeter running game. Drew Appolonia ’06 and Mike Bourbeau ’06 logged seven tackles each, helping to hold the Red offense to just 185 total yards. Andover finishes the year with an appearance in the Eaton-Estey Bowl, the Class A New England Prep School Championship game. Andover plays the 8-0 Trinity-Pawling Pride, at Williston-Northampton in Easthampton, MA, at 1:00 p.m tomorrow.
