Andover Boys Lacrosse has been working on “slide packages” to
strengthen their defense.
After spending a week in San Diego, Calif., for its annual spring break team-training trip, Andover Boys Lacrosse had only one week of practice to prepare for two scrimmages this past week. According to Jayme Wilde ’21 and Jon Kirkorian ’21, the trip fostered a close dynamic between players that ultimately helped Andover defeat sixth-national seed St. Sebastian’s 6-4 on Tuesday.
Wilde said, “Over the trip I got a lot closer with people I really wouldn’t have been close with outside of lacrosse, and I think that has been really good for the team. People got to know people and now we’re a lot closer. The team chemistry is a lot better.”
“You really get the chance to bond with other people [who play] your position because you’re all getting so many reps together, and it just gets you fluent,” added Krikorian.
The team lost 11-4 against Pingree on Saturday, but it used the scrimmage as an opportunity to improve on making plays, communication, and playing what the team calls “Andover lacrosse,” according to Sal Lupoli PG’19 and Wilde.
Lupoli said, “We definitely had been working on more of scheme. From a defensive standpoint, we have been working on slide packages. And from an offensive standpoint, just kind of running our offense and getting the flow of things.”
“Our defense when we talk as a whole—we didn’t really talk when we played Pingree – but we worked better and started talking and calling backside, and we started playing a lot better as a whole, and they scored a lot less on us,” added Wilde.
According to Jake Jordan ’20 and Krikorian, the team needs to improve its clears and transition play in anticipation of its first official game of the season against Hotchkiss this Saturday.
Jordan said, “For Hotchkiss, I’m excited just for this first real game situation. For the past two games, we have been kind of playing around with lines and seeing who does well with whom. But at Hotchkiss, we’re going to go all out. We’re going to put everyone in, and it’s going to be a really good test, especially traveling three hours. It’s going to be exciting.”
“I think that we just need to take what we did [on Tuesday] and just take that to the next level. All the turnovers that we had in the transition game, if we can eliminate at least half of those, then that just gives us so many more possessions and so much more time with the ball and get more chances to score,” added Krikorian.
Andover will travel to Hotchkiss on Saturday and to Rivers on Wednesday.
