Football Defeats Worcester to Gain Second Win of Season

Amassing a total of 348 yards on offense while only allowing 128 yards on defense, Andover Football defeated Worcester Academy 33-20 at Groton this past Saturday. The team’s record now stands at 2-5 with one game remaining.

By seizing control early, Andover was able to dominate offensively, according to Ben Carbeau ’21 and Graham Archer ’21.

“I think that our offense clicked this week and we were able to get a really good push from our offensive line, which helped us a lot… We established the run game early on which was a huge key to our success. We made the plays we needed to. For the most part, we stayed disciplined,” said Carbeau.

Archer said, “The offense was able to put together a solid running game, which allowed us to really drive down the field when we had the ball. On top of that, the passing game was also solid with some of the best pass blocking we’ve had all year paired with some really nice plays made by the QBs and receivers.”

The team was also able to control the defensive side of the ball, preventing Worcester from establishing its run game, according to Archer.

“Worcester tends to be a pretty run-heavy team, and the defense did a really good job at shutting their running game down, which crippled their offense. The push we got from the [defensive] line didn’t allow them to pass well either,” said Archer.

According to Julio Dahl ’22, a turning point for the team came when Carbeau caught a pass out of the backfield and trucked a defender en route to a 22-yard touchdown score.

“Carbeau’s touchdown was huge because it impacted our mindset. We went from just wanting to win to wanting to score 30 in the first half which we did successfully.” said Dahl.

Andover scored four additional touchdowns, one from Troy Pollock ’21, one from Hunter Lane PG’20, and two from Kevin Diaz PG’20.

Andover will anticipate a relatively even matchup against Phillips Exeter Academy due to the two teams’ similar skill levels this year, according to Archer.

“I personally expect this to be a very good game. Both of our teams are coming off of similar seasons, so it really is anyone’s game. Despite this, I am confident that our team will be able to come together and pull off a win,” said Archer.

Carbeau said, “The team needs to keep playing well and prepare for the upcoming game… We just need to keep this momentum going and really learn our assignments for this Saturday. We are pretty fired up for it.”

The team will travel this Saturday to face off against Exeter.