Jairo Vasquez stopped Lawrence's three-game losing skid with a complete game performace, and the Lancers got a two-run hit from Alex Almonte in the fifth to beat Austin Prep 2-1.
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Baseball, 05/09/17 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
LOWELL — When your opponent nets the equalizer with 97 seconds left in a tense, playoff hockey team, a team is supposed to melt.
Andover High coach Chris Kuchar simply got his grease board and all the duct tape he could muster, calling an immediate time out and finding a way to hold his Warriors together.
Seventy-six seconds later, the coach — and the gritty Golden Warriors — reaped the rewards of that mental toughness when Caedon Dillman stole the puck on the forecheck behind the net, then fired a behind-the-back, backhand pass that Mike Reilly rifled home for the game-winner in a classic 2-1 Division 1 North semifinal over Austin Prep.
“He called for it, I didn’t really look for him, I just know where he always is,” said Dillman. “We have that chemistry, and we’ve worked at it. I just put it out front, hoped for something good.”
How stunning was the game-winner? Only the goal-judge and Reilly, leaping for joy into the boards, seemed to notice.
“I didn’t have to do much. I was ready for it, no thinking, just react,” said Reilly. “Caedon made an unbelievable pass, backhand behind his back, and he found me out front. Unbelievable pass. He’s been doing it all year.”
Reality hit and Andover went bonkers.
“We just said we were going to unload on them in the aggressive fore-check,” said Kuchar. “Caedon Dillman went in hard, Matthew Schuhwerk went in hard, and our third guy high, Michael Reilly went to the net where he’s supposed to. He got a feed out front, and the goalie never saw it. He buried it.”
The Golden Warriors, with a handful of guys in the room struggling with pneumonia, will get four days of much-needed rest before facing St. Mary’s of Lynn, Monday night back here at the Tsongas Center, for the North title.
“We’ve got a chip on our shoulder because we’re a public school,” said Reilly. “We just stuck together, worked hard and got it done.”
Andover struck first, midway through the second on a Mike Biddle goal that was 99.9 percent effort. Biddle just muscled his way from the left wing to the cage and slid the puck past Austin’s Dylan Regan.
That lead looked like it might hold.
Andover fended off every Austin challenge, and senior goalie Zach Laramie was on his game, turning away shot after shot.
But Austin’s desperation finally paid dividends in the final two minutes. The puck trickled loose around the cage, and in a scrum, Laramie lost his stick. When the rubber rolled out onto the stick of Nick Cafarelli, he buried it, knotting things at 1-1.
That’s when Kuchar used the timeout and told his Warriors to scrap their passive trap defense and get into the heavy forecheck.
Laramie finished with 26 saves. The senior with seven shutouts in the regular season has only allowed two total goals in the two postseason wins.
“This is the love of my life, hockey, it’s what I live and breathe,” said Laramie. “The regular season prepared us for this. I just tried to stay calm and be collected.”
“The saves he made at the end of the game were 10-bell saves. We’re not here without him,” said Kuchar. “He’s one of the best goalies in Massachusetts. We’re lucky to have him.
“To get scored on like that, our kids could have folded, they showed a lot of character and heart.”
Andover 2, Austin Prep 1
Division 1 North semifinal
at Tsongas Center
Andover (15-5-2): 0-1-1 — 2
Austin (17-5-2): 0-0-1 — 1
Second Period: And — Michael Biddle 12:22
Third Period: AP — Nick Cafarelli (Louis Finocchiaro, Jake Thain) 13:23; And — Michael Reilly (Caedon Dillman) 14:39
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Boys Ice Hockey, 03/08/17 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
Cat Bravo from Andover had 11 points and 8 rebounds to lead Austin Prep to a 56-25 win over Essex Tech in the Division 4 North quarterfinal. Austin Prep will face New Mission on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Woburn High in the semifinals.
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Girls Basketball, 03/05/17 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
North Reading's Dave Richard had a monster game for Austin Prep, scoring 30 points with 12 rebounds to lead the Cougars to a 68-61 win over St. Clement in the first round of the Division 4 North tournament. Andover's Stephen Reddy scored 14 points, and Andover's Logan Bravo had 10 points and 12 rebounds. Austin Prep now plays top seeded Matignon in the Division 4 North quarterfinals on Friday.
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Boys Basketball, 02/28/17 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
North Andover's girls ski team got the first four places, something veteran coach Jerry Marchegiani can't remember ever happening, as the Knights remained unbeaten (9-0) with a pair of wins. Maria Cavallaro finished first, followed by sister Rachel Cavallaro, Cameron Deery and Emma Camallaro for the Knights.
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Girls Skiing, 01/30/17 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
North Andover junior Maria Cavallaro routed the field to remain unbeaten in North Shore League races. Cailey Denoncourt of Andover was a distant second and Maria's sister, Rachel, was third as the Knights won twice to remain undefeated in league competition.
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Girls Skiing, 01/23/17 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
Central Catholic's boys hockey team recorded its second straight tie and third in 12 days with a 5-5 deadlock against Austin Prep.
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Boys Ice Hockey, 01/16/17 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
Andover's Jason Denoncourt was the fastest man on the hill, taking first in Tuesday's skiing opener with a time of 20.55. North Andover's Ben Cooperstein took eighth overall (21.02) and North Andover's Sam Naftal took 10th (21.10).
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Boys Skiing, 01/10/17 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
WEST NEWBURY — Pentucket lost star running back Liam Sheehy in the first quarter of Saturday’s tilt against Austin Prep.
But thanks to Robert Porter and some complementary football, the Sachems found the end zone three times before it ran even three offensive plays and cruised to a 42-14 win.
“It means everything just to play on this field one last time and to come out and play as hard as we could every play,” said senior tri-captain Chris Muollo, who had a 70-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter and also intercepted a pass.
Porter got the scoring started when he took a handoff on the first offensive play of the game and went 81 yards up the left side line.
Porter added a 12-yard touchdown run in the second quarter before hauling in a 72-yard TD-catch on a beautifully thrown ball by Finn Graham. The senior signal-caller saw Porter open and lofted a pass which traveled over 40 yards in the air.
Porter, who had 495 yards rushing on the year coming into the game, picked up the slack with Sheehy (970 rushing yards on the year) out.
The 5-10, 170-pound senior also had an interception in the game while finishing with 241 yards from scrimmage on 13 carries for 161 yards and 2 catches for 80 yards.
Austin (2-8) trailed 14-6 and was looking to score the equalizer. But Dylan Engelke jumped a route to pick off the football and then he weaved his way through a sea of defenders for a 26-yard pick-six.
The hosts intercepted AP three times.
Engelke added the sixth touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard run.
Brandon Wilbur had a monster effort on defense with a handful of tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage to go with a fumble recovery while Cam Legault, a senior tri-captain, turned in a gutsy performance in the trenches.
Pentucket will wrap up the season at Triton on Thanksgiving.
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Football, 11/13/16 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
