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Andover strikes late, edges North Andover

Tuesday, April, 22 By David Willis
Staff writer

After three tough quarters, it took just a moment for Andover to turn the tide.

Trailing by a goal heading into the fourth quarter, the Golden Warriors scored three times in under a minute and went on to down neighbor rival North Andover 7-4 last night.

"Going into the fourth quarter we were down and we just thought we needed to finish (scoring chances) better," said quad-captain Brendan Hughes. "Coach (Wayne Puglisi) talked to us and really fired us up."

Andover controlled the pace of play most of the way, holding the ball in the Scarlet Knights' end for minutes at a time. But the Golden Warriors were unable to take advantage due in large part to the play of North Andover goalie Brian O'Connor (21 saves).

But, one minute into the fourth, Matt Eriksen opened the scoring with an unassisted goal. Nine seconds later, Hughes scored off a pass from Sam Cook, and Peter Hanson finished the surge 43 seconds later to make the score 5-3.

"We finally picked up the intensity after coming out slow," said Justin Malins. "Once people finally started to pick it up, everyone got fired up and we started putting some goals in."

Hanson, Eriksen and Hughes each finished with two goals while Malins had one.

"We finished (shots) a lot better in the second half," said Puglisi. "And our defense picked it up and put the pressure on them in the second half."

The core of Matt Rayner, Tripp Stevens, Matt Murray and Andrew Carroll led the Golden Warrior defense, while goalie Nick Reeder finished with 11 saves against the aggressive Scarlet Knights.

"I think we played very well," said North Andover coach Steve Connolly. "Andover is a very good team, but O'Connor showed again he is a real gamer and Alex and Ross Marchegiani stood out on defense. We just need to find the scoring touch."

Jon Blackwell scored two goals and John Carney and Steve Collura each had one tally for the Scarlet Knights.