RallyNorth.net

Tue, Jun 09, 2015 04:30 PM @ Billerica

Team	1	2	Final
Andover	2	7	9
Billerica	7	3	10

Andover falls in North Semifinal

BILLERICA — On May 18, the Andover girls lacrosse team handed Billerica its first and only loss of the season, but last night, with a trip to the Division 1 North Final on the line, the Indians got the last word.

Billerica (19-1) survived a furious second half comeback to beat Andover 10-9, ending the Golden Warriors' season in heartbreak. Andover (15-6) trailed by as many as six goals midway through the game, but came surging back after winning a series of draws to tie the game before eventually falling behind for good down the stretch.

"It started with the draw, the second that we won the draw and got possession, that's when we floored it," said Andover coach Cat Gross on the comeback. "Everyone was pumped up and we carried it from there, but unfortunately we couldn't carry it far enough."

Andover appeared to be in big trouble early, as Billerica scored five straight goals to begin the game before going into halftime leading 7-2. The Indians won the opening draw of the second half and scored again a couple of minutes later, and at that point it looked like the Golden Warriors were pretty close to dead and buried.

But then the Warriors started winning possession, and all of a sudden the game turned on its head. Veronica Alois gave the Warriors a lift with 17:09 to play to make it 8-3, and then just eight seconds later, Jessica Leone marched right down the field and scored again.

Just like that, the floodgates were open. Over the following five minutes, Andover completely dominated the possession battle and slowly but surely started chipping away at Billerica's lead. Alois, Caroline Curtin and Jordan Torres each scored to cut the deficit to one, and then finally with 11:55 to play, Curtin scored again to tie the game at 8-8, sending the sizable fan contingent from Andover into a frenzy.

Following Curtin's second goal, Billerica called timeout to try and regroup, and from that point on the Indians settled down and started to look more like the dominant team it had been in the first half. Less than a minute after the timeout, Amanda Burns scored to put Billerica back in front, and then with just under five minutes to play, Macy Vercellini scored what eventually turned out to be the game-winning goal.

Andover didn't go down without a fight, however, as Alois answered with her third goal of the game to cut the deficit to one with 3:28 to play, and then the Warriors won possession again with a chance to tie the game and send it to overtime.

But Billerica's defense held firm, and after about a minute of cycling the ball and searching for an opening, Andover turned the ball over and was unable to get it back. While the Andover players were visibly distraught after the final horn sounded, Gross said her team had a lot to be proud of and she hoped that the disappointing finish wouldn't overshadow what had otherwise been a good season.

"I told them that its not one game that defines your entire season, you have so much to be proud of, thinking about our journey and about everything that got us here, that's what you guys should hold onto, not one game," Gross said. "I really just wanted to make sure they understood that the things you look back on and remember are all the memories you've made together as a family and all the laughs we've had along the way. It doesn't come down to one game."