RallyNorth.net

Andover can’t match red-hot Billerica, falls in North semis

Tuesday, June, 09 By David Willis
Staff writer

BILLERICA — Five days removed from upsetting the defending Division 1 state champion Acton-Boxboro, Andover boys lacrosse knew it would need an equally spotless effort against No. 2 seed Billerica.
“Beating Acton-Boxboro was pretty special,” said Golden Warriors head coach Wayne Puglisi. “We knew we would have to duplicate that effort to have a chance in this one. But we just couldn’t do it.”
No. 6 seed Andover fell behind by five goals in the first period and could not recover, falling to Billerica 14-5 in the Division 1 North semifinals on Tuesday night. The Indians move on to face No. 1 seed Lincoln-Sudbury in the North final on Saturday.
“There just wasn’t much we could do against them,” said Puglisi. “Billerica played a tremendous game. That was just a heck of a performance by them. We did our best but it wasn’t enough.”
Billerica raced out to a 7-1 lead early in the second period before Andover’s Michael Biddle tallied his second goal of the game and Jake Lakos netted a goal to make 7-3 going into halftime. Biddle scored another goal late in the third to make it 8-4, but that was as close as the Golden Warriors would get. The Indians closed out the victory with a six-goal surge in the fourth quarter.
“That’s a great Billerica team,” said Puglisi. “One more win would have been nice. This was tough.”
Andover applied plenty of pressure to the Billerica defense in the second and third, but Indians goalie Tyler Canto refused to relent. The UMass Lowell-bound junior made 12 huge saves, robbing a few Warriors of chances point-blank.
“Tyler played an excellent game,” said Billerica head coach Craig Flynn. “That’s a tough Andover team with a lot of talent. He stood in there and made some huge saves.”
Following the contest, Puglisi fought back emotions as he said goodbye to his seniors.
“This was an amazing group that sacrificed a lot,” he said. “The big two, Chris Tully and Brian Duffy. Brendan Slattery stepped up to play a huge role on defense. My three attackmen, Jake (Lakos), George (Cardillo) and Johnny (Croston). Guys like Matt Naussbaum and Zach Walker and Steven Herman in goal. They played a lot of lacrosse for us and did a lot of great things.”