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Andover bounces back with big win over Haverhill

Friday, October, 13 By By Jeff Hamrick

ANDOVER — After giving up 114 points while losing twice the previous two weeks, Andover was looking to get back on track last night at homecoming.
Despite squandering much of a 23-point lead built over first three quarters, the Golden Warriors regained some confidence with Friday's 43-26 victory over Haverhill.
"This was great," said Cedric Gillette, who was a big factor in Andover building a 37-14 lead. "The last two weeks have been heartbreakers. We were really disappointed after them. But this one felt great getting an early lead and get a win. These kind of games will give us some confidence."
Gillette ignited Andover (3-3) with a 26-yard scoring pass from Nick Dellatto to begin the night's scoring before returning a kickoff 82 yards that answered a Hillie score.
"I just wanted to make sure we came out and get a good start to get an early lead," Gillette said. "I had one (return) down to the 5 last year against Everett but some kid caught me. So, yeah, that was nice. I made one move and saw a hole and just hit. But yeah, that's my first one."
Andover used Dellatto scoring tosses of 3 yards to Joshua Ramos and 29 yards to Gillette in addition to a 22-yard Shamus Florio field goal to offset David Carreiro's second long touchdown run for a 31-14 advantage at intermission.
"The first half was great," Golden Warrior coach EJ Perry said. "The offense got in sync and scored on the first drive. That's been a big thing. Then the defense stepped up. When we got up (by 17) that was a big thing."
Carreiro did his best to keep the winless Hillies close with three long touchdown runs. The first was from 74 yards out midway through first followed by a 57-yarder in the second that cut Andover's lead to 21-14. Carreiro finished his 236-yard night with an 84-yard blast early in the third.
"Down near the end, we were playing everybody," Perry said. "But we just can't rest like that. Next week, we have to be ready to go full throttle."
Haverhill entered the game averaging 1.85 yards per carry but with Carreiro leading the way, the Hillies finished with 307 yards — 32 yards more than they totaled the first five weeks combined.
"We've struggled mightily the first five games," Haverhill coach Tim O'Connor said. "We decided after the last game to go back to our roots and run the wing (offense). We showed a lot of offensive progress and some young guys stepped up and grew up tonight. But we still have some warts on defense that we need to fix quickly."
Andover, which plays rival Central Catholic next week, picked up touchdown runs of 1 yard by Tommy Duncan to start the second half and 30 yards by Ramos on the game's final play.
Dellatto finished another solid outing with 263 yards to nine different receivers on 23-of-29 passing. He has thrown for 915 yards the past three games. Gillette, who is averaging 7.8 receptions a game, hauled in eight catches for 133 yards.