RallyNorth.net

Andover boys lacrosse falls in North semifinal

Saturday, June, 07 By David Willis
Staff writer

ACTON — Facing a smothering defense and a jet-quick offensive attack, No. 5 Andover struggled to find any momentum, falling to top-seeded Acton-Boxboro 11-4 in the Division 1 North boys lacrosse semifinals yesterday.

“This is a really tough loss, very emotional,” said Golden Warriors coach Wayne Puglisi. “We knew A-B was a very good team. We had some good strategies in place, but just didn’t execute, which can’t happen this time of year.”

Acton-Boxboro took a quick 4-1 lead, but Andover cut the deficit to just two goals late in the half as high-scoring Jake Lakos scored his first goal of the day.

But the Colonials responded with a goal late just before the clock ran out in the half, and scored twice in the third to take a 7-2 lead. Lakos notched his second of the day early in the fourth, but A-B notched four quick tallies to put the game away.

“I thought we did a lot of good things,” said Puglisi. “Possession time was good and we defended well. We only gave up four goals in the first half, which is good. But we also made some mistakes in our execution, and you cannot come up short at this point in the season or against a team this good.”

John Oteri also scored two goals for the Warriors. Penn State football recruit Will Eikenberry of Andover battled through double teams the entire contest, while Lakos also took a pounding throughout the game.

Andover goalie Walter Pappas made a few big stops in his final high school game, turning in 10 saves.

“I thought Walter did a great job,” said Pulisi. “He has had a great tournament. And Jessie (Greaves) did a fantastic job on faceoffs. We are going to miss them and all the seniors a lot. We held our heads high even at the end when the game was out of reach. Today wasn’t out day.