TEWKSBURY – After not scoring a goal in six straight periods, Andover High girls’ hockey coach Meagan Keefe then watched her team put just six shots on net in a scoreless first period against No. 20 ranked Winchester on Saturday afternoon held at the Breakaway Arena.
That’s when she said enough is enough and it was time to change up the forward line combinations.
That seemed to be the spark the team desperately needed.
After Winchester scored two goals in the first 4:21 of the second period, Andover completely dominated, scoring the game’s next three goals and outshooting the Sachems, 19-3 in that second frame and 36-14 in the game.
Winchester pulled the goalie late in the third period and scored to tie the game back up. Neither team could get one to the back of the net during the five minute four-on-four overtime period and the game ended in a 3-3 non-league tie. No. 15 Andover is now 4-5-2 on the season.
“It was great to see us comeback,” said Keefe. “After the first period, we decided to switch up some of the forward lines to play with different people. I think we saw a little spark, and it seemed like the girls were a little hungry to get to the net (in the remaining periods). It’s impressive to be down 2-0 and come back and get those three goals, but it’s obviously not the end result that we wanted.”
Bella DiFiore scored Andover’s first and third goals, both off rebounds, while Rose Memmolo scored the middle one on a beautiful rush coming from the left side, before ending it with a strong deke move. Memmolo also had two assists, while, Scarlet Glass, Ella Finegold and Abby Srivastava had one each.
“After not scoring for the last two games, our focus at practice has been hitting the net with shots,” said Keefe. “We’re hungry and we have a young team, so I think just that repetition and cleaning things out at practice is important for our games.”
Boys defeated by Billerica
Coming off a thrilling overtime win against Central Catholic, the Andover boys hockey team faced Billerica before the girls team took the ice. The previous time these two teams met, Andover came away with a convincing 6-2 victory. This time was different, as Billerica ruined Andover’s Senior Night pre-game ceremony with its own 6-2 win.
“Obviously this was a trap game. We’re playing Shrewsbury on Tuesday. Today was Senior Night and I tried to take the emphasis off those kids so things didn’t become a distraction and I thought I could get through to them, but I had this fear coming in to this game. We just have to regroup and go get the next one,” said head coach Kevin Drew.
Anthony DeLuca and Caleb Wooster scored the goals for the Golden Warriors with Peter McLaughlin and Jack Vallarelli assisting on the respective goals.
Andover falls to 6-5-1 with the loss.
Twitter: @JamiePote