ANDOVER – The game time temps of 75 degrees or so would tell you this is not November. The scoreboard at Lovely Field reassured anyone that had doubts:
”Andover 1, Beverly 0.”
Andover High field hockey wins in November. It has for years now, and Wednesday night, the fourth-seeded Warriors took care of business, knocking off the No. 13 Panthers in the Division 1 Round of 16.
Next up for the 2023 D-1 state runner-up is a home quarterfinal matchup with No. 5 Belmont, likely on Saturday, but the official time yet to be determined.
“It’s really nice. Nobody wants our season to end, especially being a senior,” said Warrior Vivian Aloi, who scored the game’s only goal with 2:14 left in the second quarter. “It’s go time, final eight. It’s just going to be really exciting.”
The Warriors feel absolutely at home here in this spot, so when things got a little tense, they relied on experience and a goalie coming up huge in the clutch.
A desperate Beverly bunch, chasing the equalizer, cranked up the heat in the fourth.
“At this point, pressure is funny for them. My captains, this is the fourth year in a row they’ve been here,” said coach Bridget Morris. “Pressure-wise, I think they’re good. They know the deal. That experience really helps.”
And the goalie, Lucy Baker, was immense when it mattered most, earning the shutout.
“She’s been good about that. It’s kind of hard for her. We’ll go three or four games in a row where she doesn’t see any shots. And then we’ll play a game like this where she has to come up with those big saves,” said Morris. “I think it’s been a big mental game for her, and I think she’s really conquered it.”
Earlier in the contest, Aloi made the most of the one real opportunity she got in the scoring area.
“It was on a corner. We hadn’t scored yet, and we really weren’t finishing on passes,” said Aloi. (Captain) Lucy MacLean brought us all together and was like, ‘guys, we need to finish, and we need to execute.’ It got me going, I guess.
“It was a makeshift corner, not really planned. The goalie stopped it first, and I just swung right through (the rebound) and it hit the back of the net.”
From there, Beverly goalie Charlotte Stevens slammed the door, but Andover did a great job of making the one-goal lead work.
“It’s super nerve-wracking, (especially in the fourth quarter) just back and forth, back and forth,” said Aloi. “It’s the end of the game, everyone has been hustling all the way through and is trying to find that last three minutes of energy. It really showed. We kept the ball out of the back of the net.”