SHREWSBURY – An Andover High defense that allowed 40 points and over 400 yards a week ago to Pinkerton in an Endowment Game, looked to be in trouble again Friday night, after allowing an opening drive touchdown to Shrewsbury.
Instead, the Golden Warrior defense buckled down.
Led by junior Jackson Fuller’s two sacks, including a strip-fumble, a big fumble recovery by Adam Segal and an interception by Nicholas Ilsley, Andover stormed back from that early deficit to defeat the Colonials, 27-14, in a non-league contest played at David Adams Memorial Field.
“That wasn’t us last week and I think we showed that tonight,” said Fuller. “We played our defense and we played our offense. We have some things to clean up, but yeah this was a good outcome.”
Andover (1-0) led 14-7 late in the third quarter. The Colonials (0-2) drove to the 3-yard line — and that’s when Segal recovered the fumble. Andover then went three-and-out, and on fourth down the snap sailed out of the end zone for a safety, making it 14-9.
Shrewsbury’s offense then moved the ball down to the Andover 18, and the momentum was swinging to the home town team. That’s when Fuller came up with his first sack of the game.
“I had the tackle on me and I got past him and I saw the fullback on my side, so I gave him a fake inside, and I swam outside over the tackle,” Fuller described. “I just ran the fullback into the quarterback.”
Two plays later with the ball at the Andover 24, the 6-foot-2, 225 pound defensive end came through with his strip-sack, and teammate Benjamin Wong recovered it and returned it to the 44.
“They were trying to trap me and I realized that the quarterback was booting to the left so I got behind him, chased him as hard as I could and I got my arm up and was able to strip sack him,” said Fuller. “That was awesome. That just really got the team and the sidelines going and we didn’t have any of that last week.”
Six plays later, Andover QB Dom Papa (20 for 31, 219 yards) connected on his third of four TD passes, which put the nail in the coffin.
Football, and big plays, are in Fuller’s blood, coming from a football family.
“I believe Jackson is a Division 1 (college) player. His father (Jeffrey) was a Division 1 player, his uncle (Jerome) was a Division 1 player and his cousin Jordan plays for Holy Cross and a was finalist for the Walter Payton Award,” said Andover High coach E.J. Perry. “Jackson’s in the ring of all of that. He had a big game tonight and that strip sack was such a huge play.”
Besides Fuller, Andover had a number of other big-time performances, including Ilsley who had two TD catches to go along with his pick
“We have some things that we need to clean up and there were a lot of mental mistakes, but we had guys stepping up all night,” said Perry. “(Michael) Crowley is a freshman and he made that huge (38-yard) catch (in the first half). IIsley had his two touchdowns and the interception. (Braden) Sullivan had the conversion catch (on the first touchdown) and I think 12 tackles on defense. Dominic (Papa) had his four touchdown passes. We just need to continue to get better.”
Andover 27, Shrewsbury 14
First Quarter
S — Ethan LePoer 22 pass from Andrew Vincequere (Andrew Stumm kick)
Second Quarter
A — Marcus DeJesus 6 pass from Dominic Papa (Braden Sullivan pass from Kyle Olson)
Third Quarter
A — Julius Martinez 8 pass from Papa (pass failed)
Fourth Quarter
S — Safety
A — Nicholas IIsley 23 pass from Papa (rush failed)
A — IIsley 30 pass from Papa (Henry Belscher kick)
S — Owen Michalowski 10 run (Rory Shanley pass from Vincequere)
ANDOVER INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
Passing: Dominic Papa 20 for 31, 219 yards, 4 TDs.
Rushing: Marcus DeJesus 12-68; Dominic Papa 11-47.
Receiving: Nicholas IIsley 5-86, 2 TDs; Julius Martinez 6-51, 1 TD; Michael Crowley 2-38; Marcus DeJesus 3-20, 1 TD.