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North Andover upsets Andover

Friday, May, 11 By Jeff Hamrick
Staff writer

NORTH ANDOVER — A week that began sourly for North Andover girl lacrosse with a bitter defeat to a state power ended much more sweetly with a satisfying win over a border rival.

The Scarlet Knights dominated the opening half, scoring the game’s first six goals, then held off an Andover rally for a 12-9 victory.

It was a far different outcome for the Knights than Tuesday’s 18-0 loss to powerhouse Notre Dame of Hingham.

With a 13-point win over Dracut on Wednesday, North Andover (8-2 MVC, 9-6 overall) piled up 30 goals in the two victories since the shutout.

“The girls really turned it around this week, and that was pretty awesome to see,” Knight coach Meredith Prior said. “Notre Dame is a very, very talented team and they play a whole different style of lacrosse. That was a rough game, but the fact we’ve bounced back and won the next two, especially this one against Andover has been great. They went out and went 100 percent as soon as the game started, and that was the difference.”

The Knights jumped on the visitors as five different players scored in the first 16 minutes en route to a 6-0 lead. Andover, which had a nine-match winning streak snapped Wednesday against Chelmsford, didn’t get a shot off until an Emma Farnham goal with 7:30 remaining in the first half.

With Kelly Corrigan winning eight of the half’s 12 draws and a defense forcing seven turnovers, North Andover took an 8-3 lead into intermission.

“We realized we had to possess the ball,” Corrigan said. “It’s a real big factor being able to get the ball first of all. We have to fight to get the ball instead of having to go back and work hard on defense and bring the ball all the way up.”

The Golden Warriors (9-2, 10-3) found momentum early in the second half with four different players contributing to a 4-0 run that cut the deficit to one.

But a Kelcey Dion goal with 12:15 left ended the Knights’ drought before Julia Silk snapped off back-to-back scores to once again open a four-goal lead at 11-7 with 10:39 remaining.

“It’s been kind of tough because we haven’t had the strong wins that we’ve wanted to, so this is really important to turn the season around,” said Silk, who also had a first-half goal. “Losing to Notre Dame was disappointing, but we put it behind us because we knew we had a big week ahead. So, we’ve been looking forward to (Andover).”

North Andover’s solid passing was evident in the closing 5 minutes when the Knights controlled the ball, keeping Andover from attacking.

“We’ve tried to work on holding the ball and possessing it to run the clock out,” Silk said. “Tonight we really capitalized on that.”

Dana Swartz contributed three goals for North Andover while Jill Good and Allison Ferullo each had two. Leah Hurley had three of the team’s five assists.

Andover had a pair of goals from Farnham, Carissa Agostino, Mackenzie Evans and Jordan Torres.

“I feel it wasn’t just offense,” Andover coach Cat Gross said. “It was kind of our whole attitude going in. We have to start out strong ... We understand on how important the draw and possession is. We have a very talented team, but they have to own how good they are.”