RallyNorth.net

O'Connor, Amor lead Knights in romp

Friday, June, 05 By Mike Abelson
Staff writer

NORTH ANDOVER — North Andover jumped out to a 6-2 halftime lead and never looked back to beat Norwood 9-4 in a Division 2 East first-round game.

Southern New Hampshire recruit Brian Amor led the Scarlet Knights with a hat trick and an assist.

"Brian is really hitting the net," said North Andover coach Steve Connolly. "He's been on fire lately."

The Knights' leading scorer Tyler Zahoruiko netted two goals to up his total to 37, and big, junior attackman Alex Blane added a pair as well.

"Tyler gets the best defenseman every game. He's our quarterback," said Connolly. "And we got another strong game out of Alex." Norwood outshot North Andover 21-20 but Brien O'Connor came up big with 17 saves, including a perfect 6 for 6 in the second quarter.

"When you have a goalie who can do what Brien does, he'll keep you in a lot of ball games," said Connolly. "While they're trying to make a run, he's shutting them down. He's incredible."

Everything was going the Knights' way in the first half.

Blane scored with 3:22 left in the first half when he intercepted a pass from Norwood goaltender Anthony Colantuoni and shot it into the open net from 25 yards out.

With the win, the Knights improve to 17-5 and will visit top-seeded Medfield (21-0) on Tuesday.

Medfield, which was state runner-up last spring and won it all in 2007, has wins over the No. 3 (Billerica) and No. 1 seeds (St. John's) in Division 1 East.

"We are going to have be able to control the ball better against Medfield," said Connolly. "They are arguably the best team in the state, but I'll tell you one thing about North Andover, we come to play. The harder they come the harder they fall."