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Andover’s game plan entering its Division 1 North semifinal contest against Framingham: control time of possession.

“We knew going in that we needed the ball more than they had it because their attack is so strong and they’re so skilled and so athletic,” Andover coach John McVeigh said. “They have three all-Americans on the attack. It makes it tough because they do a great job of sharing the ball with each other.”

Andover was unable to keep the ball away from Framingham’s Big Three — Moira Barry, Tanner Guarino and Rachel Igoe — who combined for nine goals.

Framingham won 16-5 over Andover yesterday at Wayland High School.

“Even when we took those three away, other kids stepped up and made some plays,” McVeigh said. “We just didn’t have the ball in our attack.” 

This was the second meeting between the two schools this spring. Andover (16-7-0) lost 12-8 to Framingham (21-1-1) on May 25. Framingham led that contest 7-1 but Andover battled to come within one goal at 8-7 with 5 minutes left before Framingham pulled away for good.

“The difference between this and the first game we played them is that we won draw battles the last game so we had the ball,” McVeigh said. “I felt like we had a chance to score when we had the ball. But we just didn’t have the ball enough, especially in the first half. The ball was always at our end of the field. And when we did get it, I think we rushed and we didn’t pass and catch the ball the way we sometimes do.”

Andover went ahead 1-0 on a goal by Jen Caro 54 seconds into the game. The Golden Warriors held the lead until 18 minutes, 53 seconds remained in the first half. That’s when the Framingham offense exploded, scoring three times in 41 seconds to take a 3-1 lead. 

Framingham held an 8-1 lead with 8:46 left before halftime.

“We had a game plan coming in to shut down their big three and kind of let the rest of the players beat us, which did happen early on,” Andover senior Alex Alois said.

Framingham has won seven straight North championships, McVeigh said.

“I think the draws were really important for them and they got a lot of ground balls,” Caro said. “We hustled right with them.”

McVeigh said he hopes the underclassmen will learn from this game and take it as a challenge as they go forth in their careers.

“We have very talented underclassmen,” Alois said. “They just have to take this loss and use it as fire in their bellies and come back next year even stronger." 

Andover graduates seven seniors but returns some strong players, including Caro (52 goals), the Farnham twins — Kate and Anne — who combined for 37 goals, Meghan Morris (30 goals) and Ally Fazio (27 goals).

“I’m proud of the senior class,” McVeigh said. “We lost in the first round last year. And we lost our two leading scorers from last year’s team and I think a lot of people would have been surprised at the beginning of the season to know that we were going to make it the North semifinals. Our seniors had tremendous careers and they are even better kids than they are lacrosse players.” 

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