By Brad Jones
Staff writer

Often in sports, your coach tells you that the first 5 minutes can decide the outcome of the game, and that held true in the Grey Ghosts loss to Andover Wednesday night as they lost 1-0.

Before the game even started, Westford Academy had to fight through adversity, as one of their top players, junior winger Anthony Gulliver was diagnosed with a concussion and is now out for the year. They felt his loss on the scoreboard, but their loss was not due to a lack of chances, rather Andover getting the lucky bounce that the Ghosts could not get.

Less than 5 minutes into the game, Andover scored. One of their defensemen took a shot from the point and one of their forwards was able to get a late misdirection on the puck and tip it past senior goalie Matt Restuccia for an early goal.

Unlike many other high school teams, Westford Academy did not lose hope after allowing the early goal, rather, it motivated them for the rest of the game.

The game continued to progress throughout the 1st and 2nd periods with both teams trading punches like two heavyweights in the rink, but still, the only thing separating the two teams was Andover’s early goal.

When the 3rd period began, WA came out with the will and determination to score, and dominated early on in the 3rd. Andover was on its heels only just holding off attack after attack. However, the Ghosts still could not find twine.

With under a minute remaining, the Ghosts called on an extra attacker to try and even up the contest. But it was unsuccessful, and the game ended as a 1-0 loss to Andover.

“I think that this was a game that we should have won, and we outplayed them, but it (the game) did not go our way this time”, said senior Joey Schultz.