“Battle For The Axe” Goes To Lahser Soccer

Great players show up in big games.

Senior Erik Kelly showed the crowd at Andover High School on Tuesday night why he is a great player.

The Lahser forward scored a penalty shot with 13:53 left in the game to force a 2-2 tie in the “Battle for the Axe.” 

It would not have stayed that way without some tremendous saves  from Sophomore goalie Logan McDonald in the final 10 minutes. That included a diving stop of Jonah Yousif's shot with only 22 seconds remaining. 

The tie meant the Knights retain the axe, a symbol of the schools’ rivalry, until a planned merger for 2013. The Knights took possession of it in 2009, and in the case of a tie it goes back to the team that last won the game.

“The boys were hungry for this,” Lahser head coach Douglas Macaulay said. “It’s always a great game between Andover and Lahser, a huge rivalry over the years.” 

The axe will continue to be on display in the school’s main office.

“It’s huge,” Kelly said “It’s my senior year, this was my dream from freshman year. I’m ecstatic with this tie and that we get to keep it (the axe). This feels like a win.”

Kelly had to tie up the game twice for the Knights (2-3-2).

Andover scored a goal in the opening minute on a perfect header from senior captain Nick Shabino. Jonah Yousif lofted a free kick into the goal area and Matt Wyman set up Shabino for the goal.

“They took us by surprise in the first minute, we were sleeping,” Macaulay said. “That’s one thing we got to work on. We talked about it before the game, told the boys not to be sleeping when the whistle blows.”

On a corner kick from Connaugh McLaughlin, Lahser returned the favor. McLaughlin hit a strike from the corner that Kelly was able to jump up and knock in with a header of his own with 31:14 left in the half.

The game stayed 1-1 until six minutes into the second half. Yousif scored on a goal from Jacob Rosenzweig. The Barons (1-1-2) clogged up the area right in front of the net and the Knights couldn’t clear the ball before Yousif was able to get a shot off.

Both goalies fended off some solid scoring opportunities until Kelly struck again.

Lahser pushed the ball quickly up the field and had the defense moving backwards. Kelly’s teammates passed him the ball right outside the goal area.

Andover defender Emerson Misch was the only man to beat. Kelly used some fancy footwork to create some space and get around Misch to the left for an open look at the net. Misch tripped Kelly up to prevent the shot. 

“That’s actually my god brother,” Kelly said, smiling.

Lahser was awarded a penalty shot and Kelly scored it. He kept the shot on the ground and kicked it directly at the right post. It went in just outside the reach of the diving goaltender.

“That’s actually my first one,” Kelly said. “I was quite nervous on such a big stage. The thing is on penalty shots you just have to kick, no indecisiveness about it.”

Going into the game Andover knew that Kelly was Lahser’s main offensive option. Head coach Geoffrey Parkinson wasn’t happy that his team couldn’t contain the Knights senior.  

“We did some nice things, but ultimately I feel we blew this game,” Parkinson said. “We had one guy to stop and we didn’t do it.  We knew that ahead of time, what we had to do and just didn’t get it done. Credit to him, ultimately we just failed to do our job.”

Parkinson’s team will try to recover when they visit Farmington on Thursday night (7 p.m.). Lahser goes to Rochester for an early game on Thursday (5:30 p.m.).