Confident Warriors ready for next step

ANDOVER -- While three of its conference brethren trekked to Tewksbury for a coin flip to decide who would represent the Merrimack Valley Conference in the Division 1A playoffs, the members of the Andover football squad settled in for their Thanksgiving dinners last fall resigned to a fourth-place finish in the league.

For the underclassmen on the team, the gravy boats were decidedly half full that day.

Fresh from a statement win over rival Central Catholic, thereby forcing the Raiders to endure a three-way coin flip with Dracut and Lowell before securing their postseason pass, Andover reestablished itself as a contender in the fiercely competitive MVC and laid the groundwork for the optimism that abounds on the 2007 squad.

Coming off an 8-3 campaign, the Warriors debut at No. 10 on the Boston Globe's preseason Top 20. We'll be unveiling a new team each day leading up until No. 1 on opening day, Sept. 7

"I think last year we were trying to prove ourselves in the MVC," said senior Matt Rayner, who took the opening kickoff in that Turkey Day game 86 yards for a touchdown.

"Everyone knows we're coming to play now. We're coming in with a lot of confidence."

Confidence might have been the only thing this team lacked a year ago. The Warriors won five of their first six last fall, but an 8-6 overtime loss to Lowell in Week 7 seemed to deflate them mentally. The following week, Andover endured a 42-28 thumping at the hands of Chelmsford that ultimately prevented the Warriors from making it a four-way tie atop the final conference standings.

The win over Central Catholic -- punctuating a three-game winning streak to end the season -- sent Andover into the offseason with some serious momentum. Some 280 days later, it's still with the team.

"We were the underdogs that day," said senior Tripp Stevens. "I think we proved to our league and, more importantly, to ourselves that we could beat anyone that day."

To be certain, there are holes to fill from graduation, particularly up front where the Warriors graduated all three defensive lineman including All-Scholastic nose guard J.B. Israel (75 tackles, 11.5 sacks; now at Bates) and Gordon DuBois (71 tackles, 7.5 sacks; now at Buffalo).

Coach Ken Maglio will look to compensate for the loss of size with a speedy group in the linebacking corps (Tripp Stevens and conference all-star Sam Clark) and secondary (Rayner and Mike Pierce).

"Defensively, we've got a lot of skill there, but we need to fill the holes on the defensive line," said Clark. "I'm confident we have some juniors that can step in there."

A high-octane offense could also take some of the pressure off rebuilding that defensive front. The Warriors will move to a spread offense geared around showcasing quarterback Pierce's ability to beat teams with both his arm and legs.

"I'm pretty excited," said Pierce. "For me, all my wide receivers are back and that gives me a lot of confidence. I know them and our timing is down... With the new offense, we're not under center as much. It should be fun."

There's been some growing pain with the new gameplan. In the early days of camp, Pierce and Co., struggled with high snaps out of the shotgun formation. But Maglio really likes the speed his team boasts on offense and wants to utilize it as much as possible by opening up the playbook.

The installation of a new synthetic turf field in Andover won't hurt matters either.

"Not only are they hardworkers, but this is the quickest and strongest team I've ever had," said Maglio. "Speed kids. We've got a kid running a 4.3 (40-yard dash), two running 4.5, four kids running 4.6, and two more running 4.7. When do you have that? And now we have this beautiful turf facility... The kids did their job in the offseason, now it's up to our coaches to not mess it up.

"We'll go to the spread offense. We still have our base, but, with Pierce, the strengths of our team is our skill kids. There's a lot of depth with this bunch. It's a luxury we haven't had in the past. Plus, now these guys have another year of experience under them."

The Warriors will challenge themselves in nonleague play with matchups at BC High (Sept. 14) and a visit from Valley Forge (Pa.) on Nov. 9 (a game that blossomed off an open-date posting on the web and that Maglio hopes, "continues for many years to come.")

The Warriors even scrimmaged defending Division 1 Super Bowl champion Everett Tuesday to gear up for the regular season.

Regardless of the challenges, this year's group is confident it can take the next step.

"This year we really have to focus on each game and not look ahead," said Rayner. "Each game is a challenge, especially in the MVC. But we think we're ready for those challenges."

Chris Forsberg can be reached at cforsberg@boston.com