Hanover Boys Soccer 2022

    Hanover played its best game of the season at the most crucial time, thoroughly dominating Windham 3-0 in the NHIAA D1 Semifinals and earning a trip to Sunday’s championship game.  It’s Hanover’s second straight title game, and it will be a rematch with Nashua South, which outlasted Hanover a year ago in penalty kicks.  The Bears’ semifinal victory over the Jaguars was their 12 th  straight win, and it avenged their most recent loss, a 5-0 debacle in Windham a month ago. Since that low water mark, Hanover has slowly and patiently improved, waiting for opportunities that have put them within reach of their third D1 title.   The Bears dominated the Windham match at both ends of the field, taking an early lead on the first of two goals by Ryder Hayes, and closing the Jaguars down en route to their fifth straight shutout, and tenth of the season. All of Hanover’s defenders closed ranks, knowing that if each of them stepped up a bit, they would be ...

  The Bears rose to the occasion Sunday and beat Exeter 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the NHIAA D1 Tournament. Hanover     now heads to the semifinals on Wednesday.     Zach Tracy’s goal with 14 minutes remaining gave the Bears the only goal they needed, and Hanover’s superb team defense, led by Captain Ty Nolon, authored the team’s fourth straight shutout.     The Bears have now won 11 games in a row.     The win was the first time Hanover has ever won a quarterfinal game on the road. The match was worthy of a final, pitting two well-coached and well-organized squads who were both peaking at just the right time.  Although Hanover had beaten Exeter earlier in the season, that match had been even in every respect, and now the Blue Hawks had the home field advantage. The Bears started the match briskly, and enjoyed a significant advantage in the opening minutes.  Carter Guerin created the first good chance of the match at the ...

    The Bears opened their second season successfully on a warm, misty Wednesday, combining two first-half goals with airtight defense to beat Concord 2-0 in the opening round of the NHIAA Division One playoffs.  The win was the 10 th  in a row for the 13-4 Bears, who now travel to Exeter for a Sunday quarterfinal match at 2:00.   Hanover had lost to Concord in overtime earlier in the season, and had no trouble getting started on the front foot.  Sean Smith blazed a low cross through the Concord box in the early going, and Zach Tracy made a great run into the box. Seven minutes into the match, against the run of play, Concord had a chance to make an impact on the game with a rare foray into the Hanover and a chance for a throw-in, literally their only offensive weapon.  Hanover keeper Ty Nolon made a bold statement on the dangerous throw by defender Connor White, coming hard off his line to punch the ball away for a corner, which was sub...

  Hanover closed the regular season with a flourish, beating Pinkerton Academy 1-0 for their ninth win in a row.     The Bears end the season with a record of 12-4, surging into a tie for 3 rd   place in the NHIAA Division One standings.     They will open postseason play Wednesday with a home game, probably against Concord.   After a scoreless first half that saw Pinkerton enjoy an edge in play, the Bears took the lead less than six minutes into the second half on Andrew McGuire’s 10 th  goal of the season. Although they didn’t add to their lead, Hanover managed the game professionally and emerged with a well-earned result.  Ty Nolon highlighted the defensive effort with seven saves to record his sixth shutout of the season.   The game began without any initial fireworks, but it was clear from the start that the hardworking Astros, with several big results on their resume, would present a challenge.  Hanover had the first...

  The Bears beat Bishop Guertin 6-0 on Senior Day, stretching their winning streak to eight games.     Now 11-4, Hanover heads into Friday’s last game of the regular season with a chanced to sneak into 4 th   place in the NHIAA Division One standings.   Senior Jack Gardner led the scoring with three goals, and scored the earliest goal for Hanover in the last 20 years, giving his team a 1-0 lead with exactly 13 seconds elapsed after the opening kickoff.  The kick was played back to Becket McCurdy, who played a long ball to Carter Guerin on the left wing.  Guerin cut inside a defender and then threaded a pass to Gardner, who finished with his usual authority and celebrated with hurried creativity.   The Bears dominated territorially, and patiently worked side to side to find openings.  Defensively, they did an excellent job positioning themselves “goal side”, which allowed recovery runs like Carter Guerin’s to retake the ball....

  On a beautiful fall morning and with hundreds of people present—likely for the Farmers Market across the road, but who knows!—the Bears continued to show how far they've come as a team and played perhaps their best game of the season: a hard-fought 1-0 win over the Exeter Blue Hawks. In the 13th minute, Jojo looped the ball over defenders to Casper, who played a short pass across the six yard box to Ronan, who quickly struck the ball into the back of the net. For the next 67 minutes, Hanover dominated possession, created good chances, and couldn't find the back of the net; thankfully, a team-wide commitment to slowing down Exeter's counter attacks ensured Exeter never got the equalizer. (An apparent 88th minute goal from the Blue Hawks was a shock...until it was waved off by the referees due to an Exeter player in the offside position.) The biggest disappointment from the day was an injury to captain and center back Sam Bagatell, who was struck in the ankle by an Exeter s...