Bears Beat Merrimack 4-0; Carter Scores

 Hanover continued the redemption section of their season, putting together a businesslike 4-0 win over a hard-working Merrimack team. In winning their second game in a row, the Bears dominated the visitors statistically and were tight defensively.

 

Taking the initiative from the opening whistle, Hanover left a few calling cards in the first few minutes.  Becket McCurdy had a good attempt with a far post header on a corner kick, and Carter Guerin got a free kick on goal.  The Bears were finding a lot of room on the flanks, and capitalized on the time and space in the sixth minute to take the lead. Sean Smith celebrated his second start on right wing by driving past his defender and squaring a ball to Guerin for a tap-in.The world exhaled.  Carter was off the schneid.

 

Hanover kept pounding.  Alex McGrath had a solid-looking far post header on another corner.  He’s getting closer every game, and should be connecting right about when the Bears really need him. Red McCurdy made Assistant Coach Ben Snyder happy with a close-range toe-poke that forced yet another save from altitudinous Merrimack keeper Matt Schmidt. Shortly after entering the match and just missing a goalmouth put-away from Carter Guerin, Sam Calderwood converted a similar chance for his first career goal. Select parts of the Upper Valley exhaled.

 

Merrimack tried their best on their few counters, but their three shots were long range and not particularly threatening. Alex McGrath and Owen Smith were doing a great job getting to the ball in the air, and Hanover’s team defense looked strong, albeit against a less-experienced team.

 

The Bears were reminded at halftime that they were expected to do more with the chances they had created, particularly in the tendency to take too many touches. They responded with a cleaner second half.  Jack Gardner was particularly threatening, and forced an excellent save from Schmidt nine minutes after the interval.  Three minutes after that, Carter Guerin was clumsily shoved down in the upper corner of the Merrimack penalty area, and there was no choice but to call a penalty.  Guerin’s spot kick was hard and on target, but Schmidt make full use of his reach and blocked the kick.  In the ensuing scramble, Guerin got the ball to Sean Smith, and he scored his first goal of the season.

 

Less than two minutes later, Hanover made the score after a great bit of work by Gardner on the right side of the Merrimack penalty area, outworking a defender to wrest the ball from him and then centering a ball to Andrew McGuire for yet another tap-in and a 4-0 lead.

 

Hanover continued to play coherent soccer, with several payers standing out.  Ben Woods played his best soccer of the year, making a number of good decisions and providing passes that were on target and well-struck.  Veer Patel showed a lot of energy and intelligence up top, and sophomore backs Noah Winchester (second quality start) and Sam Ames were composed and effective.

 

Hanover had outshot a number of other opponents, but in this match they had a season-high 15 shot on goal (as opposed to “at” goal).  Their corner kick margin was an impressive 10-4.  Ty Nolon had four saves to earn his fourth clean sheet on the season.

The Bears have another chance to take care of business against an opponent further down the table on Friday night, and a chance to entertain a larger group of followers.  Their Friday Night Lights game had always attracted a good crowd.  There might well be grilling.  There will be the biggest food drive of the season.  They will be repping their nice new strip.  If they stay focused and play simple soccer, Friday should be fun.