Hanover Boys Soccer 2022

  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...

  The sweetest wins are always the ones which are achieved in the face of challenge and peril.     Hanover’s 2-1 victory over Manchester Central on a rainy night at venerable Gill Stadium required the Bears to face a variety of challenges, and they met every one and walked away with their best win of the season.     Hanover is 10-4 has now won seven games in a row, climbing all the way to sixth place in the D1 standings.     A home game in the first round of the playoffs is now a certainty.   From the very beginning of their rivalry which began a decade ago, matches between Central and Hanover have been intense. This makes sense, since they are historically the two best in Division one for the past decade.  This most recent chapter saw Hanover at its very best.  It’s possible that their two goals from the run of play is one of their best efforts every.   Playing Central on their home turf is intimidating on a good night, a...

A day of exams, trials, and several other synonyms for tests saw the Hanover Bears JV2 Soccer team travel 40 minutes south for a match-up with Sunapee High School. This time last season, we were drying our tears as we made our way off the field in a 7-2 loss. After 80 of the toughest minutes of the season, so far, the Bears strutted off Sunapee’s field as victors.   The match kicked off with Sunapee, sending the ball deep into their own half, though instead of the ball getting sent deep into Hanover’s end, Alex Brackett managed to cover enough ground to close down Sunapee and win possession. Hanover would remain in their opponent’s half for the next fifteen minutes, working the ball from side-to-side, playing everything to teammates’ feet, and working tirelessly to win the ball back any time we lost possession.    Finally, a breakthrough came from the good work of Berkeley Chamberlain and Jai Gregory, making his return from injury, on the left flank. Berkeley stepped in t...

  Hanover took care of business on their longest road trip of the year, scoring twice early to take control in a 2-1 victory over Salem that saw every one of the 25 Bears play.     They are now 9-4 on the season, having won six games in a row.     The victory sets up a Thursday night showdown in Manchester’s historic Gill Stadium against perennial rival Manchester Central.   The Bears enjoyed a smooth bus trip that got them to Salem with plenty of time to spare.  After a good warmup, Hanover took control of the match early.  Carter Guerin and Zach Tracy had good bids, and then Ryder Hayes hit the post on a free kick feed from Guerin fifteen minutes into the match. Salem literally never got out of their end. Hanover took the lead in the 18 th  minute.  Andrew McGuire teed up a corner kick, and Alex McGrath met it at the far post with his first headed goal of the season.  Not his last.  McGuire’s assist c...

The Varsity Bears took another big step toward good playoff positioning, beating a scrappy Londonderry team 4-2 for their fifth win in a row. Now 8-4, Hanover is solidly in the top half of the D1 standings, and an increasingly good bet to host a first-round playoff game.  Jack Gardner led the way for the Bears, scoring two goals and setting up an important insurance tally that iced the game.  Hanover’s defense played with increased confidence, fronted by a midfield troika that controlled the game for long stretches.   Road games are a challenge in Division One, although conditions were close to ideal at Londonderry’s lush grassy pitch. Too grassy by a tad, actually.  But the sun was warm, the bathrooms were a good deal closer than at HHS, and the lingering impacts of Movie Night weren’t too onerous.  Once the game started, Hanover assumed control began probing the Londonderry defense.  The first shot didn’t come until the 8 th ...

The freshman team rebounded from a disappointing loss on Wednesday to defeat a depleted Keene team, 5-0, on a lovely fall afternoon at Dresden. At the 10-minute mark in the game, we went up a goal when Nicolas D. poked home a loose ball after a scramble in the penalty area. We had several other golden opportunities to add to our lead in the first half, but our attacking players could not find the right combination of passes and shots on goal to find the back of the net. Meanwhile, Keene was unable to create any chances at the other end of the field, and the half ended with Hanover up 1-0. The second half was a very different story. Keene ran out of gas (and apparently interest in the outcome), while we turned up the intensity and had chance after chance on goal. Goals from Sam B (his second of the game), Ronan, and Connor added to our total, but the best of the day came midway through the half when Denis headed home a Ronan corner kick from close range. In the 71st minute, an inadverte...

  At some point in a season a team needs a signature win, one that carries with it the distinct risk of losing, and perhaps along with that the risk of sending a season sideways with that loss. The was what Hanover was facing when second-ranked Exeter came to town.     Hanover had put together a modest little three-game winning, but the opposition left something to be desired.     Exeter, with big wins over Manchester Central and Nashua South, was another level.   Happily, the Bears responded to the challenge with a thrilling 3-2 victory, decided in the dying minutes with a spectacular goal by Jack Gardner.  It was the sort of win that reminded Hanover that their lofty goals might be possible after all.  With their modest winning streak now intact at four games, the Bears have broken into the top eight in the NHIAA D1 standings, and have the opportunity to continue their slow crawl up the ladder.   Exeter arrived early in a sleek co...

Hanover 6 – Cardigan 0   The Hanover JV2 Boys laced up on the Merriman-Branch Turf Field Saturday afternoon for one of the more memorable days of the season thus far. Cardigan Mountain School, led by Bucket’s former Hanover Coach, Rob Edson, arrived right on time in their classic green kits with a white sash. Hanover, dressed in their red kits, had been looking forward to this day since the schedule was first released. Oh, how it was worth the wait.   The match kicked off in Hanover’s favor and would remain that way for large periods of the first half. Anchored by Senior Stalwart, Liam Worden, in the central midfield, Hanover did well to move the ball from flank to flank, looking for any weaknesses in an ever-organized Edson defense. It took several good tries on net before Theo Joseph found a ball from Berkeley Chamberlain on top of the box. Theo took one touch to get the ball out of his feet and slotted it low into the left side of the net for Hanover’s first of the night. ...

  Today the Freshmen travelled 90 minutes south to Pinkerton Academy to face the 5-0 Astros for our first game in over 3 weeks. Does that sound like a recipe for success? Yes, of course it does! The Bears broke out for their best game of the season, tying Pinkerton 3-3 in a game that could easily have tilted a few goals in our favor. Ronan and Nick—in his maroon and white debut—came to play. 2 minutes into the game, precise passes between them allowed Ronan to penetrate deep into Astro territory, where he was fouled hard and “flew” to the ground. (One suspects Ronan’s been taking acting lessons on the weekends!) Once the penalty was called, Ronan leapt back up to his feet, set the ball on the spot, and drilled his shot into the upper left corner of the net. 1-0 Bears. While Hanover played hard and earned their chances throughout the half, Pinkerton stormed back with goals in the 33rd and 37th minutes. They're not ones to back down, and it was 2-1 Astros at the half. While the Bears...

  Hanover made their Friday Night Lights game against Goffstown a positive experience for everyone who participated, beating Goffstown 6-0, their third shutout victory in a row.     Now 6-4 on the season, the Bears are ready for a string of challenging matches that will define their season.   Hanover’s losses earlier in the season were in part due to a sputtering offense.  They were shut out three times, despite out-shooting every opponent with one exception.  They would dominate on the field, but could not finish when they needed a big goal.  In their current three-game win streak, capped off with the Goffstown win, they have outscored the opposition 18-0.  The opponents all have losing records, to be sure, but in every instance Hanover has scored more than any other of the three team’s opponents.   Against Goffstown, Hanover got right to work, and took a 1-0 lead 1:32 into the game on the first of Carter Guerin’s three g...

With the end of September, the JV1 Bears found themselves crossing the threshold of midseason having a homestand of three straight games. Coming into the week the team had only one goal in the past three games, Hanover looked to develop more of an identity in the attacking third. Knowing how important this home stand was to boost the team's spirit, coach Willie implored players to keep efforts high in the pregame speech before they hosted Merrimack on Monday. The JV Bears would square off with the Tomahawks of Merrimack on Monday the 26th under partly cloudy skies. The game would see an early chance for the Tomahawks in the fifth minute; a well taken corner would find the head of one of the 'Hawks players and headed for the upper 90, but freshman goalie Jackson Souther was equal to the task and gave a punch with his left hand to push it out for another corner. On the ensuing corner, it was cleared quickly and sent Alex Orsino on a long breakout run and forced the 'Hawks b...