Bears Beat Manchester Central 2-1 in The Rain; Best Win of the Season

 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, and doing so in a  pouring monsoon only added to the stress.  Yet Hanover maintained composure and focus all night.  In the end, they were more mature, more resilient, and better prepared.  And by beating Central on the road, the Bears all but guaranteed that they won’t be back at Gill this year. A neutral site, perhaps, but this win did wonders for Hanover’s playoff chances.  More on that in a week.

 

Things didn’t start well for the Bears. Central pressed them several times in the early going, and could have scored when the very dangerous Junior Mawette got loose for an open header. Ty Nolon had to make a great play coming off his line to punch away a 50-50 ball at the edge of his box. Matters got worse a mere eight minutes into the match when a free kick to the far post found Celestin Bulose open for a header that gave the Little Green a 1-0 lead.

 

Hanover dug in a began working their way back into the match, primarily through their gritty play at midfield from Ryder Hayes, Becket McCurdy and Zach Tracy.  Six minutes after they lost the lead, the Bears almost tied it when Carter Guerin squared the ball to Sean Smith, whose shot was blocked with a desperate effort.  Over the next 20 minutes, Hanover would gain an edge on play, and earn four corner kicks, which generated some promising scrambles, but no tangible results.

 

Despite training at halftime, despite the gushing rain, despite the rough play and distracting behavior from the other technical area, Hanover stayed focused.  There was measurable optimism in the Gill Stadium dugout.  And when the second half got underway, Hanover maintained an edge in a match that demanded everything from them. It was a battle.  Ten minutes after the interval, Hanover tied the game on a goal by Carter Guerin, his seventh in the last six games.  

 

Ten minutes after that, Central almost gave Hanover an own goal on a looping back pass that was pushed over the bar for a corner.  The Bears punished that mistake, taking the lead on a shot by Andrew McGuire through a maze of bodies in front of the Central goal following the corner kick.  It was McGuire’s team-leading 9^th goal, and Zach Tracy picked up his team-leading sixth assist.

 

The last twenty minutes were a tempest.  The wind was howling, the Central sideline was howling, but Hanover kept composure and denied the Little Green much of anything, threatening in the other end regularly, particularly on a fast break by Jack Gardner that resulted in his being pushed over from behind.  But Jack stayed cool, and the Bears stayed cool, and walked away with a signature victory over an opponent they have been waiting to beat since the trash-talking Granite State Games last summer.  Big props to the Hanover back four, missing starter Owen Smith but ready to plug and play with Sam Ames, who was very strong in his firast Varsity start.

 

Next up for Hanover is a Tuesday home game against a much-improved Bishop Guertin team on Senior Day.  In all, 17 seniors will be honored.  The 10 seniors on the JV2 will be feted prior to the game, and the Varsity seniors will be celebrated at halftime.  We’ll even give a shout out to the BG seniors. The game will be approached with utmost seriousness, though.  Every win at this time of year means a lot.