The first 25 minutes of the game were spent primarily in the middle
third of the pitch with both teams struggling for control of the
midfield. While Hanover did manage a couple of opportunities during the that time it was clear that the Crimson tide came to play and were
intent on a different result. Concord's first real attempt on frame came
in the 26th minute, when the Tide drew a free kick just outside of
Hanover's 18 yard box. The shot never made it to the net but the ensuing
rebound which had pinballed around the penalty area trickled out to a
Concord foot about 15 yards towards Hanover keeper Jackson Fisher's left,
the ball was lazily shot towards the net but hung up in the air just
long enough to sail over everyone and tuck itself under the crossbar.
Already depleted from an illness that has been sweeping through the
team, with four players missing and a few still on the mend, Hanover
realized they would have to dig deeper and fight harder than they had in
any of their previous contests. Four minutes
after the Concord's opening goal, Jacob KP played a nice through ball down
the right side channel that sprung Johnny Reznek free with only the
keeper to beat and from a tough angle he put it past the keeper but just
shy of the far post. It looked like it was going to be one of those
snake bit type days, where no matter how hard we worked we would be just
a bit off. Hanover was having none of that, though, and continued to work
hard in the middle of the pitch for every possession.With a minute
to go before the halftime break Connor Hamlin, playing the wingback role, won possession and sent a sweet through ball past the Concord back line
to a streaking Oscar Miller who calmly and coolly passed it by the
keeper to draw Hanover level going in to the recess.
The second half started much the same way the first half did, a
battle in the middle third. For Hanover, it was a lot of missed
connections while trying to work around the Concord back four. For
Concord, it was frustrating trying to penetrate the Hanover back four.
Palmer Okai, Blake Goetinck and James Kirkpatrick held a strong line all
day, making it tough for Concord to break through in to the Hanover
defensive third.
After 30 minutes of
scoreless second half soccer and the game still level at one each, Eric
Tysinger came on for the final ten minutes of the game, in the hope that his pace would prove too much for a tired Concord team that had
worked hard for 70 minutes. Almost a minute later, Isak Larusson made a
shifty move in to the box and past a defender on the right side and
found himself one on one with the keeper. From a tough angle and with the Concord
keeper well positioned, Isak made the smart and unselfish play and
slide it to the feet of Eric who had made a great run to the back post. With nothing but net in front of him, Eric buried the ball to give
Hanover their first lead of the day with eight minutes to play.
From there Concord pushed hard to find an equalizer but the Hanover
team held strong defensively and with two minutes left forced a turnover
in Concord"s end. Oscar could have put a tough angled shot on net put
instead elected to play Zane Schiffman who was making his run in to the
center of the Tide's penalty area, once again Zane could have put a shot
on net but it would have been a heavily challenged shot so he instead
elected to keep the ball moving and sent it to the back post where once
again Eric was waiting. For the second time in six minutes Eric made sure
he buried the ball in the Concord net and sealed the Marauder victory.
This was not Hanover's prettiest win by a long shot. Actually, it was
probably their ugliest. However, it was probably their best win to date.
On a day where the team was just a bit off and didn't seem to have all
of its normal energy, they were forced to dig deeper than they had
before and find another way to win a game. The Marauders return to action Saturday at 4:00 against Merrimack on the HHS grass field.
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