Freshman Remains Unbeaten, Defeating Salem 5-0

The young Marauders took their show on the road Wednesday, heading to Salem high school, their furthest trip south all season. As the Marauders would find out this would be game full of firsts and some pretty strange field conditions. As they stepped off the bus they were directed towards the furthest nether regions of the Salem athletic complex and on the sunniest day the state had seen in over a week they could not see the playing field until they were almost upon it as it was completely shrouded in darkness. It was the only place in this vast complex the sun did not touch. When reaching the field, the players were unsure if they were in the right place as the field appeared  to be where the U9s would play their 7v7 games. Alas, they were in the right place and amazingly each team would cram 11 players each on to the pitch.

      For the first time all year Hanover would have to play without their rock in net. With Jackson Fisher sidelined for the game Coach Dan turned to another "rock" to man the net in Alex Rockmore. Under the tutelage of Jackson, Alex would shine in goal, aggressively coming off his line to shut down any Blue Devil attack before it had a chance to materialize. The save of the game came at the midway point of the first half. With the game still scoreless, Salem was awarded a free kick just outside the "18 yard line." (It was closer to 15 or 16 yard line, technically)  The Blue Devil striker hit a beautiful ball on frame that was curling in to the top far corner of the net. Alex, well positioned, leapt backwards and managed to get a fist to what would have been a sure goal. After that everything seemed to be easy for him and he earned his first clean sheet in net as a Hanover Marauder. 

 

      On the other side of the ball, the entirety of the first half was spent trying to figure out how to navigate the field. The Marauders struggled to find passes and make connections on a field that was half as wide as what they were used to. Hanover, usually a team that takes advantage of wide pitches and likes to create open space was having a hard time finding any space. The lone goal of the first half came at the 20 minute mark when center back and Hanover captain Palmer Okai cleared a long, high arcing ball back in to the attacking third from "midfield." The ball just about landed on the 6 yard line. The Salem keeper made the mistake of letting the ball bounce rather than catching it in the air and the ball took a big bounce over the keeper's head and came down just over the goal line for Palmer's first goal of the year. 

 

    After some halftime adjustments, the Marauders came out in the second half with a better understanding of how to navigate the pitch and play against two good Blue Devil center backs. 

13 minutes in to the 2nd half Mason Gantrish playing the right back role sent a nice through ball that split the Salem defenders and sent Murphy Hunt, playing in a false 9 role, in a foot race against the two center backs. Sandwiched between the two, Murphy won the battle and poked the ball by the keeper. It was Mason's first assist on the season and Murphy's third goal. 

 

    After that, the Marauders depth really showed. Playing against a Salem team that had only two subs, Hanover's fresh legs took over the game. Salem worked hard for the first 60 minutes to keep pace with Hanover but they could not keep that work rate up for 80 minutes and the final 13 minutes of the game saw three more goals from the Marauders. Jacob Rimberg notched his first goal of the season assisted by Jacob Kubik-Pauw. Oscar Miller got his fifth goal of the season also assisted by Jacob KP. The final goal of the game came from Jacob KP, who was the first player this year to see time in the midfield, defense and attack in the same game. He had one assist from midfield, a goal and an assist from the striker position and made a breakaway saving slide tackle on defense. 

 

      Hanover will hit the road again on Monday, heading to Exeter to put their 8-0 record on the line against an always tough Blue Hawk team. They will close their season on Saturday with a road trip to play a very strong Cardigan team.