The Marauder Freshmen played their best game of the year on Friday, bouncing back from a disappointing loss to Central to rally and beat an equally strong Concord team 3-2. Jack Gardner scored twice and assisted on a goal by Jack Stadheim to power the offense, and goalkeeper Ty Nolon backed up a strong team defensive effort with his usual calm, efficient goalkeeping.
The game didn’t start well for Hanover. Six minutes into the match, the defense was moving in slow motion as a Concord player waltzed out of the corner and played the ball to an unmarked teammate in front of the Marauder goal for an all-to-easy 1-0 lead. Concord featured featured several very skilled players up top, and three of the biggest players they had encountered all year. We’re talking towering over Gil Gordon big. They also had two players who could send throw-ins into the box on the fly. Hanover pulled it together defensively, but they could not muster much offense until the Marauders subbed, and the duo of Ian Smith and Simon Taenzer showed everyone how it could be done, slicing through the Concord midfield like a hot knife through butter. They and several players off the bench did a great job stabilizing the game. Kudos to Will Taylor, Gil Gordon, Theo Joseph and Alex Brackett, among others. Ty Nolon made several good saves and one exceptional one to keep his team in the game.
Several starters slipped into the game near the end of the half, and with three minutes to go the Marauders tied the match when Jack McGrath won the ball deep in his own half and sent a well-timed ball to Jack Gardner, who raced into the Concord end, held off a pursuing defender, and drilled the ball in to the Crimson Tide net.
Hanover played superbly in the second half. The back line of Owen Smith, Ethan Munson, Wyatt Scam Forbush, Wyatt Sklarin, Jackson Watts, Tom Mosdal and Kevin Choi held their line consistently all day, forcing the skillful by tactically naïve Concord strikers offsides eight times on the afternoon. McGrath, Stazdheim, Taylor and Alex Brackett did a wonderful job at midfield, actually switching the point of attack several times. The match swung back and forth, but Hanover’s depth and effort swung the game. Taenzer and Smith again led the charge. With 12 minutes left, Taenzer, a skillful free kick artist, drilled a corner kick into the box, and Smith timed his run perfectly, met the ball on the fly and drilled it over the bar. It was a harbinger of things to come. Concord was dangerous on the counter attack. Once again the Marauder defense made several key plays. They drew several more offsides calls, and made clutch one on one plays, such as when Tom Mosdal contested a header in the box, denying a dangerous shot and looking like an EPL defender. Minus the shades.
With six minutes to play, Concord gave away an unnecessary corner. “Punish them!” growled Coach Grabil on the bench, as always a comment directed to the acolytes on the bench, and not to the players on the pitch. Always better if they are left to their own devices, for better or worse. This time it was sublime. Jack McGrath took the subsequent corner, driving it perfectly, and Gardner met it at the back post. He’s been working on that. Even better, Gardner and his cohorts knew not to stop playing. Two minutes he broke into the box again and his a shot that forced the Concord goalie to make a spectacular save. He spilled the rebound just a bit, but it was long enough for Jack Stadheim, who had started his run even before there was a loose ball to contest, ghosted into the box and tipped the ball into the net. Hanover’s lead was not safe. Concord kept bushing, and finally beat the offside trap with half a minute to play. Their nimble number fifty made a great run on his breakaway and pulled back a goal. Fortunately, the Marauders killed the remaining 23 seconds, and the whistle cruelly concluded a well-devised Cam Bonner breakaway.
It was a great team victory, and was good reinforcement for the excellent training the boys have received over the past two weeks from Assistant Co0ach Chris Dawes. The young Marauders will have a week of training before their next game, a home match with Merrimack on the 7th.
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