Although it took them a while to get going, the Marauder JV1s earned a solid 4-1 victory over Portsmouth on Saturday at The Pasture, far from the riotous Homecoming action back at the high school.
Hanover had several good looks in the early going. Zane Schiffman hit a low shot just to the right of the post 15 minutes into the game. Shortly afterwards, an indirect kick in the box after a back pass to the keeper was picked up (no-no), and Hanover had a good restart opportunity. Portsmouth outhitting defended well, though, and Mitch Aspinwall's shot was deflected over the bar. Schiffman and Aspinwall were back at it right away, and a deflected shot by Zane just missed the mark. Another dangerous cross by Aspinwall off of a corner made connections with Jack Ross' head, but the ball was cleared off the line by a Clipper defender. Pierce Hamlin hopped on the rebound, but his shot was gobbled up by the goalkeeper. Against the run of play, Portsmouth got on the board first at the fifteen minute mark when a bouncing ball through the middle took some deflections and fell to a Portsmouth attatcker, who neatly tucked the ball in the back off the net. Hanover had one more good look before the interval. Owen Stannard played the ball to Oscar on a free kick, and he tapped it along to Isak Larusson, who struck the ball just over the crossbar.
Trailing 1-0 at the half, Hanover got right to work in the second half. Zane Schoffman launched a ball over the bar just after the resumption of play. Just a minute later, Palmer Okai played a beautiful ball over the top to Schiffman, who clinically slid the ball past the Portsmouth keeper to tie the game. The Marauders almost took the lead three minutes later when Eric Tysinger one-timed a ball to Schiffman, whose shot was grabbed and held by the Clipper keeper. Fifteen minutes into the half, some of the best passing of the season resulted in a Goalazo by Pierce Hamlin, who started the sequence with a pass to Aspinwall, who slid it to Schiffman on the wing. Schiffman's low, hard pass through the six yard box made its way back to Hamlin, who controlled the pass and sent a powerful shot into the side netting for a 2-1 lead. Hamlin collected the second half of his brace two minutes later, taking a pass from Aspinwall and ripping a shot from well outside the 18 that dipped just under the crossbar for a 3-1 lead.
With ten minutes to play there was some more good combination play that all out resulted in another Hanover goal. Isak Larusson surprised everyone by dribbling through the entire Portsmouth team and creating a one on one with the Portsmouth goalie. He attempted a cheeky pass to Oscar, who when into a slide to get the ball, which just slid by the right post. Five minutes from time, Schiffman completed his brace, taking a beautiful crossing ball from Derek Lacy at the back post and beating a taller defender with a header to make the score 4-1. The game ended with a dramatic play from keeper turned scoring threat CJ Wheelan, who zeroed in on a goal kick from Jack Maynes, nearly heading the ball over the center back. The ball fell to the defender's feet, and CJ turned to tackle him. The defender decided to make an immediate clearance, and blasted a ball that traveled three yards before it hit poor CJ in the face. As he sank to his knees with the wild applause of the Hanover bench ringing in his ears, he demonstrated his resilience, mental toughness, fortitude, spunk, moxie, chutzpah, courage, and presence of mind to regain his feet and stagger to the bench to join the handshake line. The JV1s now head to Manchester and Livingston Park, ready to take on a talented Manchester Central squad.
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