Bouncing back from Tuesday's disappointing loss in emphatic fashion, the Marauders exploded for three goals in three minutes to break a 2-2 second half tie and beat a tough Winnacunnet team in challenging playing conditions. Hanover is now 10-2 in Division One play and locked into a trajectory that will place them no worse than third. Eli Stack, Latham Allison and Charlie Adams each scored between 54:25 and 56:53, taking complete control of a match that was back and forth and fractious in the first half.
The game started well enough for the Marauders, who like Winnacunnet took a bit of time adjusting to the quartering Nor'easter blowing off the Atlantic Ocean, six blocks away. The patchy pitch never proved to be a huge problem, perhaps owing to two good days of training at Dresden. Blake Palmer got a great look four minutes into the match as he mover across the box from right to left, but his left-footed drive was smothered by goalkeeper Nathan Todaro. Winacunnet played directly to a pair of strong front runners, and got good play from a German exchange student, Arne Hildebrant. Hanover had an edge, but the Warriors were countering well, and got the first goal shortly after Hanover had subbed four players. Chaz Ziolkowski made a great run into the Hanover box and hit a hard shot to the right of Joey Perras, The Marauder keeper made a diving save, but the ball fell right to the feet of Chris Lepere, closing hard from the left side. His hard shot beat Perras, who had recovered to het into position, but couldn't get enough of the well-placed drive.
Hanover was unfazed, and nine minutes later those same subs will still around when one of them scored to level the match. A minute after Toño Correa had nearly broken the ice, David Stoffel picked a great time to score the best goal of his career (so far), taking a back heel from Adams and ripping a lefty shot from the corner of the box inside the far post to tie the match. Less than a minute later, the Marauders snatched the lead when Adams redirected a long Eric Ringer throw-in with his head. Hanover's 2-1 advantage would last less than three minutes. Against the run of play, Winnacunnet was gifted a corner kick and they punished the play, with James O'Hara ramming home a header a well-served ball. Hanover had the best bid to break the deadlock in the remaining eight minutes of the half when Adams sent Blake Palmer in alone, but Today was able to come off his line and smother the shot.
Hanover came back to the bench at the interval calm and confident. No speeches were needed, and the Marauders went right to work in the second half. Kyle Doucette had the best bid in the early going, volleying a driven near post corner right into the waiting arms of Todaro. Fourteen minutes into the half, Stack scored a statement goal, taking the ball deep on the left side and making a hard run to his right, looking for daylight. He created the space he needed to hit short shot inside the right post to retake the lead for Hanover. The Marauders went right after it, and a minute later Latham Allison redirected a short corner by Eric Ringer for a 4-2 advantage. It was Ringer's sixth assist on the season, second on the team. Before Winnacunnet could even blink, Hanover scored again as Adams and Stack slithered though their defense with a series of short passes, giving Charlie an opening on the left side that he buried far side netting for his sixteenth goal of the season. He is not scoring to break records, He is scoring to win soccer games.
A game which could have been been determined by weather, or officiating, or irritating play by opponents was instead seized and decided by the players with a moment of brilliance built atop a great stretch of possession built atop weeks of training by Coach Farnham. The Marauders imposed their will confidently, and stayed focused on the task at hand, seeing the match off with a number of excellent contributions. Blinkhorn, Osborn, and Brigham all played strongly, and Tucker Monson distinguished himself in his first Varsity start, going 80 minutes with high grades and two documented headers.
The Marauders will relish two days off, regroup on Monday with a team breakfast and training on the turf at 3:00, and then host Spaulding at 4:00 on Tuesday. It is going to be the first of two Senior Days. The Main Event will still be on Tue. Oct. 22, when the Marauders host Nashua North at 6:00. All 17 Varsity and Six JV2 Seniors will be honored. But this Tuesday, we will get ahead of the process of getting as many seniors onto the turf as possible, and starting as many as possible, and getting as many as possible into the scorebook. By contrast, Thursday at Pinkerton could very well be Youth Day. One day at a time for a Marauder team eager to extend the season as long as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment