Hanover's regular season ended on a down note Friday as the Marauders lost a tight 1-0 decision to Lebanon on the road. It was the second year in a row that the Raiders have ended a long winning Hanover win streak on their home pitch. Hanover outshot their hosts by a 2-1 margin, but were denied by a strong Lebanon team defense and outstanding goalkeeping by Raider netminder Austin Mansell. Hanover ends the season with a 13-1 record, and will open NHIAA Division II Tournament play next Wednesday with a 3:00 p.m. match against Trinity High School.
The Marauders got off to a bright start in the first half, and would eventually outshoot Lebanon by a 13-4 margin. The Raiders had some dangerous moments early, especially when Avery Hymel whistled a shot wide of the right post from a sharp angle 15 minutes into the match. Hanover had some good moments as the half progressed, particularly from Forrest Pratt, who had one of his best games of the season. Daniel had a good look on a turnaround in the box, but didn't get all of it. Eric Jayne had two bids miss the target, and Joe Carey (name spelled correctly herein) got good wood on a crack from outside the 18.
Raider keeper Mansell was strong in the air, and handled a long bid from Hayden Pressey-Murray professionally. His best save came on a rapid fire sequence from close in with a big-time denial of a hard shot by Evan Greenwald.
After penning the raiders in for a long stretch, Lebanon broke back into the Hanover end, and as Coach Grabill was explaining to Valley news Reported Jared Pendak the concept of "against the run of play", Lebanon struck for the only goal that they would need to end Hanover's long win streak. Striker Dylan Staplefield cranked a long throw-in into the box, and Avery Hymel flicked a header on to Cooper Hardy. The Lebanon Captain controlled the ball and was uncontested enough to ram a short shot past Stefan Dyroff for a 1-0 lead. It was an uncharacteristic bit of bad defending by the Marauders, who knew what was coming, and watched it happen.
Facing their first deficit of the season, the Marauders rallied after halftime, and continued to hold an edge in play. This time, however, Lebanon was content to sit back and defend, and counter with long balls out of the back. To their credit, the Marauders generated some excellent scoring chances. Forrest Pratt had another great bid from the right side, and Matt Barth nearly flicked home a header on a free kick. Ben Harris made a nice move to beat a defender on the baseline, but then held the ball too long and was dispossessed by a swarm of Raider defenders.
As the clock ran down, Hanover was able to make their two best bids. Mansell made a spectacular diving save on a short shot by Eric Jayne from eight years, and then flew to his right to knock away a shot by Greenwald from the right side that was labelled for the upper left corner. The Marauders earned a corner from this, but failed to be dangerous both in this instance and in several others. "Corners were not our strong suit today," commented Coach Grabill. We'll be working on this.
The clock wound down with no magic finish in store for the Marauders, who watched the joyous Lebanon pigpile and took their medicine with good grace and characteristic sportsmanship. "The loss ended our winning streak but it didn't end our season," commented Grabill. "If history is any indication, we'll learn from this and and be a very dangerous team in the playoffs. It will be a long wait until Wednesday, though."
Trinity is a new face in Division II, having dropped down from from Class L just this year. The Pioneers finished the regular season with a record of 6-9-1, and won three of their last five games. "We're glad that our success this season has earned us a home game in the first round and the possibility of one in the quarterfinals," concluded Grabill. "We will take these one at a time and try to be as focused as we can."
No comments:
Post a Comment