Reserves Dazzle in 2-0 Loss to Stevens

The Hanover reserves overcame a slow start Saturday to turn in an exciting second half of soccer on a 2-0 loss to the Stevens Junior Varsity on the HHS grass pitch. After conceding two goals in the first nine minutes to the speedy Cardinals, Hanover made the necessary defensive adjustment and slowly build momentum, playing evenly throughout the rest of the first half and completely dominating the second. They created 16 second half shots and were unlucky not to score.

After his defenders had allowed two breakaways to Stevens, Marauder goalkeeper Ryan O'Rourke was outstanding in goal, making a number of crucial saves and showing excellent judgment off his line on a number of occasional. His distribution was strong, and his composure was one of the blocks upon which the Hanover comeback was built.

Stevens' size and athleticism were a challenge for the Marauders, but they slowly gained composure in the first half, and opened up the game with good passing. Mitch Curry was an offensive force as the half wound down, launching three good shots on goal from the left flank.

Matt Couture, Zach Estes, Oren Wilcox and Daniel Wilson were standouts on defense for Hanover, which was getting solid midfield play from Nick D'Orsi, Daniel Slayton, and the hard-working duo of Eben Holbrook and Sawyer Brooks.

Robert Wild and Alex Brown duplicated Curry's strong play on the flanks, opening the game up with good positioning and intelligent ball handling.

The Hanover offense played well the entire second half, and had a number of shots just miss their target. Among these were a long range blast by Ethan Wilcox that actually, specifically drew rain before descending from its perfectly-described parabolic path and riffling the net on the far side of the crossbar, momentarily electrifying the crowd.

Daniel Slayton came close on several occasions, modifying his bull-in-a-china-shop approach just enough to find a balance between aggressiveness and finesse. Some of his best moments were well-made passes to his teammates. Neil Kuehlert and David White came withing inches of scoring midway through the half, and keeper/cheerleader turned attacking midfielder Duncan Piper just cleared the crossbar with a shot from outside the 18. Mike Yukica worked free for a shot from the right side of the box that just faded past the far post, and Alex Brown launched a similarly-impressive blast from the left side as the half wore down. Hanover's final shot was perhaps its best. Piper was tripped just outside the penalty area, and Coach Jason Landers wisely ignored his supplications to take the resulting free kick, instead designating Robert Wild for the task. Wild made him look prescient, whistling a laser just past the far corner, a drive that looked as good as any one might expect from Christian Ronaldo or Stephen Gerrard.

Time finally ran out on the Marauders, who nevertheless will have a lot to build on when they take on Bedford this Monday in a 4:30 match at the Dresden complex on Rt. 5 in Norwich.