Freshmen Fall to Londonderry 3-1 For Their First Loss

 Coming into Wednesday's game, the Freshmen know we'd be tested like never before. We'd be playing another undefeated program: the Londonderry Lancers, who sat at 6-0 and had outscored their opponents 42-5. But Hanover was ready to be tested.

Right out of the gate, it was clear that the Lancers had half-a-dozen individuals with superb skills on the ball. Therefore, not only would Hanover have to minimize these threats, but we would also have to mount an attack of our own. 15 minutes in, the Lancers hit us hard on a counter-attack: one-v-one against Henry Cotter, who tried his best to get a glove on it. Though this was the only goal of the half, it wasn't for a lack of trying on either end. Indeed, midway through the first half, Hanover switched up the rotation and started playing in a 4-4-2 formation in an effort to capitalize on through balls and counter-attacks of our own. Admittedly, it wasn't the prettiest way to play, but we felt it would be effective at giving us good looks against the play of this particular team.

The rest of the half was a slugfest, and a particularly low moment was 33 minutes in when keeper Henry Cotter went down with what appeared to be a hamstring strain. Henry Steffen, slated to start the second half in goal and just beginning to get his warm-up in, rushed onto the field.

At halftime, we reviewed our new game plan and were eager to strike back with a goal of our own. Unfortunately, Londonderry's #7 was just too dangerous, and in the 51st minute, he snaked his way between two of Hanover’s usually rock-solid defenseman to get a clean one-v-one look against Henry Steffen that slid into the back of the net. At this point, we assigned Ben Thaler Wellborn to track #7 around the field. Thanks to Ben’s speed, strength, and sense of the game, this particular player didn't threaten us for the remainder of the match.

66 minutes in, down 2-0, and constantly battling for the ball, Hanover, to their credit, was determined to play even harder. Sam Ames, working his way up from center back, slung a shot past the keeper only to see it bounce out of bounds off the near post. To aid in the attack, Sam Ames was switched to striker and paired with Schuyler Clapp, who came into the game two minutes later. For the final 12 minutes, they were relentless up-front. The defense was entrusted to Lionel Ndong, Ben, John Scherer, and Sebastian Bujarski, who helped keep the ball in our attacking half. Finally, Hanover's patience and persistence paid off when Sam McDonnell sent a brilliant ball into the box from the right corner, Gavin Munson took a crack at it, Londonderry's goalie batted it back out, and Sam Ames put away the rebound to make it 2-1 Lancers. Alas, in the 81st minute (not sure how we made it that far!), Londonderry found a crack in our defense and took advantage of a counter-attack to score another one-v-one before the final whistle blew.

It was a tough loss to swallow. The final score of 1-3 didn't necessarily reflect the constantly contested nature of the game, where no team ever had a clear advantage. Thankfully, we get the chance to play this team one more time in the end-of-season tournament at Concord. Thankfully, Hanover showed serious mettle in adjusting our strategy mid-match and never missing a beat. Thankfully, we have a practice tomorrow where we can process this game as a collective unit and work towards a different result the next time around.

Finally, we want to highlight some of the incredible work by the team that wasn't mentioned in the prior paragraphs:

* Sidelined for over half of the game, Henry Cotter resolved to stay engaged as only he can: shouting directions and support towards his teammates

* In goal for most of the match, Henry Steffen was simply superb. He made save after save, his clearances, passes, and punts were on point, and he ensured that we always had a chance to tie the match. Bravo!

* On the left side, Gavin Munson was a workhorse. Whenever a ball was sent his way—it didn't matter if the defender was five or ten feet closer to it—you knew Gavin would get their first and make a play to further our attack.

* On the opposite side of the field, Andrew Rudd took down defender after defender (cleanly!) and created some serious chances...including a ball past their center back and only a few too many feet in front of an onrushing, err, Dan Rush (who himself never stopped sprinting at striker!).

* All of our strikers (and we had more than usual in this new formation) did a terrific job of adapting and keeping pressure on the Lancer center backs: kudos to Schuyler, Dan, Ezra McGinley-Smith, Noi Larusson, and Alex Orsino (who will, after the season, be starring in the Winter play, no doubt! :)

* Winning possession in the center of the field—and contending with the skilled Londonderry ballhandlers—was never easy, but Joseph Glass, Gus Thompson, Diego Lee, and Isaac Novosad kept applying constant pressure, hustling back to support our defense, and sending the ball downfield to our attackers.

* We always count on our wing defenders to slow down whatever's threat is speeding their way, and Jai Gregory, Sebastian, Lionel, and Ben played admirably against the most talented attacking team we've seen so far.

* The Two Sams didn't rest a minute and played up, back, and all around. Clearly, we can keep up the large amount of fitness work we've been doing at practice!