JV1 Loses on the Road to a Tough Windham Team, 2-0

 Hanover JV1 would face off with one its most premier opponents to date with its trip to Windham on Thursday 9/30. The JV would be dropped off first at Griffin park where they would find their opponents in wait. After a hard-fought contest, Windham would come out on top by a 2-0 score.

Hanover would play some its best soccer to start the game and created some early scoring chances. In the 3rd minute, Sam Calderwood did well to chase down a deflected Ian Press shot that was held up from going off the end touchline by the long grass. Calderwood would collect and put it back across the goal mouth but had it run off the end before making its way to Veer Patel. Another quality chance would come in the 9th minute from an Augie Krawitt corner that was settled by Ian Press and struck just wide. Not much more than a minute later in the 11th, Calderwood recognized the swarm around him at the top of the 18 and a slid the ball through to Ian Smith running on who drilled a shot that was saved by the fully sprawled Windham keeper. In the 16th, Patel would play an early well-struck ground cross that Aidan Bradley deftly played first time with his left that appeared bound for the twine, but Windham keeper was equal to the task yet again, by punching it over the bar. Windham resorted to playing desperate through balls out of the middle third. Wyatt Seelig successfully cleared the first four of these attempts to break into Hanover’s defensive third, however with a choppy field conditions the fifth one took a bad bounce and made for an easy for a Windham striker to tackle, collect the ball, and hit a long shot that just barely made it over Wyatt as he sprinted back to recover. Sensing their advantage, Windham seemingly took their game up a level. After a Windham corner they were awarded a second straight corner that even their own players were walking away from in anticipation of a goal kick. This second corner was well struck at the back post where Smith made an attempt to clear with a volley only to have it errantly go sideways into the back of the net. Hanover would find itself with a 0-2 deficit going into the second half.

Hanover would continue to play with grit and determination as the second half rolled and the physicality level picked up. Patel would have one of the best chances of the half in the 45th, striking a ball first time just over. Then in the 52nd Krawitt would have an attempted volley from the 18 from a bouncing ball on a corner that was just a yard over the back corner of the frame. The two teams started to really start slowing one another down with a lot of the remainder of the game being played between the 18s. Players started going in hard shoulder to shoulder and there were several no calls that left coach Willie unsure of the interpretations by the officials. Christian Blix would keep a clean sheet with the assistance of Ethan Munson and Davey Tolliday playing most of the half. Blix had an excellent grab on a late Windham corner before it could land or find a head. Hanover’s line breaking passes just never found connected as they had in the first half and couldn’t mount a consistent build up into the attacking third. The second half would see its resolve without a goal and finishing with a 0-2 final score.

All in all, the two teams seemed equals and Hanover JV1 desperately hopes they get a chance at redemption vs Windham in the season-ending Nashua JV tournament.