JV2 Draws 0-0 Against Fall Mountain at Home

 Fourteen fresh-off-the-weekend players lined up for Hanover Junior Varsity 2's match against Fall Mountain Monday and fourteen left everything they had on the field. As individuals, and especially as a collective, this group has shown so much growth in our young season. Coming off an excellent 3-0 win over Hartford in the match before, the JV2's were faced with a much different challenge tonight, a strong Fall Mountain side that would refuse to allow an inch of space in their defensive half.

Much like in the previous game, Hanover started the night on the front foot, but this time couldn't manage to penetrate Fall Mountain's back line until the 10th minute, Simon Taenzer found an inch of space on top of the fall mountain box but saw his effort smothered by two on-rushing defenders. Though a majority of the play came through the middle of the field, thanks to impressive work from Berkeley Chamberlain and Aaron Nyhan all night long, Hanover's best chances came from the fleet-footed play of Will Taylor, Blake Bouchard, and Patrick Donegan out on the flanks. The next chance came after Chamberlain dribbled his way through three of the fall mountain defenders before finding Simon Taenzer on top of the box, Taenzer unselfishly slid the ball through to an on-rushing Will Taylor, whose defender just managed to close him down before he could get a shot off.

Neither side had too many chances in the first half, thanks to some tidy and efficient defending from each side. Blake Bouchard stepped-up tonight as well, putting in his best individual performance in a Hanover shirt. Bouchard faced a majority of Fall Mountain's attacks down the left-flank, but the sophomore Right-Back gave his opponents not a sniff. Each attack forming down Blake's side was cut-out before it could develop and resulted in either an expertly-played ball down the wings from Bouchard, or a driving-run with the ball glued to his feet. Overall, a performance so good for the team it could not be ignored (even in a cleverly written blog post!).

As the second half continued, Hanover again found themselves with a majority of the chances, though not many. Alex Brackett came close to a third goal in two matches with a chipped effort that was heading for the left corner before Fall Mountain's keeper managed to get a glove on it. Will Taylor tested the keeper again with three efforts from range, and Berkeley Chamberlain almost found the back of the net with a quickly-taken free-kick from 25 yards out, but the keeper just managed to keep the ball from crossing the goal-line. 

As for the match's action, that was about it. I must note, however, how proud I am of the JV2 boys for keeping their composure in a match that threw everything at them. Hard tackles, chirping, and other distractions weren't enough to draw a single Hanover player's attention from the match, and what resulted was one of the most impressive team-performances I've had the pleasure of watching. A thank you to all the players, get some rest heading into another tough week! We look forward to the challenge.

- Coach Bucket

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

JV1 Rallies Twice to Open The Season; Beats Concord 3-2

It took the JV1 a half to settle down and take care of business, but Hanover was resilient in rallying twice and scoring the only goal of the second half to defeat Concord in their season opener. The host Crimson Tide jumped out to a 1-0 lead when a careless back pass created an opening for a bad angle shot by Concord's talented and flamboyant striker. Ten minutes later, Ian Press and Sam Calderwood combined to create a game-tying goal. Calderwood played Press into space, and Ian returned the favor as the speedy Calderwood sped for his return pass, hitting a hard shot and then finishing the rebound from the Tide keeper's save. After Hanover keeper Christian Blix kept things tied with a good save, Concord went ahead when Hanover once again failed to protect the ball in the back. A square pass was picked off by the Tide's sole scoring threat, who put his team in front 2-1 and then let the world know that he was the man. Careful, Flamboyant Concord Striker - Karma's a ...
Read more

We're Back in the DR! The 2022 Trip Diary Begins

 Dear Friends and Supporters of DR Projects - This is the first in a series of Blog Posts for the DR Projects trip in April, 2022.  I'm hiding out as part of the 2019 trip blog because I am not getting along with Blogspot with regard to starting a brand new blog.  We'll make sure that everyone finds their way to this one!  After two successful trips in 2019 (the one chronicled here below and the one led later in the year by Frank Perotti), we had big plans for our next trip in 2020, with the particular goal, of continuing the reading program at the Altagracia elementary school in Cotui.  Everything was in place:  we had seen the curriculum in action, we had two dedicated teachers, and we had a cadre of volunteers ready to take things to the next level.  On a larger scale in the DR, our ally and inspiring role model Juan Valdez, was making significant progress in his visionary goal of helping every underserved child in his country to learn English. It's...
Read more

Varsity Rallies From Three Down to Beat BG 8-3

 In one of the more astonishing games in Hanover's long history, the Varsity trailed Bishop Guertin by three goals with 27 minutes to play, and scored eight goals, including five in a five-minute span, to beat the Cardinals 8-3.  The win gives Hanover am 11-3-1 record and all but locks them into a top four spot in the Division One standings, providing they can get a result in Thursday's Senior Day clash with Winnacunnet. Going into the match with Bishop Guertin, a team likely to finish out of the playoffs, Hanover expected to score a lot of goals and play everyone on the team.  That all happened, but hardly to way the anyone might have anticipated.  Hanover started the game flat, trailed after eight minutes, conceded another shaky goal on the 23rd minute, and then after Eric Ringer missed a penalty kick the would have cut the deficit in half, conceded a shocking third goal with five minutes to play, the second by the speedy Rayaan Hameed. Trailing by three at halftim...
Read more