Varsity Beats Alvirne in Overtime 2-1 to Advance in D1 Tournament

 There will be many ways to characterize the 2021 Hanover season, but "boring" or "predictable" won't be among the adjectives employed.  Fifteen seconds away from the end of their season, Hanover got a clutch goal from Jack Gardner to escape into overtime against Alvirne, and the completed the comeback with a golden goal in the second overtime to beat the Broncos 2-1 and advance to the quarterfinals of the NHIAA Division One tournament.

Hanover played well for the entire match and dominated for long stretches, running up a 36-7 shot advantage and collecting 14 corner kicks, allowing only 1 to Alvirne.  However, with 10 minutes to play it took a missed penalty kick to keep Hanover alive, and when Alvirne scored on a counterattack with six minutes left in regulation, things looked bleak.  Hanover stayed composed when it would have been easy to panic or despair, and tied the match at the very end of regulation when Carter Guerin set up Jack Gardner for turnaround match, to earn the home side a reprieve.

Hanover dominated the overtime, and one minute into the second 10-minute period, Eric Ringer crossed the ball to Kubik-Pauw and the senior stalwart crushed a left-footed shot past heroic goalkeeper Mason Banks to earn the sudden victory.  Hanover will now host a quarterfinal match on Friday (game time TBA) against the winner of Wednesday's first round match between Londonderry and Pinkerton.

Hanover opened the match in a brick and businesslike manner, eschewing the occasional hiccups that have vexed then at times.  Eric Ringer his a bad angle ball across the face of the goal two minutes in, and that chance was shortly followed tree minutes later by a shot over the bar from Oscar Miller on a good cross from Kubik-Pauw-Pauw.  Hanover continued to roll up scoring opportunities and corner kicks as the half went on, limiting Alvirne to a few scattered routine long shots.  Seven minutes in, Murphy Hunt hit a shot past the right post, and a minute later Bronco goalie Mason Brooks came off his line to pull the ball off of Miller's foot.   Hunt and Becket McCurdy would both author good shots on goal that required saves by Brooks.

Hanover's best chance in the first half came off the foot of Carter Guerin, who broke into the box on the right side, but his shot was save by Brooks.  A minute later, Hunt was just wide again on his fourth shot of the half.  

Although they had played well in the first half, most of Hanover's shots were not challenging.  That changed in the second half, as the frequency and quality of the shots increased.  Kubik-Pauw hit a shot from the right side of the penalty area that seemed destined to curl into the upper left corner, only to be denied by a brave leap from Brooks.  The ensuing corner produced a scramble to resulted in two shots. Three minutes later, a wild scramble in front of the Alvirne goal produced three shots, including one from Hunt that his the upright.  

The rainfall that had begun at the start of the second half didn't deter Hanover,  and the barrage continued. Hunt hit a shot past the post in the 14th minute following another corner, and in the 23rd minute both Carter Guerin and Jack Gardner hit shots in rapid succession that required saves from Brooks.  Hanover was spending long stretches of time in the Alvirne end, and this made them vulnerable to counters from the Broncos.  With 10 minutes left to play,  Jack Ashworth broke into the box and was hauled down, and a penalty kick was correctly awarded.  Fortunately for Hanover, Kaven Fitch missed the spot kick badly, denting it well over the bar.  

Given new life, Hanover resumed their attacks.  Twice Jack Gardner chased down 50-50 balls with Brooks.  On the first one, the collision actually produced a shot that didn't miss the open goal by much.  The second, on the other side of the box, was nearly as close.  But then, another counterattack by Alvirne struck paydirt.  Ashworth, fast and deceptive, beat two defenders in succession on the right side of the box and hit a hard shot past Ty Nolon to give Alvirne a 1-0 lead. Only six minutes remained.

Hanover set up shot in the Alvirne end, and had to composure to work the ball carefully, not sending panic-stricken shots toward goal.  But time was leaking away fast, fortunately extended by the substitutions made any the Alvirne bench.  This used to be a time-wasting technique, but a recent rule change stopped the clock with 5:00 remaining and gave referees the instruction to stop the clock on their wrist during every substitution.  This proved fatal for Alvirne.  With the final fifteen seconds ticking away, Guerin found Gardner for the miracle goal, and Hanover had new life.

The overtime was almost anticlimactic.  After a brief Alvirne spurt in the opening 10-minute period, Hanover took first control and created three good chances, the best of which was a shot blazed over the top by Murphy Hunt.  As the second overtime started, Hanover's wonderful, loyal fans trekked away form their spot behind the hillside goal, and arrived at the vantage point in the other end (welcomed by signs saying "Lebanon Student Section) just in time to watch collect his team-leading 8th assist, feeding Kubik-Pauw for the game winner.  This is the second year in a row that Jacob has had a big goal in the playoffs.  Good trend.

One of the best byproducts of Hanover's win was earning three more days to be together as a team for three more days.  They will train at 3:00 on Wednesday and 3:30 on Thursday, and then buckle down for a quarterfinal that will give them a chance to once again write their own unique history.