Hanover Goes For The Gold Friday in NHIAA D1 Finals

 Hanover's dream season will come to an end, one way or another, on a frosty Friday night at Stellos Stadium. They play undefeated, nationally-ranked, top-seeded Nashua South in the NHIAA Division One Finals at 7:30.  The opportunity is everything they could have hoped for.  Hanover lost to South 1-0 way back in September, and they are eager to demonstrated that they have improved a bit since that drab Monday afternoon when the road-weary team, playing their fourth game in seven days, made an early mistake and never recovered.  They have been to Stellos, their home away from home, twice since then, and none of those game have been boring.  Last time out, they beat a super-talented, heartsick Central team, advancing on a 5-4 penalty kick shootout.  Now then have the chance to avenge their only other NH regular season loss.  It's been such a long haul since the dog days of August, and the journey of growth and maturation has been full of delightful twists.  This is not a perfect team.  They have been shut out four times, and three times they have fallen behind by at least two goals at halftime. Yet they never lost one of those three games.  They know how to rally and fight to the end, and they have the humility and resilience of a team that's seen everything and fears nothing.  Led by 11 wonderful seniors, more than a few hobbled by nagging injuries (we're not giving out any details, in case South reads this blog), but determined to leave nothing on the field.  Those old dogs are backed by an amazing crew of underclassmen from all three underclasses, every one of them a full participant in the teams's success, all eager to pitch in and more than a few of them indispensable.

Hanover's been here before.  There is little that Hanover teams haven't accomplished in sixty-plus years of doing this stuff.  They are capping an amazing decade in Division One, and win or lose they actually can be labeled as the Team of The Decade.  They made an audacious jump to D1 10 years ago, and despite the fact that they are the smallest team by far in the division, they have had remarkable success.  In ten years, they have advanced to the semifinals eight times, and the finals four times.  They have won twice, in 2013 and 2019.  Only one other team in the division, Concord, has won twice.  And despite the fact that they have accumulated a mind-blowing six yellow cards (that's six years' worth, folks) they have nevertheless once again established a clear record of good sportsmanship.  They have won the D1 Sportsmanship Award EIGHT times.  They have this year alone raised more than $5,000 for charities including LISTEN, The Haven,  The CROP Hunger Walk, and Grassroots Soccer.  They have amazing fans, so clever and vocal at home that they forced the facilities department to try to all them off with crime scene tape.  They will travel south in droves on Friday, and join forces with a motley crew of Coach Grabill's former players (do the math) to more than counteract Nashua South's presumed home team advantage. Nice job with the neutral site, NHIAA. But problem solved.;

The script for the game has been written, but the drama is only about to begin.  This is absolutely as good as it gets in NH high school sports. Thanks to Hanover Soccer nation for helping these brave boys get the opportunity to live out their dreams.  Buckle up.

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