Freshmen and Reserves Lose at Exeter

The  Marauder Freshmen played at Exeter Saturday on  yet another turf field, and came up on the short end of a 4-1 decision to a strong, athletic Blue Hawk team. Exeter opened the game strong scoring in the 6th minute. Their player was able to receive and carry the ball trough the center, beating two defenders and finishing near post under the keepeer. However, Hanover would answer quickly with a goal of their own. After playing the ball wide to the left, Liam Collins played a great hard cross on the ground that went toward the back post to find Nico Mayo-Pushee for a tap in. However, the game would not stay locked long as the Blue Hawks continued their pressure up on the Marauder back four. Exeter continued to play a boot ball strategy, finding a stretching forward up against lone backs. Exeter's number 24, a man child who was no shorter than 6'2", was able to win the ball and chip it over for a score. Hanover continued to play a strong possession game through the end of the half, but could not convert on another score before the half to negate the margin.

The Blue Hawks  would continue to pressure our defense with their deep driven balls to their stretching forward, number 24. He proved to be a real thorn in our side and scored yet again at the start of the second half to push the lead to two goals. Hanover was not without its chances, though. Christo Dragnev played a great ball to the far post that Mark Ralston-Daniel was just late on. Another chance would come later when Elias Zinman put a ball hard to the left post where Brian Turkington had his first touch bounce high off his foot instead of finding the twine. In addition Hanover would be denied on two advantage plays in the second half. The first was from Bauti Gallino,who was clipped by an on rushing goal keeper, but was denied the chance to run on to the ball while the keep was still on the ground by the 18. The second would be from Nico, who made a great hard challenge splitting two defenders and had a bounding ball between him and the keeper. The Blue Hawks big man would net one last goal in the 65th minute, flicking the ball in a similar fashion to his 2nd goal.

Exeter's size and athleticism would prove too much for the the Marauders possession passing form. The Blue Hawks implementation of a sweeper back also proved difficult for Hanover, who wanted to work the ball through the middle in the attacking third. The Freshman Marauders will continue this tough initial road chunk with two games this week with Concord Thursday and Manchester Memorial on Friday.

The Reserves were missing a number of players, but the warriors who remained played tremendous defense in a 5-1 loss to a strong Exeter JV 2 team.  Avery Wallis  really kept the back together, and played almost sweeper role of catching anything that went through.  Also Wilson Rimberg, despite a bump from the previous game, really stepped in the middle as a holding midfielder.  Even though the ball was in Hanover's half a lot, the shots on goal were often forced or from bad angles. Alex Benton was also very solid in the middle.  The front duo of Joe Zhang  and Arturo Johnson did create headaches for the backline as well.

  Hanover scored when the entire team was up and the ball had been crossed in the middle and and neither the goalie or defense was properly clearing and the defense and halfbacks were so preoccupied with them it allowed defender Kezar  Berger to drift in to just outside the box.  His shot was great.   He didn't blast it.  He simply placed a low clean shot between a couple defenders and completely away from the goalie.  It was Kezar's first career goal.  Kudos also to Jasper Zeng, who went the distance in goal and continues to improve in every aspect of his game. The Reserves return to the road on Tuesday, traveling to Pembroke.