Reserves On A Roll; Beat Cardigan Mountain 4-3

The Hanover Reserve team continued its run of exciting, close matches on Monday, outlasting Cardigan Mountain School 4-3.   The visiting Cougars got on the board first when a centering pass deflected off of a defender and into the next, but the undaunted Marauders tied the match at the 16 minute mark when Benny Gantrish fed his fellow Captain Jonathan Klotz for an epic volley to tie the score. Cardigan got the next goal to take a 2-1 lead, but once again the Klotz-Gantrish connection tied the match on a restart at the 27-minute mark.  Klotz centered the ball to Gantrish, who made no mistake, and the game was tied once again.  The Marauders took their first lead of the match five minutes before the end of the first half as Gabe Loud, a mainstay on defense all afternoon, pounced on a rebound after an indirect kick and gave his team a 3-2 halftime lead.

The two teams battled back and fourth for the first 30 minutes of the second half with plenty of close calls but no change in the scoreline until Sam Waite slotted a perfect lead pass on a free kick to speedy Kaz Matsuoka, who broke in alone on the Cardigan net and game Hanover a seemingly safe 4-2 lead.  The Cougars battled right back, and stormed the Marauder goal.  Keeper Arturo Johnson, whose active presence in the box was a highlight for Hanover all afternoon, made a number of saves to keep Cardigan off the board, including one with his face, deflecting the ball off the bar and out for a corner.  The relentless pressure finally yielded a goal with four minutes to play, but Hanover parked the bus in front of the goal at that point, and the clock expired to give the Marauders a satisfying 4-3 win.

Coach Willie Johnston cited all three of his Captains:  Klotz, Gantrish and Johnson, for their standout efforts, and also lauded Gabe Loud for his work defending Cardigan's talented striker, and Aidan Connolly, who was a valuable two-way presence.

The Reserves will look to keep the ball rolling next week with a pair of games, traveling to Kimball Union Academy a week from Wednesday, and then hosting Mount Royal Academy  two days later on October 10th.  Both games will be rematches of one-goal games, so it looks like the thrills will keep coming for the Marauders when the calendar turns to October.