Freshmen Beat Manchester Central 10-2

The Hanover freshmen completed the Hanover soccer teams’ clean sweep of Manchester Central Saturday at Livingston Park in Manchester, making their emphatic mark with a lopsided 10 – 2 win.

The cloud cover kept the heat at bay, but the tremendous amount of Marauder effort made its own heat, as the boys blistered the goal with shot after shot after shot throughout the contest.

The scorers are almost too many to mention, but in summary Eli Stack flew down field for six early shots, converting on a long rebound of a Nolan Gantrish ringer off the far post to secure his brace after converting earlier on  upper shelf kick from a PK. Eli’s goals sandwiched around a Central own goal, and it was 3 – 0 within 15 minutes.

Gray Messersmith subbed in for Stack, and promptly picked up his own double, both on nice helpers from David Stoffel, one assist to a wide open Gray down the middle, and the second placed brilliantly to the screaming striker Gray through traffic.  5 – 0.  Manchester Central drilled one from outside the box that screamed past a outstetched Joey Perras to make it  5 – 1 as the half ended. Everyone was playing, dominating the time of possession and shots taken throughout the half and the entire match.

 In the second half, the smooth center midfield play of Latham Allison combined with rugged determination that took him through defenders for a nice goal, which was followed by Pat Osborn slicing through two defenders off the right wing to feed Anthony Maynes across the middle for  a no doubter.  A short time later, Anthony gathered up a ball bounding just off the goal to get the third brace for individual Hanover scorers. Carl Gemunden hit the tenth Hanover goal with a whistler from 18, and the Marauders were done.

It was a total team win, with all defenders playing with grit and intelligence, along with strong midfield play from Quincy McBride, Eli Bush, Will Blinkhorn, David Stoffel, Carter Auch, Nolan Gantrish, Ben Ives, and all of the marooned ones that pushed the offensive pace and defended well when needed. Speaking of defense, the back line was an umbrella that wouldn’t leak, with strong efforts from Ethan Ross, Nicholas Kim, Carl Gemunden, Tristan Meyer, Judd Alexander, Noah Pikielny, and the rest of the proud defensive crew.

The whole group played a solid if not spectacular game against an overmatched club, and good will from both squads ruled the morning.  Next up for the Marauders is a Thursday road trip to Bedford.