Bedford Hands Bears a 4-1 Defeat

 Things looked bright for Hanover in their Friday evening clash with Bedford.  The Bears has rolled to easy victories in their first two games, and confidently anticipated another good result against the Bulldogs, who has lost their opening game to Manchester Memorial.  Less than seven minutes into the game, a dazzling sequence of precise passes got the ball to Sean Smith on the right wing, and Smith's precision pass across the face of the goal gave Carter Guerin a tap-in for a 1-0 lead.

It soon became clear, however, that the skilled Bedford team had come to play.  The Bulldogs had a distinct edge in play.  They did a good job bottling up Hanover's dangerous offense, and found plenty of weak spots in the Bear back line.  Hanover got several "let-offs" that kept them in the lead, including clear found not called (this stuff cuts both ways more that selective recollection allows), balls off the bar, and several excellent saves by goalkeeper Wyatt Seelig, whose strong 10-save performance was a bright spot.

Finally, with five minutes left to play in the first half, Bedford's persistence resulted in the tying goal. Two penetrating passes gave the Bulldogs a great spring bod that was blocked, but the clearing attempt went straight to the foot of talented Elliot Texeira, and his short range shot tied the score.  Credit to Zach Tracy, whose great individual run into the box gave Hanover a brilliant scoring chance, but the shot resulting from his penetrating run was saved by Bulldog keeper Derek Wilensky.

Hanover started the second half well, and striker Andrew McGuire forced an excellent save by Wilensky eight minutes onto the half.  On Bedford's  subsequent counterattack, a curving clear that certainly seemed out of bounds was not whistled out, and after play continued a call from a long, long way behind the play resulted in a penalty kick by Gavin Diaz and a 2-1 Bedford lead. Posted not just by this largesse but also by their strong play, Bedford took a 3-1 lead on a brilliant individual effort by Texiera with 15 minutes to play.

To Hanover's credit, the continued to battle, but Bedford smelled blood, and exposed the Bears' back line with another counterattacking goal to make the score 4-1 with five minutes to play.  Still Hanover played hard, and created some of their best offense in the game.  In the very late going, even the consolation of a well-earned penalty was denied by the cowardly "spot the obvious penalty outside the box" move, the regular refuge of an overmatched aribiter.  Hanover showed composure in the face of a series of frustrations as the match wound down.

These two excellent teams may see each other again, but clearly the Bears have some work to do between now and then.  Their excellent play has not been an illusion.  They are a talented team with a lot of potential.  But they also showed where they need to do a lot of learning, and are fortunate to have a number of weeks in which to improve.  Hanover was exposed, but they also hung together, and did noting to embarrass themselves or their followers.  After two well-deserved days off, they'll get back to work at Dresden on Labor Day, and prepare for road trip to Keene to begin the process of building back.