HANOVER WINS CLASS I TITLE 3-2 WITH A GOLDEN GOAL
The Hanover High boys soccer team earned its fourth consecutive Class I title with a 3-2 victory in sudden death overtime against undefeated St. Thomas Aquinas High School. Yosef Osheyack’s spectacular goal with less than two minutes remaining before a looming shootout gave the Marauders the win in dramatic fashion, completing their second consecutive undefeated season with a record of 19-0-1. Hanover has now gone undefeated in 47 games.
Hanover led 1-0 at halftime on a goal by senior Kevin Dade and took a 2-1 lead on Dade’s second of the day and 12th of the year at the 50-minute mark after St. Thomas tied the match five minutes into the second half. The hard-working Saints drew level with 20 minutes remaining, and from that point the two sides battled back and forth in spectacular fashion through almost 60 minutes of pulsating soccer before Osheyack electrified the crowd at Stellos Stadium with a dazzling run through the St. Thomas defense that culminated in his point-blank golden goal.
The win puts this edition of the Marauders in rare company among the many storied teams in Hanover history. The Class I championship is the school’s 15th since 1968, adding to their lead (15-13 over Gilford) in total titles. This mark also ties the Maruaders with three other schools for fifth all-time in state titles nationally. It is the first time that any school in Class I or Class L has won four consecutive championships.
The Marauders also distinguished themselves as one of the best teams both offensively and defensively in Hanover history. They allowed only seven goals in 20 games, tying them for the fifth-fewest ever. Their total of 14 shutouts is the third best of all time. On the offensive end, their total of 65 goals ties them for eighth all time.
The championship match with St. Thomas promised to be something special, pitting two unbeaten teams with identical 18-0-1 records. It was understandable that the first few minutes would be tentative, but as the time elapsed approached ten and then fifteen minutes, the quality of soccer on both sides was dreadful. Neither team could connect on more than two passes, and the ball was in the air constantly. This was hardly a showcase for NH high school soccer at its best. It looked more like a rec league game, and it wouldn’t have been surprising for a soccer mom to come rushing out at halftime with a tray full of orange slices.
It wasn’t even until twenty minutes had elapsed before either team launched a shot towards the goal, but Hanover made the first move to establish some possession and then some coherence. Shortly after they had linked five or six passes and the smarter soccer fans in the stands stopped wincing, Kevin Dade struck with the speed and accuracy of a king cobra, receiving a ball at the top of the penalty box, spinning to his left and lashing a shot past sprawling St. Thomas goalie Ken Grade. The 1-0 lead gave the Marauders even more confidence, and they began to assert their customary control as the first half came to a close, although neither team had a serious scoring threat.
Any illusions that Hanover harbored about managing the match and winning by the customary score of 1-0 were rudely dismissed at the five minute mark of the second half when shifty Saint midfielder Doug Crow broke loose on the left and served a ball into the box that was headed home expertly by Taylor MacDonald to tie the match. If Hanover was momentarily shocked they were hardly undone, and having already committed to going after their second goal they now pressed forward with purpose. No more than five minutes had gone by before the Marauders re-took the lead when Lou Gemunden, playing the game of his life, served a long free kick into the box and Dade redirected it with his head into the corner of the net. The goal was Dade’s 12th of the season, giving him the team scoring title and culminating a truly remarkable career rise.
The Marauders didn’t relax at this point, but St. Thomas showed incredible heart, and refused to go away. Although they never managed to successfully penetrate the Hanover defense, they didn’t need to do so 10 minutes after Dade’s goal when a long free kick from the right side by Crow found ginger-headed stopper Zac Joostens free on the doorstep of Rhys Cyrus in the Hanover goal. In the ensuing scramble the ball found the back of the net, and the match was again a draw at 2-2.
St. Thomas had a right to be brimming with confidence, and Hanover had every reason to be back on their heels. Nevertheless, it was the Marauders who responded over the remaining ten minutes of regulation and throughout the two 20 minute golden goal overtimes. The pace of the game continued to accelerate, but despite the urgency, the rain, and the fatigue, both teams produced nothing less than great soccer. Gemunden had the best bid in regulation, hitting a free kick that was barely tipped over the bar by Grade.
The overtimes could not have been more exciting. Play surged back and forth, and produced a large number of agonizingly close chances. Hanover had two glittering chances in the first overtime, once when Ben Rimmer headed a Gemunden corner kick back across the face of the goal, and once when Dade raced underneath a sky-high shot by Osheyack and got there just after Grade handled the dive-bombing ball cleanly on his goal line. St. Thomas had only one real chance, but it should have ended the match. Byron Greenwood broke into the box on the end of some nice combination play and had only Cyrus to beat to win the match. Somehow, the agile Hanover keeper got a foot on Greenwood’s bid for glory, the Marauders dodged a bullet.
The second overtime produced more of the same frantic football. Cyrus made a great save when a long free kick by Crow threatened to tuck under the bar before he flicked it over the top, earning the Saints their only corner kick of the match, which was well-defended by the hard-working Dan Remillard and Mike Tecca. Hanover came excruciatingly close three times, including once when a long cross by Nate Hanna kept sailing and turned into a shot that clanged off the crossbar long after Grade had given up it. Dade just missed on a close-in shot, and Gemunden nearly won the match with a powerful run into the box and a hard shot that deflected off of a defender and out of bounds.
With the two-minute mark approaching, it seemed almost certain that the match would be decided by a shootout. While Hanover had every reason to be optimistic about this prospect, given their semifinal success, there is also no question that ending a championship match with any sort of tiebreaker is unappealing, and this would have been particularly true after such an epic battle. Many athletic teams have been known to watch the movie “300” to prepare for a hard-fought match. From now on, they should show the Hanover-St. Thomas game film. Into this cauldron of ultimate athletic pressure strode Yosef Osheyack, fresh off his game-winning shootout performance on Wednesday. Truth be told, the senior midfielder had played better games this year. Hampered by a bad bruise behind his knee, Yo-Yo had been out of sorts for much of the evening. Yet like he had done all season and all of his career, he kept plugging. Determined to make a difference, he took the ball on the left flank and cut inside first one and then a second flagging St. Thomas midfielder. He laid the ball to Dade, the day’s other scoring hero and raced ahead for a return pass from Dade that put him into the box at top speed. Osheyack needed to slow to dodge a final defender, but he kept him composure and calmly buried the ball to give Hanover a richly-deserved championship. Hanover’s bravest player was now the team’s hero for all time.
Further match analysis, perspective and kudos will need to wait. Hanover has had a great deal of hard work invested into this season by players, parents and coaches, and the list of credits is not only long but important to enumerate sometime soon. It’s hard to imagine a better championship scenario, given the earlier success of the Hanover girls’ team, the gallantry of the opposition, and the courage and composure shown by the Marauders. Thirteen wonderful seniors can clutch their championship medals and walk into the rainy night, knowing that they more than fulfilled their responsibility to lead this team on and off the field. Speculation about the future has no place here. This is and ought to be all about the here and now, and a team which embodied so much of what is good in high school sports. Their school and larger community will be proud of them as players, teammates and human beings. They have humbled the fortunate coaches who have done their best to shape them, and their investment of themselves gives them full ownership of their achievement.
Writeups in the Valley News here and the Manchester Union leader here.
