Exeter, n.h.
Hanover and the Sabers rarely meet in the regular season and didn’t this fall. Hanover visited Souhegan’s preseason jamboree in August, but never played the hosts. Add the Marauders’ own unaccustomed status as field hockey semifinalists, and it all left Essex with a simple game plan.
“Just watch them make magic,” Essex said with a pregame shrug of the shoulders.
When it mattered, Hanover made the Sabers disappear.
Riding two quick-strike, first-half goals from Diana Schwarz, nine saves from goaltender Ella Edmunds and a host of contributions from all over the field, fourth-ranked Hanover ousted top-seeded Souhegan, 2-0 at Exeter High’s Bill Ball Stadium.
For their next trick, the Marauders (12-2-2) will try to pull a championship out of their hats on Sunday at Bedford High School when they play No. 2 Windham for the D-II crown.
“We thought it would happen last year,” Essex said. “We had the injuries; it didn’t happen last year, so I knew the girls were hungrier, because they were all back and it was their last chance.”
Hanover had to swim against the tide for much of the night. Although possession time came out relatively equal, the Sabers (14-2-0) owned a 12-8 advantage in shots and a 12-4 cushion on penalty corners. Souhegan made little of either edge because, as Schwarz put it, Hanover played Hanover field hockey.
“We don’t prepare that much for individual teams; we’re just so good at playing our own game,” said Schwarz, owner of an Upper Valley-best 18 goals this season. “We don’t individualize. We don’t get like, ‘Let’s guard this player especially.’ We just play our game, play the way we know how to do it and how we have all season.
“We’ve got really fast forwards. It’s give-and-go all the way up the field. We don’t have one person carrying it down, and if we do, they’re sending it to the other side. It’s not like it’s a one-person forward game. It’s middle-to-side-to-side-to-middle-to-middle, that kind of thing, all the way up the field.”
Hanover’s offense sometimes works best when Schwarz gets the ball in the scoring circle, only to drop it back to someone else. On Tuesday, the junior let her goal radar take control, scoring on the Marauders’ first two forays into the Souhegan area in a first half bereft of Hanover scoring chances.
The Marauders withstood a pair of early Souhegan corners before Schwarz stuck the first dagger at 6:06. Natalie Smith played a pass forward to Schwarz on the left side of the circle, and Schwarz quickly turned to whip an 8-yard shot that caught a piece of Souhegan goalkeeper Izzy Anton’s stick before settling into the left corner of the net.
Edmunds began warming to her task shortly thereafter. The sophomore faced down a half-dozen Souhegan corners in the first half, blocking the Sabers’ Erin McCool in the 13th minute and Brigid Casey in the 21st and watching a right-wing chance for Souhegan’s Avery Karavas miss the near post in the 23rd.
No slight-of-hand was involved when Schwarz doubled Hanover’s lead at 27:49. In fact, the attacker’s second goal resembled the first, this time with co-captain Hannah Curtis delivering a pass on the right flank that Schwarz turned past Anton (three saves) and inside the left post.
Schwarz nearly had her hat trick six minutes after halftime with a deflection of a Curtis drive that Anton deftly batted down with her left hand.
As the second half progressed and Souhegan’s desperation increased, Essex warned from the bench and in timeouts for the Marauders to maintain their poise. Edmunds held her best with five second-half stops, including back-to-back denials of McCool and Karavas on a 44th-minute corner. Her best stop didn’t count: Edmunds went low to knock down a 51st-minute McCool blast that was whistled down for a dangerous play.
“Our defense is phenomenal; our goalie is one of the most agile goalies in the state, in my opinion,” Schwarz said. “Our defense goes to every ball and stops every ball.”
Hanover’s Lois Schwarz and Madeline Wallace both had superb games in central defense to make their goalie’s life easier. Edmunds also credited some of her success to a potentially magical change of gear.
“I have my shutout chinstrap; I’ve only worn it in the playoffs,” she said. “It’s to protect my neck. I didn’t wear it any of regular season, so I was never scored on with it. And in the playoffs, I started wearing it, and I’ve never been scored on wearing it. I really don’t like playing with it, but if the ref catches me, then it’s a card.”
Otherworldly equipment? Blink-and-you-miss-it offense? Whatever Hanover’s recipe, it’s working.
The Marauders didn’t see Kingswood in the regular season and handled the Knights, 3-0, in last week’s quarterfinals. Hanover didn’t know Souhegan from a sandwich and blanked them, too. Care to guess what Essex has seen of Windham this year?
“Now we get to say we’ve played everyone in the top eight, except one,” Essex said. “We just have to beat the last one.”
Stick Checks: Hanover will be making its first title-game appearance since winning the Class I championship in 2009. … Former Mascoma High field hockey standout Kati Lary Jopek was one of the two on-field referees. Lary Jopek is the director of the Mascoma Valley Recreation Department. … Rain that came down lightly in warmups disappeared for the length of the game before returning shortly after its conclusion. … Essex said seven of her girls went to get flu shots on Tuesday. Sophomore forward Katie Naughton still displayed the telltale dime-sized bandage from the vaccination on her left shoulder. … Windham (14-1-1), the defending D-II champ, will be going for its third championship title in five years on Sunday. … In beating the Sabers, Hanover denied Souhegan its first trip to a field hockey final since the Sabers’ 2007 Class I championship. … Game time on Sunday is 5 p.m.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.