EXETER, N.H. — Hanging on the inside knob of Ty Nolan’s bedroom door for the past year has been a runner-up medal from the 2021 NHIAA boys soccer Division I title game. The Hanover High goalkeeper said it served as a daily reminder about the pain of coming up short.
Sadly for Nolon and his teammates, Saturday’s championship rematch with Nashua South produced the same result. The Bears lost, 2-0, at Exeter High despite a staggering number of scoring chances.
Handed an identical medal with a different date, a tearful Nolon tucked it inside the back waistband of his compression shorts, then dropped the second-place plaque at his feet. The fifth-seeded Bears watched in silence as the second-seeded Purple Panthers received their own hardware, then drifted back to their bench to pack up for the bus ride home.
“Every day I’d wake up and see that medal and there wasn’t anything I wanted more than for us to become state champions,” Nolon said, his voice breaking and tears creeping down his cheeks. “We had a lot of great chances, and their goalie made some fantastic saves. That’s unlucky, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.
“It was a super close game and it just didn’t happen for us.”
Hanover (15-5) jumped on its foe during the opening minutes, exploiting gaps in the Purple Panthers defense. Midfielders Ryder Hayes and Zach Tracy directed an attack that seemed ever on the verge of scoring. However, Nashua South, which used penalty kicks to defeat the Bears in last fall’s title game, survived the onslaught and began to level the field.
The Purple Panthers (17-3) received the break they needed when wing Will Guerin, trying to win back a ball he’d turned over in midfield, dropped an opponent with a hard foul deep in his own end.
The ensuing free boot from the sideline served almost as a corner kick, with Santiago Somorrostro sending a 30-yard cross to the top of the penalty area. A leaping Revin Olsen headed it under the crossbar 12 minutes before intermission.
Hanover nearly tied the game on an almost identical play a minute later, but Andrew McGuire’s header of a Jack McGrath free kick went just wide.
The Bears created perhaps their closest call of the afternoon late in the first half. Nashua South goalkeeper Ansh Khanna wen to the ground to stop a low shot only to watch its rebound trickle behind him and towards the goal line a foot away.
Still prone, Khanna somehow twisted his body, reached out an arm and snagged the ball. Hanover fans wailed in dismay and the second half brought only added frustration.
Throughout that stanza, the Bears produced at least eight scoring chances. Only one or two were dramatic enough to bring supporters out of their seats, but the remainder were subtly threatening.
Corner kicks ticked off Hanover heads and bounced away. Prime shots were blocked at the last second. Combinations of two, three, even four passes were foiled in the nick of time. The Bears’ Carter Guerin had his legs cut from under him in the penalty area but play rolled on.
“I loved how we took it to them in the second half and stayed patient and didn’t panic,” said Hanover coach Rob Grabill. “We kept the ball on the floor and kept moving it side to side. We got service from the wings and we were dangerous.
“I have no complaints with how we played at all.”
By midway through the second half, Nashua South left one forward near midfield and placed its remaining nine field players between the ball and Khanna. The Purple Panthers’ back line swelled to six players and Hanover eventually tired and grew frustrated. Its attack too often devolved into simply thumping the ball upfield.
Nashua South thrust in the dagger with two minutes to play and Hanover’s collective body language was a resigned slump. Somorrostro banged a low corner kick across the front of the goal. In a head-scratching moment, no defender reacted before it curved inside the far post. Minutes later, Nolon tried to put the defeat in perspective.
“This is the best team I’ve ever been on and nothing can take that away,” the senior said. “We watched plenty of film and we knew what to expect. We just couldn’t put away our chances.
“It sucked last year and it sucks this year, but we played the best we could.”
Grabill, his hoarse voice on the verge of going out completely, said his squad’s valiant competition served as salve for the result.
“To have our team play that well in a championship was sensational,” the coach said. “It’s a cruel sport but it’s also a beautiful game.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.