The Hanover High field hockey team had its offense and defense working and cruised to a win in its season opener, 4-0 over Hollis Brookline at home on Thursday.
Senior Sophia Mancini led the way offensively for the Bears, scoring twice, while freshman Chloe Dalle and senior Grace Healey each notched goals of their own.
“I’m really excited that we won. I was hoping for a big win — we played this team last year and snuck out a 1-0 win. They’re usually a really top contender for playoffs, so to win this one at home feels really good,” said head coach Mallory MacKenzie.
An early encouraging sign for the Bears’ head coach was her squad’s ability to take what they had worked on in preseason and execute — especially on defense.
“We focused a lot recently in practices on our defense and working on transferring the ball from one side of the field to the other,” MacKenzie said. “I think that really paid off in this game and you could see it and it worked really well in this game,” she added.
It was pretty much all Bears from the opening whistle as the first quarter was almost exclusively played in the Cavaliers’ defensive end.
While Hanover mounted chances in the first frame, they were unable to find the back of the net, and the contest remained scoreless.
That changed in the second quarter as Hanover continued to ratchet up the pressure and broke through on Mancini’s first goal to go up 1-0 with 6:43 remaining in the half.
Mancini followed that goal up with another just over two minutes later on a shot that took a tough bounce and could not be corralled by Hollis Brookline’s goaltender.
The second-quarter scoring was not done there as Dalle joined the goal party, finishing a ball after a mad scramble in front of the net to put the Bears up 3-0 with 1:47 remaining in the frame.
Facing a three-goal deficit at halftime, the Cavaliers did show some signs of life to open the third quarter.
Hollis Brookline had its first sustained offensive pressure, forcing multiple corners to open the second half. However, the Cavaliers were unable to find the back of the net, and after their spurt, Hanover took back the reins.
The Bears forced multiple corners throughout the remainder of the third quarter and extended their lead late in the frame on Healey’s score to go up 4-0.
The fourth quarter featured no scoring from either team, allowing the Bears to lock down their season-opening win.
“I think from the get-go we kind of dominated the game offensively at least in the first half,” MacKenzie said.
However, there are still some things to work on, considering the Bears had over 30 shots on net and four goals to show for it.
“We did have that offensive pressure, but we just need to work on a little bit of that finishing,” she said.
Looking ahead, MacKenzie was hopeful about what her team could do with a strong core of returners and just one senior departure, a year removed from a quarterfinals loss in the NHIAA Division II playoffs.
“We’re more like just fine-tuning this year because we had a great season last year, so I’m hoping we’re going to have an even better season this year and make a pretty big run during playoffs,” she said.
Hanover (1-0) will next host Lebanon on Tuesday at 6:15 p.m.
