HANOVER — Events weren’t promising for Hanover High at Merriman-Branch Field on Friday afternoon.

On the turf, the girls lacrosse team surrendered the first four goals of its NHIAA Division II clash with visiting Hollis-Brookline. On an adjacent strip of pavement, a pair of male students precariously unloaded a large grille from a pickup truck in a minimalist attempt at tailgating.

An hour later, however, the girls claimed an 11-10, overtime victory and the lax bros were cheerfully cooking ribs. All was well in the Bears’ lair.

“I never felt like my team was out of it,” said fourth-year coach Sarah Martin, whose squad surrendered nine consecutive goals against Windham earlier this season before beating the Jaguars. “We’ve demonstrated that we’re gritty and we hustle and we can come back.

“We were throwing the ball away, and we just looked rattled. But I was confident we could slowly chip away.”

Kali McDonnell scored six goals for Hanover (11-1), which also received three tallies from Maeve Lee and two from Maggie Higgins. Lee notched the winner three minutes into overtime when the junior drove from the left flank, dipped under a defender and cut back to score at the near post.

Hollis-Brookline (11-4) was down a player when Lee struck, the result of an Alyssa Hill yellow card. Martin said that forced the visitors, who had been stacking defenders on the ball side of the slot, to confront Lee one-on-one, with disastrous results.

“We used a play I implemented yesterday with Maeve and her beautiful underneath dodge,” said Martin, a onetime Dartmouth College assistant. “She’s feisty and tough, but she’d been having a tough time getting to goal with two defenders waiting for her at the post. The yellow card opened things up.”

Hollis-Brookline initially appeared as if it might run away with the contest, scoring on its first four shots during a seven-minute span. The Cavaliers dominated much of the first half by coming up with the ball off the game’s first five draws and taking advantage of open space to make 30- and 40-yard runs upfield.

Martin credited attackers Emily Perras, McDonnell, Eva Bell and Lauren Eiler with defending more vigorously after halftime, causing the Cavaliers to move out of their own end more slowly and allowing Hanover’s defense to ready itself.

“The first 10 minutes, we weren’t organized and we were mismatched, but we later settled into the game,” Martin said. “The attackers had to do a better job of slowing the ball down in the midfield.”

Hanover trailed, 8-4, just after intermission but scored five of the next six goals. Martin said the visitors’ zone defense initially threw her team off before her players heeded the call to move the ball more quickly and to cut harder and with more precision across the face of the Cavaliers’ goal.

“As soon as we started to do that, we got more scoring opportunities,” Martin said. “We couldn’t afford to stand and watch the player with the ball.”

Martin credited senior Reilly Loughman, who stepped in for usual draw-control specialist Higgins during a second-half stretch. The Bears then won several consecutive draws, and their resulting confidence led them to play harder, the coach said.

Hollis-Brookline took a 10-9 lead with six minutes remaining before Higgins forced overtime by tallying with 2 minutes, 31 seconds left in the second half.

Hanover suffered its only loss thus far to Division I Pinkerton (10-5). The Bears struggled to contend with the Astros’ depth and sharpshooting, but the 15-11 setback served as a wakeup call during what’s otherwise been a series of routs against overmatched division foes.

“The players realized that when we talk about sliding faster and taking care of the ball and staying with the other team’s offensive cutters, it really matters,” said Martin, who’s hoping to book more D-I teams for next year’s schedule. “Pinkerton sort of scored at will for a while.”

Hanover closes the regular season by visiting Manchester Memorial-West (1-10) and hosting Pembroke (2-11). Victories would give the Bears the playoffs’ top seeding, ahead of the likes of Windham (12-2), Winnacunnet (10-3) and Goffstown (10-3).

Hanover was 13-4 last season, exiting in the division semifinals. The Bears are 41-8 under Martin and won state titles in 2002, 2008 and 2016. They were runners-up in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013 and 2015.

Portsmouth won the last five Division II titles but is now in Division I, where it’s currently 12-2.

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.

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