HANOVER — Hanover’s Greta Mancini was somewhat astounded that her shot had trickled into the cage.

Mancini’s first-quarter goal was the Bears’ lone tally in a 1-0 win over Pembroke in the first round of the NHIAA Division II field hockey playoffs on Tuesday.

“(Pembroke) is really good at stopping the ball and it just kind of went on the ground, deflected off the defense and went through the goalie’s legs,” Mancini said as she recounted her goal. “I was really glad that we scored because obviously we needed that one goal, and it was good to set the tone of the game.”

The two teams had met just a week earlier at Pembroke, with Hanover emerging victorious, 3-1. But despite the three-goal outing seven days prior, the Bears’ boss, Mallory MacKenzie, believed her team produced a more dominant display in the one-goal postseason win.

The numbers from Tuesday’s clash largely back up MacKenzie’s assertion. On the heels of a game that she described as “a little more back and forth,” Hanover drew 28 penalty corners against Pembroke’s two in the programs’ second meeting. The shots on goal were plentiful and the execution on those corners is exactly what MacKenzie is looking for, she said.

Still, the Bears managed only one goal, in large part because of the play of Spartans goalkeeper Annika Jawdizik, who kicked and parried nearly every Hanover attacking foray away from the cage.

“I was just telling the girls that they executed like we practice and they executed them perfectly,” MacKenzie said of her team’s penalty corners. “The thing was that (Pembroke’s) defensive saves and goalie saves, that’s what saved them.

“I think if it had been a different goalie, we would have gotten those in.”

As the Bears readied for yet another penalty corner in the second half — one of 21 such opportunities in the final 30 minutes of play — one Hanover parent quipped that Jawdizik “should get a medal” for her defensive efforts. MacKenzie echoed a similar sentiment, billing the Spartan’s performance in the cage as “incredible.”

And in this moment midway through the fourth quarter, Jawdizik made yet another stop — just as she had throughout the game — to keep Pembroke’s chances of a comeback alive.

Although the Spartans never truly threatened Hanover, the possibility of a transition breakaway had MacKenzie sweating in the waning minutes of regulation. She was hopeful the Bears could bag a second or third goal to provide a cushion and ease the tension on the sideline, so that “we weren’t freaking out on defense every time,” but that extra insurance never arrived.

A win is a win, and in a single-elimination tournament, that’s all that matters.

Hanover will now travel to Durham on Friday for a 3 p.m. date with Oyster River, the No. 2 seed in D-II. The Bears’ and Bobcats’ first meeting came on Oct. 8, with Oyster River scoring a quartet of first-half goals en route to a 4-0 shutout victory over MacKenzie’s squad.

But two weeks have passed since that last meeting and MacKenzie believes Hanover “is a different team.” The Bears have rattled off five straight wins since their loss to the Bobcats, outscoring opponents 21-3 in that span.

Mancini has seen an improvement too, especially in regards to the team’s communication and passing, she said.

“Going in with a few wins behind us, we definitely feel good and comfortable,” MacKenzie said. “From that matchup (against Oyster River) specifically, we learned a lot. They got all four goals on us (in the first half), and then in the second half, we stopped that completely.

“So I think we learned a lot in that game, which I’m hoping will transfer over to our game with them again on Friday.”

Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.