The Hanover Kickers allowed two late goals, losing 4-3 to the first placed Bonivital United Wednesday evening at SCU Field.

 

It looked like Hanover was guaranteed at least a point when Arvid Neufeld scored his 4th goal of the season to put the Kickers up 3-2 with 15 minutes left to play. United kept their composure and mounted a late comeback, scoring on a well-timed header off a corner kick to tie the game with under ten minutes left to play.

 

And Bonivital weren't finished. They continued to press and took advantage of a defensive breakdown, scoring the go-ahead-goal from just inside the 18-yard box with seconds left to play.

 

Kickers Captain Andreas Bergen said they weren't able to regroup after the tying goal. “It was another breakdown for the team. We were up 3-2 and then we had a little mistake and it was 3-3. I think the team then broke down.”

 

Hanover Player Coach Steve Rebizant said it was a heartbreaking loss. “It's the curse that has been following us around. We can out-play a team for a good portion of the game and then let five minutes go by where the bottom drops completely out of it. It's pretty heartbreaking to give up a couple of goals late to lose a game.”

 

Bonivital got on the scoreboard first during the first half, but Hanover answered back with Eddy Boschmann's 1st and Mario Giesbrecht's 6th of the year. United tied the game 2-2 before the half.

 

Rebizant says they were very confident during the break. “The atmosphere was good. We talked about where our weaknesses were because they are a pretty tall and athletic team. We wanted to play towards our strengths.”

 

It looked like they had solved their defensive woes coming into the game, improving their goals against-per-game to 2.6 from 3.2 after only allowing one goal over the previous two games. But, Wednesday night's loss proved that there is still work to be done.

 

Rebizant says it's a tough learning curve for the young guys. “We have the potential and I have a lot of belief in the guys. But, we need to tighten up a few areas. That might mean we need to look around to tighten those areas up.”

 

The 6th placed Kickers (4W-6L-0T) will continue their home-stand next Wednesday when they play 9th placed Internazionale (1W-4L-1T) at SCU Field.