The exhibition season continued for the Dragons on Friday night in Whitman where they beat Hanover, 17-0, evening their record at 2-2 and setting up a match with Pembroke on Friday night at 7 p.m. Friday night’s game, like those before it and the one coming up on Friday, has no bearing on who makes the Super Bowl playoffs, so it gives Coach Dave Maimaron plenty of opportunity to get his young club ready for the crucial part of the schedule that starts on Oct. 16 against North Quincy in Duxbury.

Entering the game without starting sophomore QB Matt O’Keefe (finger injury) afforded Maimaron a chance to experiment with his offense, and his starting lineup even surprised the Duxbury faithful in attendance, as receiver and senior captain Matt Savard started at QB.

“We tried opening up with a single wing offense, but we were jumpy and had a lot of motion penalties,” said Maimaron. “Penalties hurt us a lot tonight, but then we went back to our offense with Kane (Haffey) and he did a hell of a job in his first varsity start.”

The experiment was hardly a success, as bad snaps, penalties and a lack of first downs created an endless series of punts by both teams.

The Dragons registered the only first down of the first quarter, while junior punter Ben Startzell was called on to punt three times in the first 11 minutes.

Hanover would get its initial first down on the opening play of the second quarter, as QB Matt Johnson hit Greg Devine for an 11-yard gain, but a solid Duxbury pass rush kept the Indians from advancing any further, as the Dragons took over at midfield with 9:44 left in the quarter.

With Kane Haffey (15 carries/132 yards) now in control of the Duxbury offense, the shifty junior QB called his own number several times, moving the ball down to the 28-yard line where the drive stalled. Startzell came in for a 45-yard field goal attempt that had the legs but went wide right to keep the game scoreless.

Johnson looked like he had his Indians threatening with five minutes left in the half after a 22-yard pass to Joey Shisler, but a third-down sack cut the drive short and the Dragons ended up with the ball one more time on their own 42.

Runs by Haffey of 14, 15, and 17 yards, sandwiched around penalties that cost Duxbury yardage and a TD, had the ball on the 19-yard line with less than a minute to go in the half.

With 43 seconds showing on the clock, Haffey dropped back and spotted junior Matt Hallisey on a slant over the middle that was good for 19 yards and a TD. Startzell’s PAT was blocked and the Dragons went into halftime with a precarious 6-0 lead.

Senior defensive tackle Aaron Kramer opened the second half with a vicious sack of Johnson, setting the hosts back deep in their own end and giving Duxbury great field position at the Hanover 40 on the subsequent punt.

Neither team could get a thing going offensively over the next four series and the fourth quarter arrived with the outcome of the game still in doubt.

With just over eight minutes left in the game, the Duxbury defense crushed Johnson once again, with senior CJ Cote and sophomore Jay McDermott leveling the senior signal caller.

The Dragons took over at midfield with 7:53 left in the game and kept shooting themselves in the foot as they tried to move in for the clinching score. Two penalties and an incomplete pass ended their series at the 25-yard line where Startzell came on to attempt a 42-yard field goal.

He had plenty of leg and accuracy on this one, as it cleared the crossbar easily for a more comfortable 9-0 lead with 4:30 left on the clock.

Cote registered another sack of Johnson back to the Hanover 14-yard line, and the Dragon defense kept pushing the Indians back to the 10, where they were forced to punt.

Getting the ball at the Hanover 27, it took just one play for Duxbury to put the game out of reach when Haffey took off on a QB keeper and raced into the right corner of the end zone. The junior also took it in on the two-point conversion for the final points of the night.

The victory saw the return of senior running back Bobby Murphy, who carried six times for 38 yards, and also saw another excellent performance from sophomore Henry Buonagurio, who torched the Hanover defense for 58 yards on seven carries.

“Our defense played great for the third straight week. They were tremendous. We have a lot of sophomores out there and each week they get better and better,” said Maimaron. “I thought Cote played a great game tonight and Kramer did too. It’s just nice to get back to 2-2.”