AMHERST – In a battle between two undefeated Division II teams, the Souhegan Sabers hosted the Hanover Bears with a spot at the top of the standings on the line Friday night.

While the Bears gave the Sabers their closest game of the year, the home team pulled out the 28-6 victory for their sixth straight win.

Romy Jain and JJ Bright were once again the offensive leaders for the Sabers. Bright had multiple runs for over 10 yards and totaled 166 yards with a touchdown. Many of those rushes brought the Sabers into the redzone, setting up Jain and his receivers.

Jain got the Sabers on the board late in the first quarter on a pass to Charlie Maroun down the middle of the field for a 39-yard touchdown pass. He followed on the next possession with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Owen Warner. Jain would finish the night with three touchdown passes to go along with 91 passing yards.

Even with giving up four touchdowns, Hanover’s defense held tough, holding a team that has scored 40 or more points in every game, to their lowest output this year.

“It was uncharacteristic,” said head coach Robin Bowkett in regards to the team’s relatively slow start on offense. The Bears forced a Saber punt on their first possession and recovered a fumble before halftime.

“But,” he added, “you can’t always sustain that offensively. Our kids kept battling and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. They kept telling us what they were seeing and we were able to sort it out.”

Down 14-6 after recovering the fumble, it seemed Hanover was building some momentum to score before halftime. Unfortunately, disaster struck the Bears as QB Roger Lucas was knocked out of the game with a head injury. A long delay forced the officials to skip the last four minutes of the half and go right into the break.

Starting with the ball at half, Souhegan extended their lead to 21-6 on Jain’s third touchdown pass and controlled the entire half on both sides of the ball.

The Sabers will look to extend their win streak to seven next week against Hollis-Brookline.