The Hanover and Lebanon boys soccer teams didn’t need any reminders of their opponents on Tuesday.

Lining up opposite the maroon-clad Upper Valley squads were the two teams that had defeated them in last season’s D-I and D-II state title games, Bedford and Bow, respectively.

In the buildup to the early season rematches, the messaging from players on both teams was consistent: It’s easy to say that last year’s results had no bearing on a match’s outcome this season, but it was hard to keep hopes of revenge from creeping into the back of their minds.

“It’s an unsaid thing,” Lebanon senior Dominic Calandrella observed. “We don’t want to ... make the moment too big for us. So we just want to take every game with the same mindset, but we all had a little bit of a chip on our shoulders.”

The Raiders were able to successfully rebound from a season-opening loss to claim a 2-0 victory over the Falcons.

The Bears, however, were unable to exact a similar measure of revenge. They fell to the Bulldogs, 2-0.

Despite opposite results, both coaches — Lebanon’s Rob Johnstone and Hanover’s Rob Grabill — repeated the same belief postgame: their teams got better.

After the loss to Hollis-Brookline, Johnstone deemed his team in need of a tactical shift. So he dropped the Raiders’ traditional formation in favor of one that offers more cover in the back, plays to the strengths of his two holding midfielders — Benji Madory and Miles Saunders — and frees up star senior Otto Bourne.

The system switch appears to have worked.

Just four minutes into the game, Bourne intercepted an errant Bow pass in the middle of the park. He took one touch and swung a ball with the outside of his boot to senior Nico Pentella, who lifted the ball past the outstretched arms of the Bow goalkeeper to put Lebanon on the board.

Midway through the second half, Bourne capitalized on another Bow turnover, rifling a knuckling shot from outside the box into the back of the net to all but put the game to bed.

To Johnstone, that was yet another example of Bourne displaying the “technical proficiency” few other high school players possess. But it also illustrated how successful the new formation proved to be.

“We didn’t give (Bow) a chance,” Johnstone said. “Our whole philosophy is predicated on when we lose it, immediate pressure, not diving in. And then, based on where the ball is on the field, everybody else is supposed to be in a specific area. One guy has the ball and the rest are getting to that critical space. … I thought we were great at that today.”

Four miles down the road and less than half an hour after the final whistle in Lebanon, Hanover kicked off its rematch.

The Bears placed a similar focus on defense ahead of its match with Bedford, which put eight goals past them in the teams’ previous two meetings.

Like Lebanon, Hanover also has made a tactical shift, switching formations to better suit its players. Senior captain Andrew McGuire said Monday that the team has “adjusted really well” defensively to the change, noting the team’s trio of clean sheets in its first three games, two of which were exhibitions.

Grabill’s backline is as experienced as they come, featuring four senior defenders and senior Henry Cotter in between the sticks. Such continuity is invaluable as the team tries to integrate several freshmen into the team’s starting 11 and rotations.

That group of freshmen were thrown into the fray Tuesday as Hanover’s depth was challenged due to injuries and illness. A non-contact injury to McGuire early in the first half only exacerbated the issue, prompting several rotational shifts.

An early goal saw Bedford carry a 1-0 advantage into the intermission, with a finish from forward Ali Mirza in the 61st minute handing the Bulldogs the two-goal advantage with which they’d close the game.

Despite the loss, Grabill expressed optimism regarding his team’s shape and defensive performance.

“All we want to do is make progress,” he said. “All we want to do is be a little better than the day before. We are a better team than we were before we walked onto the pitch, and I think it’ll show up in our next game.”

Johnstone echoed a similar sentiment after Lebanon’s victory, one that showed his team could adjust quickly to a change in system and got better while doing so against a good opponent.

Sure, revenge is sweet and an early season victory against the state’s best teams boosts morale, but players on both squads reiterated that the most important thing is to ensure they are peaking in the playoffs — where they could face Bedford and Bow again.

“Championships don’t get  won or lost in early September,” Grabill said.

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