HANOVER — Do you know who Wally Pipp is?

It was a simple question, and Hanover boys soccer coach Rob Grabill likely knew the response he’d receive. Noah Winchester, the target of Grabill’s inquiry, was unaware of Pipp’s legend.

With Hanover’s preseason scrimmage against Lebanon well under way and freshman Braeden Friedman thrust into Winchester’s spot following the latter’s arm injury, Grabill explained Pipp’s legend to his senior left-back.

Pipp, who most famously played for the New York Yankees during the dead ball era of Major League Baseball, shared the diamond with the likes of Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel. He led the American League in home runs in two consecutive seasons. He was a multi-year starter at first base for the greatest franchise in the sport.

But Pipp’s name is etched in baseball lore not because of any on-field achievements. Instead, it’s because of who he lost his starting job to in 1925 after succumbing to a headache: Hall-of-Famer Lou Gehrig.

To be “Wally Pipped” in sports is to be supplanted in a team because of injury, a starting lineup displacement for an opportunity that may never return. Little did Grabill know his preseason quip was a harbinger of things to come for the Bears.

“I jinxed us,” Grabill said with a chuckle following Hanover’s 4-1 win over Merrimack on Friday.

When Hanover began its season, Grabill’s starting 11 boasted eight seniors, bolstered by an all-senior backline. The team’s next-man-up mentality has been put to the test in the weeks since.

Midway through the campaign, having rattled off five wins in their last six games, the Bears’ back line resembles something of patchwork. Grabill has had to contend with injuries and various in-season knocks to several senior stalwarts, resulting in a couple formation shifts and lineup adjustments, including in the buildup to Hanover’s game against Merrimack.

On the heels of a loss to Keene, the Bears’ first since a Sept. 7 defeat to Exeter, Grabill moved junior Sam Bagatell to right back. For Bagatell — who is a more natural center-back, according to sidelined senior center-back Sam Ames — it would be his first career varsity start.

Across the rest of the back four, senior Schuyler Clapp stayed centrally, paired up with sophomore Nate McFetridge, with Winchester staying at left back and senior Henry Cotter in between the sticks. But when Winchester exited the pitch late inthe first half, Friedman was once again called in to spell the senior.

It was a mix of new and old for the Bears.

How did the pieced-together back four perform? Quite coherently, Grabill said postgame.

“We had a lot of young guys step up, which is huge,” said Cotter, lauding the performances of Bagatell, Friedman and freshman attackers Dino Gavetti and Sacha Palm.

Boasting “one of the best back lines in the state,” according to Cotter, Hanover hasn’t conceded from open play since its loss to Exeter. That’s a testament to the depth of the squad, Clapp said, but it also illustrates how well the group of tenured players and newcomers have coalesced this season in light of the injuries.

When senior captain Andrew McGuire suffered a season-ending knee injury, Gavetti was assigned McGuire’s role as set-piece taker. It’s been an adjustment for Ames and Clapp, the team’s big aerial targets, but it’s starting to become an “extraordinary weapon,” Grabill said.

Look no further than Friday’s opening goal, which saw Gavetti lift a ball to the back post for Clapp, who thumped a header into the back of the net.

“Some good ones, some not so great ones,” said Gavetti, evaluating his delivery on set pieces. “But yeah, I mean, you just need one.”

The day ultimately proved to be a “coming-out party,” according to Grabill, for the pair of first-years in Gavetti and Palm — the pair combined for three goals — in a win where Hanover’s boss was able to play five freshmen. The victory was an indication of the Bears’ underclassmen beginning to step into new roles in conjunction with the established seniors like Cotter, Clapp, Charlie Forbush and Gavin Munson.

Grabill lauded in particular the performance of Forbush, who so often does all the unheralded work in the midfield, paving the way for the attack to shine.

“He’s like the deckhand on the Titanic, shoveling the coal in the boiler room,” Grabill said. “And that’s Charlie’s game. He knits us together.”

Come game’s end, a quartet of sidelined seniors — Ames, McGuire, Winchester and Joseph Glass — stood near the Hanover bench, shouting instructions and encouragement to the players on the pitch. It was an encouraging result for Grabill, who enjoyed giving his “hard-working substitutes” some much-earned playing time while seeing the support from the bench.

Ahead of games against Londonderry (5-2-2) on Tuesday and Manchester Central (3-2-3) on Friday, Grabill is hopeful he’ll have some players back and ready to play.

So did Grabill jinx his team? Who knows?

A rash of injuries has certainly tested Hanover’s mettle this season and given rise to a group of underclassmen that Grabill knows he can lean on in years to come.

Still, with several integral starters and a couple more waiting to be cleared, Hanover’s seniors haven’t been “Wally Pipped” yet.

“It’s like an insurance policy,” Grabill said of his upperclassmen. “It’s very, very nice.”

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