The late Nashua South girls coach Manfred Beyer, a longtime soccer ambassador and gentleman who passed away Tuesday morning, would agree with this statement:

Unlike American football, there are no field goals in soccer. A team must finish what it started in order to score.

It's hard to net a goal and even harder to avoid feelings of disillusionment that impair team play after flubbing scoring chances. Many teams win the battle of possession, but can't finish. The ability to finalize a scoring opportunity is a major distinguishing factor in determining title contenders.

Somersworth striker Rachel Hill and Londonderry forward Rob Hart are finishers and therefore valuable commodities.

Hill entered her senior season with 119 goals and tallied eight in three games thus far this season. Hart, helped the Lancers reach the 2011 Division I title game by leading the team in scoring, recording 18 goals. He hit two in the first game this season and broke his nose on a potential scoring play early in the second game. He was eligible to play Wednesday's game against Hanover.

“You can practice all you want, and I do, but the ability to score isn't all about skill or technique,” said Hill who has verbally committed to play soccer at the University of Connecticut next fall. “In the end, you have to be a really motivated person that will do anything to get the ball in the net.”

Hill is a magnet for the ball. Hilltopper teammates routinely send through passes in her vicinity and watch her go to work. Always marked, she's capable of taking on three or four defenders while creating a scoring chance. Her dribble looks like a choreographed dance maneuvering past three to four defenders. She can rifle goals from either foot at long distances, and apply a soft touch near the net.

“It's instinct really,” said Hart, who also led his lacrosse team in scoring with 57 tallies last spring. He's undecided about which sport he'll pursue in college next year. “When the ball comes to me I don't think. You do all your thinking in practice. I zone out everything other than I am having fun playing a game I love, and that makes it easy.”

Playing on a possession-oriented club, Hart is dangerous around the net. Often one or two passes ahead of his team, he has a knack for finding open space when collecting a pass and making short work of putting the ball in the net.

“If you think too much you'll duff it or hit it over the net,” said Hart.

Like Hill, he constantly practices scoring moves and fundamental drills. Muscle memory takes over come game time. “If I think at all it's to put the ball in the bottom net corner.''

Both are accurate marksmen with their feet. They frequently carom balls off posts and the cross bar because they are aiming shots at extreme edges of the soccer goal. Both admit to missing more chances than they finish. They fight to remain positive, believing the next shot will score.

“I try to look up before I shoot. I rarely whack it, just because,” said Hill. “Everything happens so fast you have to rely on your ability. No matter how many times I score it's always the best feeling in the world. It's a feeling of achievement and the culmination of teamwork.”

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MANFRED BEYER finished most every interaction with his trademark smile. Win or lose, right or wrong, he seemed thankful for most every moment spent on the soccer pitch. He loved the game and the lessons it taught. And most of all, he loved the games' participants.

He was passionate about the sport. While standing on the sidelines in Purple Panthers clothing apparel his high pitched voice would be heard shouting “nice play” in support of both teams' play on the pitch. He was competitive, yet remained friendly, gentle and empathetic.

He loved to say that soccer is the most frustrating sport.

His team beat Concord, 2-1, in the first round of the 2005 Class L tournament. The winning goal scored on a fortuitous bounce. Afterwards Beyer talked about feeling badly for the Concord goalie. It was the position he played and he knew exactly how she felt.

Beyer spent 35 autumns coaching Nashua high school soccer teams while serving as a role model for being a gentleman. He spent 17 seasons serving as an assistant coach, for the then-unified Nashua High School before assuming the girls' head coaching spot in 1995 and assumed the Nashua South spot after the split.

Beyer-coached teams reached the Class L soccer championship game in 1995 and 1998, losing each by a one-goal margin.

His final tourney win occurred last fall when the ninth-seeded Purple Panthers beat Manchester Central, 2-1, in a first-round tourney win. In postgame remarks Beyer praised Central's tenacity and overflowed with glee about his young team's inspirational win.

He pushed players to their potential, yet treated them kindly, cushioning constructive criticism with some positive feedback, and that smile. Over the years players described him as a father figure, which was why he ended up coaching the children of former players.

Beyer coached present-day South coach Kelly Gabree before she went to Bentley University in 1998. She returned as a Purple Panthers assistant coach last season and assumed the head coaching spot early this season, when illness forced Beyer to retire. Afflicted with pancreatic cancer, he had hoped to finish this season.

After games, this reporter had to wait in line for an interview because he seemed surrounded by former players, friends and fans wanting a word with him. Gracious, respectful and kind, Beyer especially welcomed each greeter.

The Nashua South players look to hold a fundraiser for pancreatic cancer research in Beyer's honor at the conclusion of the season.

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Eric Emmerling covers high school boys' and girls' soccer for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. He may be reached at eemmerling@unionleader.com.