Changes made by NHIAA to soccer overtime procedures

The soccer pitch will look a lot bigger when high school teams go to overtime this season.

That’s because the NHIAA has made a change to the number of players allowed on the field during overtime of boys and girls soccer games.

Instead of 11 players, including the goalkeeper, teams will field just seven players and a goalie for the duration of extra time, making it an 8-on-8 game for overtime. Teams will still play no more than two 10-minute overtime periods, which will still be sudden death.

Soccer isn’t the only NHIAA sport where the number of players on the field changes during overtime. In field hockey, each team is allowed seven players, including a goalkeeper, in overtime.

The difference could mean fewer ties in boys and girls soccer.

In 2014, there were 121 ties among the 165 boys and girls programs, for an average of 0.73 ties each. Not every team had a tie, while some teams had multiple ties. The Gilford girls had the most with five, while Bedford and Berlin boys and Londonderry and Nashua South girls had three each to lead their respective divisions.

With soccer teams playing a 16-game schedule, 4.6 percent of games ended in a tie, a number that is higher than field hockey, but not by much.

Of the 53 field hockey teams, there were 24 total ties, for an average of 0.45 per team. With teams playing a 14-game regular season, that is a percentage of 3.2 games ending in a draw.

Doesn’t seem like much of a difference, but only three field hockey teams had more than one tie, and there was only one team with three.

Expanded playoffs

There was one other change made in advance of the soccer season: two more teams will be added to the postseason for Division I girls soccer. Instead of a 12-team playoff field – with the top four teams getting first-round byes – it will be a 14-team field, with only the top two seeds getting a bye.