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North pulls away from mistake-prone South, 21-14

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Sep 29, 2018

Staff photo by TOM KING Nashua North's Brian Montminy tries to burst through the hole against Nashua South's Jaylan Pacheco, left and Jason Compoh during Friday night's Battle of the Bridge at Stellos Stadium.

NASHUA – The rules never change, even in a rivalry game.

And the main rule for any football team: Don’t turn the ball over.

The Nashua High School South Panthers did it three times on Friday night, and the Nashua North Titans took full advantage in a 21-14 win in front of 2,000-plus at Stellos Stadium.

“Can’t turn it over,” Panthers coach Scottt Knight said after his team gave up the ball and a 14-6 second half lead.

“I thought we had a little momentum going,” Knight said. “We put the ball on the ground and they score. What are you going to do? … You can’t turn the ball over.”

His team up 14-6 courtesy of a Jaylan Pacheco 10-yard TD run and a Pacheco (8 carries, 93 yards) two-point conversion early in the third, South QB Dante Young was strip-sacked by North’s Sherod Williams two series later. Williams recovered the ball at the South 19 and five plays later Brian Montminy bulled his way for a 3-yard TD run to close the gap for the Titans to 14-12 with 4:14 to go in the third. A an attempt to tie the game with a two-point conversion failed.

But still, momentum shifted.

“Any time you can capitalize on that it’s huge,” Titans coach Dante Laurendi said, his team now 4-1, in good West Conference position. “We had a couple we forced, a couple unforced, we got a lucky break and made something out of it. … They (the Panthers) played their butts off. It was a great game.”

“I was just trying to get in there, get to the quarterback,” Williams said. “I was just trying to play my game.”

Late in the quarter, South’s Brendan Frost inexplicably dropped the ball untouched near midfield. Williams was there again to pounce on it, and North turned it into a go-ahead 24-yard Sam Nicholls field goal with 10:16 to play and a 15-14 lead.

“We just had a lot of crazy stuff like that go on tonight,” Knight said. “I thought the kids did a pretty good job. Just can’t turn the ball over. I thought our kids laid it on the line tonight.”

It stayed a one-point game until North freshman Issac Smith burst through a hole created by Titan linemen Garrett Hillard and Anthony Carrion, there was no one to catch him on a 49-yard TD run with 1:52 left to make it a 21-14 game.

“The linemen made a whole for me and I went straight through, it was just a walk-through,” Smith said. “I was thinking ‘Get to the end zone, get to the end zone.’ It was a really good game, really tight.”

It sure was. The teams traded first half touchdowns, with Young hitting Brendan Frost on a 44-yard TD for a 6-0 South lead with 35 seconds left in the first quarter. The conversion failed.

The Titans finaly got their offense going late in the second, a nine play, 74-yard march resulting in a 2-yard Curtis Harris run to knot things with 1:53 left before the half. Harris finished with 152 yards on 20 carries.

Like with the Panthers, the conversion failed on a flubbed kick attempt. But the Titans went on to eventually make the breaks work for them. In the theme of the second half, South fumbled it away on their final possession deep in their own territory with 1:40 to play.

And now, the Titans are now in good shape after five games.

“It helps,” Laurendi said. “It’s a conference win. Any win right now is really important. … Every win is a going to be a grind. We knew this was going to be a fight, you can’t really go by records.”

That’s the other rule of a rivalry.

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