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Goffstown football fends off Nashua South

By Hector Longo - Staff Writer | Oct 13, 2018

GOFFSTOWN – Battered, bruised and undermanned, the Nashua South football team was right where it wanted to be Saturday afternoon, courageously slugging it out against a superior (on paper) foe at 3-3 Goffstown High.

In one drive to open the second half, the Panthers nearly doubled their first-half offensive output and found themselves in a dogfight, trailing the host Grizzlies, 17-12.

And then came the

steamroller.

On the ensuing kick, Goffstown’s Sean Leahy was corralled and hauled down around his own 30. But as the other 21 players on the field slowed to a halt, Leahy landed the knockout blow, getting up off the turf and racing down the sideline for what somehow was ruled an 85-yard kick return TD.

South never recovered and despite pitching a second-half defensive shutout, fell to 2-5 with the 23-12 defeat.

“It was a huge call … I’m not allowed to say anything,” said a frustrated Panthers’ coach Scott Knight.

He didn’t have to. Knight’s actions on the sideline spoke a lot louder. Right after the play, the veteran coach raced over to his iPad and watched the replay of the bizarre “TD” for himself. He then burned a time out to ask for an

explanation.

“They said (the runner) was sitting on another player,” said Knight, whose assistant coaches checking out the replay from high above the field certainly didn’t agree.

“But there’s no instant replay in high school football.”

While South battled hard, leaving all it had on the field, the two-score hole was simply too much after all their momentum got taken away.

Knight had to be positive, especially due to who wasn’t on the field.

Senior Jaylan Pacheco sat with a shoulder injury and QB Dante Young was out, too.

“We started a sophomore (Christopher Keefe) at quarterback and a freshman (Josh Compoh) at halfback,” explained the coach, who had reason to beam about the athletes that were healthy and stepped up their games.

No Panther shined brighter than senior Brendon Frost, who ran for one touchdown and caught a 26-yard scoring strike from Keefe for the other.

“He had a great game. It was the Frosty show for the most part,” said Knight. “He had some amazing catches and played a pretty good defensive game, too. It was just what we needed out of him.”

Frost caught five passes in all for 114 yards. With the entire Grizzlies’ defense zeroed in on his No. 11, he also rushed 13 times for 56 yards, accounting for 170 of South’s 178 offensive yards.

Defensively, big plays abounded, especially up front where Nathaneal Tejeda and Justin Arnesen continually dismantled the Goffstown inside game. Jake McDevitt, Tanner Plourde, Braden McDonnell and Kyle O’Connor all played solid games, while Kyle Salemi picked off a pass.

South struck first, leading 6-0 on the Keefe-to-Frost connection. Goffstown answer with 17 points in the second with a 30-yard David Gibson field goal and a pair of TD passes by Jarrett Henault, who was pressed into service when starting QB Charlie Keith was forced to leave with an injury.

Still, South had all the momentum in the third before disaster struck.

The Panthers will now look to get a bit healthier this week in preparation for Friday night’s home date at Stellos with winless Manchester Memorial.

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