Tied atop the Division I West conference at 4-3, it would appear that Alvirne (3-0 conference) and Nashua South (2-1 conference) have playoff spots locked up. Think again.

Sitting at 2-5 overall and 2-0 in conference, Bishop Guertin is still alive in the hunt for a tournament spot. The Cardinals playoff hopes rest squarely in their own hands with two games to go.

None of this is lost on BG senior Kyle Cushion or any of his Cardinals teammates.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Cushion said. “That’s what has been driving us over these last few weeks. We’ve had a rough season so far with injuries, but we still have a chance to go to the playoffs and make something out of this season.”

BG hosts Alvirne at 7 p.m. Friday before closing out the regular season Oct. 31 as the home team against Nashua South. Winning out, coupled with either Alvirne or South losing out, means BG would be playing in the West conference title game and Division I quarterfinal.

The scenario is not out of the question. Alvirne faces BG Friday before closing the regular season at home against Timberlane (2-5), while South travels to Londonderry (6-1) on Friday and then faces BG in the regular-season finale.

“That’s the main thing that’s keeping us going,” Cushion said. “We understand that we have to win out every game to close this season. We can’t control what happens in the other games, but we can control the games we play, and that’s our focus.”

It seemed to be a driving force during Saturday night’s 22-0 win over Nashua North (2-5 overall, 0-2 conference), as Cushion caught a touchdown pass from Jordan Hiscoe to open the scoring in the first quarter and threw one to Dylan Fagan to wrap things up in the fourth quarter.

That opening score, a play-action pass on the second play of the game, went 65 yards to paydirt and got the Cardinals feeling good about their pre-game strategy.

“We knew going in we were going to take a shot on one of the first few plays of the game,” Cushion said, “and when that happened we had good momentum to keep us going throughout the rest of the game.”

For BG coach Travis Cote, it’s one game at a time, starting with a bigger Alvirne squad, which after getting hammered 41-15 by Londonderry is likely going to want to impose its size on the smaller but speedier Cardinals.

Cote thinks his team is in a better spot now than it would have been earlier this fall for Friday’s Stellos Stadium showdown with the conference leaders from Hudson.

“It makes it exciting for the kids to still be able to be playing for something over the last couple games of the season,” Cote said. “We’re getting healthier. So that puts us in a better position. You know it’s one game at a time, and we’ve got a tough test this week.

“Alvirne’s had a good year, they’ve got some good kids, so we know we’ll have our work cut out for us.”

Cushion agrees with his coach, but stressed being in such a challenging situation doesn’t mean the pressure is on.

“It’s not as much pressure as it is we’re realizing that we still have a chance and we can’t get down,” Cushion said. “We can’t do a poor me act and say ‘Why not us?’

“We’re going to go come in here Friday with our heads held high, realizing that we still have a chance and there’s no reason it can’t be us going to the playoffs.”

Titans come up
short in red zone

The Titans offense put up some staggering numbers in their loss to Bishop Guertin on Saturday night. Those numbers are even more amazing when you taken into account that the offense never found the end zone.

In the first half, the Titans finished with 128 total yards (compared to 120 by Bishop Guertin). If you took away Bishop Guertin’s 65-yard touchdown to open the game, the Titans offense would have out-produced their opponent by more than 50 yards. Furthermore, the Nashua North offense ultimately finished with 63 plays on offense, while their opponent only compiled 36.

So what proved to be the Titans Achilles heel? Well, the three interceptions by quarterback Colby Gunter certainly didn’t help. Neither did the team’s lack of success in the red zone, or a 33 percent fourth-down conversion rate.

“I felt like we were just kind of waiting around for something to happen, and it just never happened,” Titans coach Jason Robie said. “They bend, and they don’t break. I don’t know what happened. We had the ball inside their territory all night and came away with nothing. So to say that they were opportunistic is an understatement.”

Broncos outrushed
in Londonderry

Alvirne Broncos coach Tim Walsh had an interesting way of describing Londonderry’s dominating rushing attack in the wake of the Lancers’ 41-15 win Friday night.

?“They looked – running the ball – like we usually do,” said the first-year Broncos coach, “I thought it was like us in different uniforms.”

?Indeed, the Lancers dominated the running game with 423 yards rushing to just 135 for the Broncos, a fact that Walsh felt was attributed to Londonderry’s dominance of the lines and their speed rushing.

Those statistics were more glaring considering that Alvirne rushed the ball four more times with 34 (for an average of just under 4 yards per carry) compared to the Lancers’ 30 (an astonishing 14.1 yards per carry).

?Even more stunning? The Lancers did this despite shooting themselves in the foot with 14 penalties for 110 yards, wiping out three touchdowns and several other big plays.

Panthers battling
through injuries

The potential postseason West Conference collision course between Nashua High School South and Alvirne continues.

Keene coach John Luopo says it could be an interesting battle.

“They’re athletic,” Luopo said of the 4-3 Panthers after being beaten 52-27, his team giving up over 500 yards of offense. “If I were to critique that matchup, South has some athletes. Alvirne, they play good defense and they have a big offensive line.”

It may have been somewhat eye-opening that Keene was able to move the ball on South the other night, but the Panthers hope to be much better defensively by the end of the regulars season.

On Friday, South was without Jesse Clauss, one of the team’s best defensive backs. The Panthers have Shayne Holland playing out of position defensively. Jesus Antonio, one of their best defensive lineman was out but should be back soon. Also out was linebacker Brian McKinley and the Panthers had already lost another linebacker, Jonathan Cruz, for the season.

“We had a handful of sophomores out there,” Knight said. “We had some young kids out there on defense. But we’ll be OK.”

Campbell stretches
win streak to three

The Cougars extended their winning streak to three games Saturday with a 21-0 victory against visiting Farmington-Nute.

The Cougars (4-2) were led by senior running back Kevin Moreau, who rushed for 73 yards to go along with 94 receiving yards.

Moreau was involved in all the scoring plays for Campbell as he registered two rushing touchdowns, of 2 and 10 yards, and a receiving touchdown of 82 yards. Moreau also added all three extra point kicks.

Howard runs strong
in Souhegan’s loss

Senior fullback Tyler Howard rushed 21 times for 148 yards in the Sabers’ 28-24 loss Friday night against Trinity at Gill Stadium.

Senior Trevor Barrett recorded three receptions for 53 yards for the Sabers (3-3) including a 14-yard touchdown reception from junior quarterback Michael Mancini (6 for 13, 75 yards, TD, INT).

Howard also chipped in with two rushing touchdowns of 42 and 1 yards.

“We were disappointed,” Sabers coach Mike Lochman said. “We played them pretty tough but we didn’t make defensive plays when we needed to and I think that’s what it really came down to was they had one or two things that they liked going to and when they found them we didn’t adapt as quickly as we needed to.”

Souhegan will host ConVal Friday before visiting Pelham on Oct. 31.

Staff writer Tom King and
correspondents Ben Levine,
Matt Lordan and Trevor Wenners contributed to this report.