You couldn’t have had a better weekend if you were a fan of the local Division I high school football teams.

Nashua High Schools North and South, Merrimack and Bishop Guertin all won, and with just two games to go three of the four Western Conference area rivals will qualify for the playoffs.

The Titans are sitting pretty at 7-0 atop the West, basically having all but cemented a spot after their big win over Keene. Merrimack and South are now 5-2 and in the East you have to figure conference leader Exeter will have that other spot.

Meanwhile, Bishop Guertin is still alive at 4-3 after just getting by Winnacunnet 21-16 on Saturday night. The Cards would need to win at Spaulding this Friday and beat Dover on Nov. 2 at Stellos to have a shot. It’s possible there could be three teams at 6-3, which would make things interesting with

tiebreakers.

“Anything to keep the morale of the team up,” Guertin coach John Trisciani said. “Obviously you lose this one, the season’s 100 percent over. From what I’ve heard, there’s a tiebreaker mess, and no one really knows exactly how that’s going to go. We’re going to keep doing our part and hopefully things work out in a

good way.”

South is a team that head coach Scott Knight feels will be better, say, three weeks from now when playoff time rolls around than they are now. The Panthers are at Dover Friday night and then a tough one with Exeter on Nov. 1 at Stellos.

They’ve righted the ship since the loss to Nashua North with two big wins against East Conference teams, and they have have two more to face (Dover and Exeter) before the season wraps up.

“We’re still kind of a work in progress,” Knight said. “But we’re hoping to peak in November.”

Meanwhile, a key game for positioning takes place this Friday at Stellos with Nashua North hosting Merrimack. The Tomahawks are hot, having won three straight after losing to South a month ago.

“Merrimack’s very explosive offensively,” Titans coach Dante Laurendi said. “(Jared) Dyer, (Devin) Wood, (QB James) Dowling, (Zach) Twardowsky all weapons.

“They play great team ‘D’ and play hard with great team culture. They’re playing really confident the last couple of games.”

NASHUA SOUTH

While the Panthers try to get squared away offensively, don’t discount their defense, which has recorded two straight shutouts. Granted, they were favored over opponents Winnacunnet and Spaulding, but the Red Raiders especially had some good offensive players that were shut down as they managed just 109 total yards.

And before those games, they held Nashua North down to 21 points.

“We’ve played pretty solid ‘D’,” Panthers coach Scott Knight said. “We had a few glitches on a few plays against North, but overall defensively we’ve played pretty well.”

The defensive contributors for South are many. Charlie Collins has played well at linebacker, Jason and Josh Compoh at linebacker spots, free safetey Jake McDevitt, linebacker Kyle O’Connor, and inside linebacker Connor Rowsell. Rowsell’s return from injury has been a big boost.

“We played the first few games without him,” Knight said. “Or Jason Compoh. And you can see what Compoh can do when we really want to use him. He’s pretty dangerous.”

And the red zone stand against the Red Raiders at the end of the first half in Friday’s win was huge.

“Our kids amp it up when it’s money down time,” Knight said. “We’ve done a pretty good job.”

Can the Panthers keep it up?

“We’ve played pretty solid all year,” Knight said. “We give up six points to Portsmouth, and a couple of big plays to Guertin, but for the most part we played well. …

“I like the kids mentality on defense. They fly around on defense and play pretty physical.”

BISHOP GUERTIN

With all of the injuries to the Cardinals QBs, former wide recever Dylan Santosuosso has emerged as the guy.

He may have come of age in Friday’s win, rushing for 80 yards and a TD and throwing for152 and two TDs.

“Originally I was supposed to play wide receiver,” Santosuosso said. “But I played quarterback throughout all of youth (football in Pelham). So when they asked me to step up, I wasn’t really that nervous. It’s been amazing, been really fun.”

“He’s experienced more confidence,” Guertin coach John Trisciani said. “He hadn’t taken a snap at quarterback before this year. He’s just learning the offense a little bit more, some more of the reads, getting a little bit better with his footwork.

“I think he’s starting to believe in himself and the guys are starting to believe in him. And ultimately, what he’s shown that he’s tough, he’s a gamer. Ultimately I don’t think there’s a situation, even though he doesn’t have a ton of experience, that he would shy away from.”

Santosuosso basically had to start from scratch at the position.

“The coaches had to spend a lot of time with me, because I had to learn the entire playbook over,” he said. “It’s been a lot of practice, a lot of hard work at practice. That’s really been it.”

Meanwhile, the Cards were without defensive back Brendan Callahan (illness), and dynamic back Joey Lupo (broken finger, wearing a cast).

Callahan still also has a balky knee, and the Cards are holding out slim hope that Lupo hasn’t played his final game.

“We’re waiting on another (medical) appointment,” Trisciani said. “I’m not sure he’s going to be back at all, we’re hoping. Just kind of one of those things where the show goes on.”

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