Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua South's Mike Rutstein tries to keep Nashua North's Curtis Harris-Lopez out of the end zone during Friday's night's 24-7 North win at Stellos Stadium.

NASHUA – That sigh of relief you heard the other night came from the far, lonely side of Stellos Stadium Friday night where the Nashua High School North football bench was located.

Yes, Titans coach Dante Laurendi could breathe a sigh of relief.

First, a football game was finally played. Second, it was against Nashua South, and the distractions and hype surrounding that rivalry are done for another season, unless the pandemic season of 2020 reaches the scheduled post season and the seedings dictate the Panthers and Titans play again.

And third,his team got a 24-7 win under its belt.

“Yeah,you know, this is always one of those high stress games, rivalry games,” Laurendi said. “You never know what’s going to happen. The kids emotions, they want to beat their friends. And it’s good to get (win) No. 1 and get this one over.”

Of course, it was a different deal, with such limited preparation (two-and-a-half weeks) of practice, and all the necessary protocols for safety – some of which were already in place for concussion purposes, etc.

Plus, the atmosphere was different. The stands were empty behind the North bench, as no visiting fans are being allowed at Nashua athletic events, even Nashua vs. Nashua. Yet the North bench made a lot of noise.

“The kids were great,” Laurendi said. “They were into it today. And we did a good job of keeping momentum, and not letting (South) get rolling.”

Of course, it doesn’t get any easier for the Titans, as Merrimack, after a close win over Bishop Guertin, comes to Stellos on Friday. But an extra week of practice should help everyone, as the delayed start to the season and brief preseason had its effect.

I think you could see a little bit,” Laurendi said. “Some of the rust, some of the penalties, where you don’t scrimmage and have a chance to catch some of those things. But we had a feeling it was going to be that way.”

North the other night was able to diversify its offense, including getting senior Jayden Espinal the ball a few times.

“Jayden’s Jayden, he’s a helluva athlete,” Laurendi said. “Great on both sides of the ball. Like everybody else he cramped up a little bit, but we were fortunate to have a lot of guys contribute.”

Did he have to change his philosophy on how to prepare with the pandemic-forced changes?

“I don’t know about philosophy,” Laurendi said. “But certainly the way you had to go about some things changed, things we’re rushed.

“But we’ll take it. We’re playing.”

NASHUA SOUTH

The Panthers couldn’t get anything going offensively against North, and it may take some time to jell.

“We’re just so young up front,” Panthers coach Scott Knight said. “I thought we could have thrown the ball a little more, but we had some protection issues in the first half.

“It’s just all timing. We’ve got to get some live passing in practice to work on our timing. I think we could have taken advantage of a couple of things but we just couldn’t put it together.”

Panthers senior quarterback Chris Keefe did have a beautiful 71-yard strike down the middle of the field late to Jaden Murphy for a score.

“He can do it,” Knight said. “We saw that earlier, we just didn’t hit it. We saw a couple of other things but we just couldn’t get it in sync.”

KICKING GAME WOES

One of the things that the short prep time seemed to impact is some teams’ kicking games, either punting or place kicking.

For example, Titans had issues with extra points, as Lucas Cunningham, who has a game-winning field goal on his resume, went 0 for 3.

South had trouble punting, partly because it wanted to avoid putting it in the hands of North’s ever dangerous Curtis Harris-Lopez, but also because it was working in a new punter, senior Drew Fleury. The combination led to a couple of shanks that gave the Titans some good field position.

“We didn’t even have a punter, he’s been punting for a week,” Knight said. “He’s just learning how to punt. And he’s been hitting it, he works really hard in practice. We just have to keep working at it.”

And, when Campbell and Monadnock faced each other in Litchfield on Saturday, no extra point kicks were attempted. Both teams went for two-point conversions each time. Campbell went 1 for 3, Monadnock went 2 for 4 in a 28-20 win.

GREAT RIVALRY

Speaking of Monadnock-Campbell, it’s become quite the rivalry in Division III, spurred by back-to-back title game matchups in 2017-18.

“It’s awesome,” said Huskies coach Ryan Avery. “It’s come into a great rivalry, and it’s starting to spread to the other sports, too. It’s been cool.

“I have a great relationship with Glenn (Campbell head coach Costello), I think he’s a great coach. We’ve been having some good battles. We love playing each other, for sure.”

TOP RUSHER

Souhegan High School coach Robin Bowkett called running back Riley Lawhorn a “rushing machine”.

It’s no wonder, as the back ended up with a whopping 236 yards on the ground in Souhegan’s 20-0 win.

Bowkett said any of the miscues or a little sloppiness his team displayed because of the lack of scrimmages, etc. aren’t a concern.

“They’re all fixable mistakes,” he said.

FULL FRIDAY SCHEDULE

This week, it’s all Friday for the locals with three all-area matchups: Merrimack at North, Bishop Guertin at Souhegan, and Hollis Brookline at Milford. Elsewhere, South visits Pinkerton, Goffstown is at Alvirne, and Campbell travels to Pelham.

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