Nashua South quarterback Chris Keefe led the Panthers with 90 yards rushing Friday night, including the lone South TD in a 33-7 loss to Pinkerton Academy.

DERRY — Memorial Stadium at Pinkerton Academy might as well feel like the cemetery on the hill to most football opponents. It’s a darn tough place to visit on Friday nights in the fall.

“Especially right now,” said Nashua South head coach Scott Knight after his Panthers fell 33-7 here in a battle of 0-1 Division 1 foes.

“We came over here a little bit light, with a few guys out, and we didn’t need that.”

An already young South squad, dotted with four different sophomores seeing time in the trenches, looked even younger without a trio of returning starters.

Halfback Josh Compoh, middle linebacker Connor Rowsell and senior lineman Aidan Smith all missed the battle with injuries.

The inexperience showed early as the Astros built a 21-0 first-half advantage.

“We played a little bit tight. They lined up a little differently than we expected. You know you prepare for a couple of different situations, and then they come out differently. We just weren’t able to adjust,” said Knight. “I mean our three down linemen are sophomores, my middle linebacker is a sophomore, I look out there, and I’m thinking man, are we young tonight.

“We tried some different things, tried some different guys, we’ve just got to get better.”

Evan Wilson capped an eight-play (all runs) opening drive with a 1-yard TD plunge for a 7-0 lead.

QB Nathan Campos scored just before the end of the first quarter on a one-yarder of his own, and Jacob Albert put up the lone points of the second quarter with a 37-yard dash around left end.

The South offense simply struggled.

“We dropped five passes, five pretty good money shots,” said Knight.

“I thought (Panther QB Chris Keefe) put the ball on some guys. We just have to do a better job with it.”

Pinkerton clearly played with purpose after the opening-night disappointment against rival and defending state champion Londonderry.

“We were a lot better than last week. We’re getting to a normal time now in practice to get us to where I want us to be. That wasn’t there last week,” said Astros coach Brian O’Reilly. “We went back to basics this week. I just thought we did a much better job of execution tonight on both sides of the ball than we had been going on. And that just makes sense.

“They’ve got some speed, some nice athletes out there. I was concerned about their offense because we looked at them on film against North, and they were certainly going to spread us all over the place.”

South, now 2-0, is clearly still a work in progress, and it showed in the second half as the Astros got TD runs from Campos (10 yards) and Albert (33) to break it open.

The Panthers were finally rewarded for their grit when Keefe (17 carries, 90 yards) dashed 60 yards to break up the shutout.

“Credit to them, they sold out (trying to win), including the fake punt (a gutsy 17-yard Drew Fleury run for a first down deep in Panther territory),” said O’Reilly. “They’re a good team and will get better.”

Keefe showed plenty of toughness, facing serious pressure all night. He was 12 for 30, throwing the football, for 82 yards.

Tyler Armeen caught six balls for 38 yards to lead the way, while Jaden Murphy pulled in four catches for 32 yards.

Jason Compoh ran 10 times for 34 yards, earning every inch against a rabid bunch of Pinkerton defenders with his “27” consistently in their crosshairs.

There could be some good news for South, which looks for win No. 1 on Friday night, hosting Alvirne at Stellos Stadium.

“Rowsell, our best defensive player, and Smith could return next week. That will give us more depth,” said Knight.

“We have to play better perimeter defense. This is two weeks in a row that we are getting run off. We have to be better there. We saw some good things. We still have a ways to go.”

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