Telegraph photo by TOM KING Londonderry's Wil Reyes (4) tries but can't keep Nashua North's Curtis Harris-Lopez from getting in the end zone during Friday night's 36-7 Titans win over the Lancers at Stellos Stadium.

NASHUA – Sometimes the film does lie.

Londonderry High School head football coach Jimmy Lauzon thought so after he saw the Nashua High School North football team up close on Friday night, as the Titans manhandled a good Lancer team, 36-7 at Stellos Stadium.

“They’re (the Titans) as good as advertised, and we knew coming in we’d have to play really, really well,” Lauzon said. “I didn’t see them in person (beforehand), but they’re faster than they looked on film, their guys are bigger than they looked on film. They’re the real deal.”

And that deal torched the defending Division I champion Lancer defense for 410 yards rushing, with Curtis Harris-Lopez leading the way with 130 yards and three TDs on just nine carries, and Jayden Espinal with 116 and a score on nine carries as well.

“Obviously with us wanting to play in the championship (last year), it was exciting to come and play them today,” Harris-Lopez said. “A 36-7 win, you can’t ask for anything better than that.”

“It’s a little too early to declare anybody the best team in the state,” North coach Dante Laurendi said, his team now 3-0 and set to play in whatever playoff is determined by early next week. “It’s the year we’re in. It’s the year of the unexpected. … We’ll just go along as far as we (can).”

The Titans got contributions from a lot of players. After shaking the rust off of not playing last week after their scheduled game with Alvirne was cancelled, the Titans got in gear in the second quarter.

“We needed it against these guys, they’re really good and they give you so much to prepare for,” Laurendi said of his team’s diversity on offense. “The kids stepped up tonight. … Some of our guys stepped up and made really big plays.”

Perhaps the biggest was by North defensive Liam Novak when he reached up and picked off Lancer quarterback Dylan McEachern in the second quarter near the Lancer 20-yard-line with North already up 6-0 on an Espinal 9-yard run. It led to Harris’ first TD of the night, a 4-yard run that, with a two-point conversion, put the Titans up 14-0 in with just over eight minutes to play in the first half.

Harris-Lopez added a 1-yard TD run with 3:36 left in the first half to make it a 20-0 game at the break. But the Lancers started the third quarter recovering an on-sides kick and turned it into a McEachern 44-yard TD pass to Zach Fawcett to put the Lancers back in the game at 20-7 just over a minute into the second half.

Londonderry was in position to score again after Harris-Lopez was intercepted on a screen pass play by Lancer lineman E.J. Donovan at the North 28. But on third and goal from the 5, an errant snap was recovered by the Titans’ Max Ackerman and the threat was averted.

“In the second half, that was huge for our defense,” Laurendi said. “We did a good job stopping momentum and then making some big plays.”

Those were an 81-yard TD run by Harris-Lopez three plays later to help make it 28-7, and a 32-yard TD run by Devin Bracetty on the first play of the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“It’s hard to contain (Harris-Lopez) for an entire game,” Lauzon said. “And not just him, they had four or five guys that touched the ball.”

And there is strength in numbers for the Titans.

“Most likely the road will go back through them at some point,” Lauzon said, “for whoever wants to win it.”

And seeing in person, he’ll attest, is believing.