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Titans get air game going in 35-6 playoff win over BG

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Oct 31, 2020

Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua North's Jayden Espinal celebrates a TD catch with teammate Issac Smith, much to the dismay of BG's Matt Santosuosso (13) during the Titans' 35-6 playoff win Friday night at Stellos Stadium.

NASHUA – It might have been the one thing the Nashua High School North football team had been lacking during this crazy season.

Not anymore.

The Titans appear to have solved any problem with their passing game at just the right time: playoff time.

Curtis Harris-Lopez tossed three TD pass, two to Lucas Cunningham in a 35-6 rout of Bishop Guertin Friday night in the first round of the Divsion I playoffs at frozen Stellos Stadium.

Practice made perfect.

“We’ve been practicing (the air game) this week,” Cunningham said. “When we needed it, Curtis threw a good ball, I made a catch, it all worked out in the end. … Good practice, everyone focused, no days off.”

“It just felt good,” North coach Dante Laurendi said. “They (BG) were playing real tough defense, putting a lot of men in the box, trying to take the run away, understandably. And (Harris-Lopez) was able to take advantage, made some great throws, kids made some great plays on the ball.”

North (4-0) scored on its first drive, turning a Devin Bracetty interception into a Harris-Lopez 31-yard TD pass to Jayden Espinal. Cunningham booted the first of his five PATs and the Titans had a 7-0 lead with 4:06 left in the first quarter. “I pretty much had a clear shot down the field, basically,” Espinal said.

The next two TD catches belonged to Cunningham, an 8-yard quick slant with six minutes left in the half and a back-breaking 13-yard catch with just three seconds left in the half that made it 28-0 North at the break.

“That was a huge play to break momentum,” Laurendi said, “and the defense took over after that.”

For the Cards, done at 2-4, it was a struggle to move the football with just 68 yards at the half and 140 overall.

“We got a couple of first downs early, but it’s a struggle to run the ball,” Cards coach John Trisciani said. “It’s our five guys against their five or six in the box there, and it just feels like they’re better. That’s a real good team, and hats off to ’em. As long as they stay healthy, they’ll do a real good job (the rest of the playoffs.). …

“You’re not scoring, you’re not going to be very successful. Same story for us.”

The teams traded TDs in a sub-filled.running time second half, with Issac Smith scoring on a 1-yard run for North and BG’s Santosuosso connection, Dylan to Matt, on a 6-yard score.

Before Cunningham’s TD catches, Harris-Lopez broke free for a 40-yard TD run just three ticks into the second quarter. He didn’t play at all in the second half, finishg with 82 yards on nine carries rushing and completed 4 of 5 passes for 63 yards and three TDs.

“He looked good tonight,” Laurendi said, noting that game repetition has helped.

“It’s a situation,” Trisciani said of North’s passing game, “where we’re putting our best guys on their best guys, and they’re winning those matchups.”

Now the Titans have to wait for their next matchup at Stellos, which will be in next weekends’s quarterfinals against the winner of Sunday’s noon Nashua South-Merrimack game.

Whoever wins that will have something else now to worry about when it comes to the North offense.

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