Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua North's Brian Mwangi, left, and Anthony Greene don't care about the spotlight, but their behind the scenes work has been invaluable to the Titans' run to the Division I finals.

NASHUA – They are two of the more prominent members of the Nashua High School North football team’s Unsung Club.

Heroes? Nah. Senior backs Anthony Greene and Brian Mwangi simply do their jobs.

And that’s fine with them, as the Titans prepare for Saturday’s Division I championship game vs. Goffstown at Bedford High School.

North coach Dante Laurendi calls them “Quiet good.”

And as Greene said, “I don’t like to be the center of attention.”

“Of course I love getting the ball,” Mwangi said. “But we’ve got better runners, so we open holes. You trade that for those holes.”

Mwangi has been playing ball since he was nine; Greene has only been playing the game for four years. He always loved football but never took that step, but then he figured high school was as good a time as any to give it a try.

“So I started playing,” he said. “I’d always been into football, but I had never actually played (organized ball).”

And his first practice was an eye opener.

“It definitely was,” he said. “I wasn’t used to the speed and everything.”

But Greene worked hard and caught up.

“It was really fun, just being able to play,” he said, as he started on the freshman team.

“As soon as he started to figure it out, you could see the light switch go on,” Laurendi said. “Running the ball offensively he got more confident, defensively he got more confident, and he’s just continued to do that every year.

“He just shows up, he’s quiet, he does whatever you ask him to do and he doesn’t say anything.”

Greene was first a receiver and a defensive end, but he wasn’t too comfortable as a wideout. It’s been just the opposite as a running back.

“I really didn’t have confidence catching sometimes,” he said. “So that was the thing. But when I moved to running back, it was a lot easier, and I have more confidence playing that. … Just run through someone.”

Of course, Greene, like Mwangi, isn’t the top option, and often blocks for the two who are, Curtis Harris-Lopez and Jayden Espinal. But if the Titans need tough yards, he usually gets the call.

“I’m just doing my job, pretty much,” he said. “It’s not like a big thing.”

But his blocking is.

“You know, in previous years, I didn’t really like it, it wasn’t fun,” he said, beaming. “But I gained some weight (working out) and I can block better now. It got a lot more fun.”

“He carries the ball maybe six times and the rest is grunt work,” Laurendi said. “He puts his body out there all the time. “But he’s a very good runner, a tough runner, a physical kid. He’s been doing an outstanding job blocking for us all year, and he was able to pull off a couple of key runs last week; he has it in him.”

So does Mwangi.

“He does a lot of things that go unnoticed,” Laurendi said. “He’s another guy, like Anthony, can run the ball, block, run down on special teams. … Brian you can plug in, put him on ‘D’ in certain situations. Not afraid to run the ball. It does a lot for your offense when you have somebody like Brian and Anthony; you don’t have to them off the field to run a different type of play.

Mwangi loves blocking.

“I like to get the ball, but as much as I like to get the ball, I like to block for Curtis, open holes for him,” Mwangi said. “And open holes for Jayden, Devin (Bracetty). Just open holes for the whole offense. People might not like (blocking), but I do.”

In fact, he and Greene talk about it a lot, such as who to block, how they move, etc. “It helps both of us,” Mwangi said.

Defensively Greene just tries to read the play and tackle well as a linebacker.

“He was a big part of our defensive game plan in a different position than we normally have him, as more of a rush outside linebacker. Because of some injuries we had to move him around and he made some big plays.”

Mwangi is a busy kid. On Mondays before he can get to practice he picks up his younger sisters at school and takes them home. It’s the least he can do to help out his mom, who actually signed him up for football even if he didn’t want her to when he was nine and the family lived in Dracut, Mass.

“My Mom forced me, actually,” Mwangi said chuckling, adding he moved to Nashua the beginning of freshman year.

When he played in middle school, he was a defensive end because he was bigger than everyone then, if that can be believed. He plays a defensive end type position in North’s system now, but a spot that relies more on speed. But, like Greene, he likes offense better.

Mwangi isn’t sure if he’ll play the game after Saturday. Greene, meanwhile, would like to continue his career at the next level, definitely not wanting Saturday to be his last game. It’s a championship game he never thought he’d be in when he first became a Titan.

“Not really, but it’s been a lot of fun,” he said.

Thanks to the Unsung Club.

“That’s why we’re here,” Mwangi said of the team’s depth and unselfish work ethic. “State championship. We’re finally here. We’ve come a long way.”