Nashua South's Josh Compoh gets ahead of Nashua North defender Toby Brown, Jr. (57) during Friday night's dramatic 43-42 Panther win at Stellos Stadium.

Have you recovered from what could very well have been the Game of the Year?

Yes, we’re talking about this past Friday’s Nashua North vs. South Battle of the Bridge that will certainly impact the season one way or another, with the Panthers winning it 43-42 on an untimed down touchdown run by back Josh Compo and subsequent very close two-point conversion run-fumble-recovery by Connor Rowsell.

One team will try to use it as a springboard, the other will try to learn from it and move on.

Move on from what many might consider the best North-South game in the rivalry’s 17-year, 35-game history.

“Probably,” Nashua North coach Dante Laurendi said. “The effort was great on both teams.”

“How many games go down to where there’s no time left?” Nashua South coach Scott Knight said. “We had a Thanksgiving game when we stopped them on the 1-yard line, that was crazy. And the year we were state champs we won on a field goal. We’ve had some crazy ones.”

The emotion certainly played a huge part, as all one had to see was the Panthers’ wild celebration run to the middle of the field after their conversion was ruled good.

Now South (1-3) takes on 3-1 Bishop Guertin on Friday, a game in which South can really throw the conference into chaos with another win.

“I feel like we’re a sparring partner that could probably knock someone out,” Knight said, adding they don’t make it to the main event.

Some things stood out. One, the Panthers discovered some things that allowed QB Mike Rutstein to be effective running the ball. That allowed back Josh Compo, who had a monster game running the ball, the ability to take a few plays off here and there. He hadn’t been able to finish games because of cramping, etc. in previous games, and certainly having him at the end paid off big time.

“We were able to get him off the field more than we have, and get Connor (Rowsell) off the field,” Knight said. “Hopefully as we get into this more, we can do that more with those guys.”

South moved the ball despite being without junior lineman Colby Vancelette (ill), but got a good game out of Parker Fleury in his place.

Will this be the start of something for the Panthers? Knight talked about how last year’s Merrimack playoff loss was still a cloud hanging over the team for the first three weeks of this season.

“I just feel we’ve had this cloud over us since then,” he said. “We’ve definitely faced some adversity.

“Hopefully we can build on this. We’ve got Guertin next, and we’ve got our swag back. When you’ve lost three games the way we have … A good one to get.”

TITANS LOOK TO RECOVER

“We just didn’t have the ball last, and we didn’t stop them when we needed to,” Laurendi said. “We were on the other side of the coin (with comebacks) the first few weeks.”

Thus how will the 3-1 Titans, who head to Keene, respond? They were two plays from cementing themselves atop the West conference at 4-0.

“We’ve had games where we’ve had to battle,” Laurendi said. “And that’s good. Anytime you can battle – it’s not fun to lose, but learn from it and get better. It’s experience. Learn from it and move on.”

GUERTIN IN MIDST OF BIG STRETCH

Guertin coach John Trisciani, whose team beat Merrimack 48-35 on Saturday night, knows that the Cards are in the middle of a three game stretch vs. the Tomahawks, South and North that basically could determine, well, how the West is won.

“It’s really interesting,” Trisciani said. “Every game is really important, but we knew looking at the schedule, that (games vs.) Merrimack, South, North, that was really going to have a big part in determining what happens in our conference for playoffs.

“You don’t want to overlook anybody, so you want to take it week by week by week. This was big. Next week’s really big too, It seems like each of these teams playing in the South (this year’s cross-conference playoff cluster partner for the West) are really competitive. And Keene is rattling off wins, too. Each game is competitive, which is just good for high school football.”

BG’S BELLAVANCE SHINES

Guertin back Charlie Bellavance had his best game as a varsity player Saturday night, and Trisciani said it’s what he’s fully capable of.

“We’re really hard on him,” Trisciani said. “It’s just because the expectation is so high, we know how good he can be, and he’s getting better each week. He’s running hard, he’s very physical, and he’s deceptively fast. And he’s not coming off the field. He’s a linebacker and he’s on special teams.”

Trisciani said the Cards are trying to incorporate a few more players into their scheme;thus the emergence Saturday night of sophomore QB Mike MacDonough who tossed a TD pass to starting QB Matt Santosuosso, who could be a very effective receiver if he’s not taking snaps.

“He’s our best receiver, our best runner, our best quarterback, our best defensive player,” Trisciani said. “So he does a lot. So we don’t feel we’re losing somethng by using him at receiver. Maybe we’re gaining something.”

The Cards did lose a player the other night early in the game as linebacker Dante Nieto suffered a leg injury that looks like it will keep him out a while, perhaps for the season.

“He’s got a lot of energy, he’s very tough,” Trisciani said. “If he’s out, which is very possible, that would be a big loss. He’s been all over the place. He was kicking for us, holding, doing everything that we asked him to do. That would be a tough one.”

MERRIMACK

The Tomahawks, now 1-3, know what they need to do to improve.

“We can score,” Merrimack coach Kip Jackson said. “But allowing teams to score 48 points is not a recipe for success.”

Merrimack likes an up-tempo style with their always moving quarterback Kyle Crampton, who had his second straight 200-yard throwing game, and all-everything receiver Shea Goodwin.

THIS WEEK

The key local game is BG vs. South at Stellos on Friday. Merrimack has a tough one vs. Pinkerton on Friday night in Derry, with the Astros coming off a tough loss to arch rival Londonderry.

North is at Keene on Saturday afternoon, while Alvirne is scheduled to be at Londonderry that afternoon as well, but remember, the Broncos-Salem game Friday was cancelled due to COVID protocols, so the status of this week’s game will have to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, in Division II, Milford (3-1) hosts Bow on Friday while Souhegan (2-2) is at Lebanon (4-0) in a couple of biggies. The Spartants, it appears, will be without back Caden Zalenski for the foreseeable future, but Logan Barnhill has picked up the slack.

Hollis Brookline (1-3) is at Manchester West (2-2), the Cavs having lost three straight while the Blue Knights have won two straight.

Campbell (3-1), coming off the loss to Trinity, is at Winnisquam on Saturday night.

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