Nashua South's Josh Compoh breaks away from Alvirne's Anthony Ferullo on his way to a 202-yard rushing night, leading the Panthers to the 46-14 victory.

HUDSON – You can prepare for Nashua South’s Josh Compoh, game plan for him, mimic his every move through a week of practice. Nothing compares to the real deal.

“He’s a phenomenal athlete, tough runner, tough to bring down, and we struggled tackling him,” said Alvirne High coach Tarek Rothe.

“We had a great week of practice with it, and it we just struggled to make some key missed tackles tonight.”

The senior Compoh owned the field on Friday night, rushing for 202 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries, lifting South over Rothe’s host Broncos, 46-14.

“Last week we played arguably the best game we played all season, and we just came up short (28-21 to powerhouse Pinkerton Academy),” said Compoh, who also caught three passes for 64 yards before hitting the sideline for good just a minute into the fourth quarter.

“We’re focusing in on the good things, and staying together as a team, motivating each other, staying positive through the week.”

South improved to 2-5 with the victory, disappointing of course, but you could hardly tell with the energy the Panthers brought to Alvirne on Friday night.

“Obviously, it’s been a rough season,” added Compoh. “We just said let’s come out here and let it all out and have fun. The seniors know this is our last season, just focus on having fun and playing for each other.”

Compoh took simple inside zone rushes and turned them into highlight-reel stuff, both by bulling over Broncos and dancing around them.

He hit paydirt on runs of 1, 11 and 18 yards in the first half, and QB Mike Rutstein added a four-yard dive as South cruised into halftime up 27-7.

The Broncos were game, but with starting QB Jacob Bradshaw sidelined, winless Alvirne faced a monster challenge.

“Give this team a lot of credit. They come back to work every week, and they prepare like they’re an undefeated team,” said Rothe, whose club fell to 0-6.

“I give a lot of credit to them. We’re preparing like we’re a playoff team week in and week out. And we attack every week the same. To the kids’ credit, they’re keeping their chins up and they are working hard.”

Junior Zach Peters made his first career varsity start behind center and did not back down.

On the night, Peters was 11 for 30 for 157 yards with an 11-yard TD pass to Cole Bucknam (3 catches, 49 yards) and a pair of interceptions.

The South defense pressure the junior all night long with drive-killing defensive end Jake O’Connor coming up with a sack to blunt one possession and a crucial fourth-down stop to turn the Broncos over on another.

Juniors Karsten Lemire and Matt Harding hauled in the interceptions.

“I think the kids settled down and played better assignment football last week,” said South coach Scott Knight. “It’s been a bit of a road to try to get us in the right spots. Last week the kids finally started lining up right and doing some of the right things. I thought they did a good job tonight.”

Rutstein, who finished the night 6 of 13 for 132 yards, tossed a 43-yard TD pass to junior Antonio Martinez. The senior signal-caller also added a second-half TD run, while Andrew McKay closed out the South scoring with a late touchdown.

Senior speedster Lorenzo Abreu complemented Compoh nicely, running six times for 83 yards, helping South total 355 yards on 47 rushes as a team.

“We felt we could establish the run tonight, and that’s what we did,” said Knight.

All the news was not good, though, as senior halfback/linebacker Connor Rowsell left the contest early with what looked like an ankle injury.