Nashua North's Amaury Almonte tries to run through a tackle attempt by Bedford's Evan Cibotti during the Titans' 19-7 win Friday night at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA — The hits were hard, the tenacity was there, and so was the speed.

Deeeeeefense.

Right now, that’s the big strength of the Nashua High School North football team and the Titans showed it in Friday night’s season-opening 19-7 win over the Bedford Bulldogs at Stellos Stadium.

“Obviously, defensively, keeping (the Bulldogs) to seven is outstanding,” North coach Chad Zibolis said his first career win in his Titans’ head coaching debut. “And the positions we put (the defense) in weren’t great. We were putting them in some terrible situations, but coming out of it with just seven points is outstanding.”

North, with four sacks, was just constantly in the Bedford backfield, led by defensive end Toby Brown, Jr.

The Titans held the Bulldogs to a miserly 99 total yards, just 54 in the first half.

“Not only Toby, you’ve got Jack Peters flying around, Jordan (Raisenen-Andino) – he just had an outstanding game,” Zibolis said. “To me, he was almost our player of the game. He was just all over the place.”

“We’ve been working all summer on (defensive pressure),” Brown said. “A couple of young guys from last year stepped up. That’s what we do now, what we’re training to do.”

Offensively, North jumped out in front 12-0 on two field goals of 35 and 38 yards by Dionard Toplana, plus a 16-yard Derek Finlay TD pass in the flat to Amaury Almonte on the first play of the second quarter.

But the Titans were facing a hungry Bedford team that was pushing to score just before the half after a North fumble at midfield. They were at the Titan 8-yard-line when QB Danny Black took a sharp hit from Peters while beginning his throwing motion. The ball popped loose, ruled a fumble, and Brown scooped it up and raced 78 yards as time expired for a game changing TD.

“Jack Peters or Luke Peters came in, the quarterback tried to toss it at the same time,” Brown said. “I just saw grass and took off. I had something like that happen to me last year, and I got caught (from behind), so I hit the gas this time. I wasn’t getting caught this time.”

It gave North momentum, as it could have been 12-7 heading into the locker room. Instead, the Titans were up 19.

“Oh definitely,” Peters said. “Going into the locker room, everyone’s heads were still up, energy was high, and we just came back out and continued the fight.”

It was certainly a questionable call.

“To be honest, I’m going to say no comment,” Bedford coach Zach Matthews said. “The call was made on the field. To be honest, that’s not the reason we lost the football game. … They took it to us up front, specifically their defensive front. We could not sustain any sort of drives. We had to try to make some (plays) in the pass, and then obviously pass protection wasn’t holding up.”

Bedford actually kept the Titans off the scoreboard, but North survived a muffed punt and a couple of other miscues until the ‘Dogs took advantage of a punt return penalty on the Titans to finally break through, Dom Tags running it in from 9 yards out with 4:57 left. Too little, too late.

“We gave them a lot of opportunities with some bonehead mistakes,” Zibolis said. “But I tell my kids, mistakes will happen. But you have to bounce back from those mistakes, and how are you going to go ahead and respond after that mistake. …

“The kids came together and they really did play physical. That’s what we’re going for. Physical, physical.”

For a win-win.