Nashua South's Christian Khatrox, left, and Rohan Shah celebrate the Panthers' first win of the season Friday night at Stellos Stadium. (Photo courtesy of Nashua Huddle)

NASHUA – Pay day finally arrived Friday for the Nashua South football team.

It wasn’t a display of football artistry, but in the end the Panthers made big stops when they most needed them, took advantage of Keene’s mistakes, and posted their first win of the season, a 40-28 decision at Stellos Stadium.

When it’s middle of October and the winds are getting chilly, the season’s first win doesn’t need to come with glittering style points.

“It was good to get this, to get going and have some success,” South coach Scott Knight said.

When South defensive back Hayden Leone picked off Keene quarterback Aiden Tarr’s pass with time running out, a 12-point lead finally looked like it was enough.

By the middle of the first quarter, South looked poised to turn it into a rout. Sophomore Kyle Emmons kick-started South by taking the opening kickoff 60 yards to the Keene 34. Freshman Sam Levine capped a seven-play drive by going in from the 3, and South had a 6-0 lead 89 seconds into the game.

Emmons’ 10-yard scoring run and Liam Gallagher’s first of four PATs made it 13-0.

Then Keene responded with its relentless, if not always fruitful, running game. A 25-yard run by Seamus Howard, with a South penalty for a horse-collar tackle, set up the Blackbirds at the Panther 22. Tarr finished off the drive seven plays later by taking it in from 1 yard out.

Keene cashed in on Troy Rabold’s interception Tarr found Howard open in the middle of the field for a 44-yard touchdown pass. Davis Glodgett’s point-after gave the Blackbirds their only lead of the night, 14-13, with 2:14 left in the half.

South used that 2:14 well. Karsten Lemire’s 21-yard pass to Jake O’Connor and Emmons’ 10-yard run with 30.3 seconds left in the half put the Panthers back in front, 20-14.

Eight rushes into the second half, Jasiah Sales burst in from 3 yards out to put Keene back in front.

And so the back-and-forth went.

“They stayed with it, they got a few things going with that offense,” Knight said. “When they get going, they’re going to get 4, they’re going to get 3, they’re going to get 4 … We had a couple of costly penalties, and turnovers, they kind of put us in a hole a little bit.”

Lemire rumbled in from 56 yards out at 5:32 of the third quarter and connected with Emmons for a 6-yard TD pass early in the fourth, giving South a two-score lead, 33-21.

But no one felt particularly comfortable until Lemire and Nathan Smith connected for a 17-yard scoring play with 1:28 left.

“It’s like going to work every week and never getting paid. This is a team that put a lot of work in during the off-season,” Knight said. “For a team that didn’t have a lot of experience we had a tough, tough schedule to open the season.

“This is a team that needs confidence. I’m kind of anxious to see how we respond next week going up to Memorial.”