Bishop Guertin's Ethan Labbe is surrounded by Nashua North defenders, including Jordyn Raisanen-Andino (No. 21), John Barry, Jr., (No. 20) and Jack Peters (No. 44) during Friday night's game. The Titans pulled out a 35-28 win. (Photo by Joe Marchilena)

NASHUA – From start to finish, the Nashua High School North football team road a roller coaster of emotion during Friday night’s game against Bishop Guertin.

For Derek Finlay, there was only one thing to keep in mind – winning the game.

The Titans senior quarterback did everything he could to make sure that happened, throwing two touchdown passes, blocking a field goal, and breaking up a pass late in the game.

All that, and a whole lot more, helped North survive for a 35-28 win over the Cardinals in a Division I West Conference game at Stellos Stadium.

“I feel like it was a mindset,” Finlay said. “We had the mindset. I told somebody in third block (Friday) that we weren’t losing this game. Everyone on the team had the mindset.”

There were stretches when it looked like the Titans (8-0) were well on their way, getting out to a 14-0 lead in the first half.

And then there were moments that didn’t look so good, including when the Cardinals (6-2) took a 28-22 lead on a 5-yard touchdown run by Ethan Labbe with 2:11 left to play.

But North answered with a 61-yard touchdown pass from Finlay to Jack Peters, one play after Finlay was sacked by Bishop Guertin’s Jakob Baker for a 16-yard loss to make it second-and-26.

“That was a great ball,” North coach Chad Zibolis said. “We know how much (Matt Santosuosso) at safety likes to jump the run game there, so we take a shot there. We knew we’d have that shot eventually. The only problem was how much time would we have to throw the ball.”

That score tied the game at 28 and the Titans had a chance to take the lead, but the extra point by Dionard Toplana was no good, leaving the teams even with 1:26 to play.

Bishop Guertin took over at its own 19-yard line after the kickoff, but picked up just 2 yards on three passes and was forced to punt.

The snap was short, and in order to keep the ball from bouncing away from him, Baker, the Cardinals’ punter, went down on one knee to scoop it up. The knee was still on the ground when he gained possession of the ball and the head official ruled him down at Bishop Guertin’s 7-yard line.

“That was a huge gift and huge that (the official) caught it,” Zibolis said. “He saw the kid hit his knee on the ground. Sometimes, the ref may miss that. He didn’t miss that and that was huge for us. We’re feeling pretty good at that point.”

Amaury Almonte took a handoff on a sweep and ran around the right side for a touchdown on the next play – the third score of the day for the senior – and the kick gave North a seven-point lead with just 42.5 seconds left.

Finlay finished the night 8 of 13 passing for 156 yards and two touchdowns, with both going to Peters, who had four catches for 114 yards. Almonte returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown and he added a 9-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Bishop Guertin controlled the clock for most of the game, particularly in the second half. The Cardinals ran 42 plays to just 17 for North and had the edge in time of possession 18:22-5:03.

Both Matt Santosuosso and Labbe went over a hundred yards on the ground, with Santosuosso rushing for 137 and a touchdown while Labbe went for 111 and two scores. Santosuosso was also 8 of 17 for 146 through the air with a 21-yard touchdown pass to Ronan Balistreri and an interception.

Special teams plagued the Cardinals, as they also had a field goal blocked by Finlay right before halftime that would have given them a three-point lead at the break.

“There’s a reason that people call it three phases in the game, because they are all really important,” Bishop Guertin coach John Trisciani said. “Sometimes you don’t notice special teams unless they’re bad. The kicking game is huge and obviously we start the game giving up another kickoff to the house.”

The win likely clinches first place in the West Conference for North, which means the Titans would get a first-round bye into the quarterfinals. After a year of comfortable wins – this was North’s first win by less than 12 points – Friday night was a great way to prepare for the postseason.

“This was hard,” Finlay said. “We struggled, a lot. We did our good things, we did our bad things, but it was a struggle. We knew coming into this game that it was going to be a fight. It was really hard. It was a good game.”