Nashua North's Jon Kamaniris, right, knocks the ball away from Nashua South's Cody Goode during the Battle of the Bridge at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – This one, finally, was really a battle.

The Nashua High School North-South rivalry had been completely one-sided over the last several years, but the Titans ended that on Thursday night, rallying for an 11-9 Battle of the Bridge win at Stellos Stadium.

It was a highly entertaining, competitive game that in some ways didn’t have a loser, while city lacrosse fans were the clear winners.

“Absolutely,” North senior standout Jack Peters said after his four-goal effort. “This was the best way to play lacrosse. Competitive, against people you like, against people you don’t like, it’s awesome. I love this.”

North is having its best season in recent years, now 4-6.

“It’s enormous for this program,” North coach Matt Muser said. “The last couple of years, obviously since I took over, we were struggling to get one, two wins. … It’s got to put a smile on their faces that all the hard work is translating into wins. This is obviously the first time I’ve beaten South since I’ve been here.”

South was decimated by graduation and started out the season 0-5 before sophomore scorer Beau Dubois got medical clearance. He’s made an immediate impact; the Panthers won two straight thereafter, but yesterday’s loss was their fourth straight.

Still, the Peters-Dubois battle was worth seeing. Dubois finished with five goals while teammate Broden Landsteiner had four, his last one coming with 10:07 left in the game to give the Panthers a 9-7 lead. They could taste it, and the Titans knew they were in trouble.

“It was tough,” Peters said. “I’m not going to lie, there haven’t been that many points in the season when we’ve gone on 3-0, 4-0 runs. It was a little bit of a setback.”

But North survived penalties – they were two men down at one point – and got goals from Ashston Carroll (two on the night) in close with 5:11 left, and then Alec Jenkerson got the equalizer at 9 with 4:31 to play.

With the Titans shorthanded again, Peters zipped down field and scored what proved to be the game winner with 2:39 to play. Austin Kamaniris finished the run with 1:04 to play, the second of his two goals. Nick Wilkinson added two on the night also with an assist.

“I just think the emotion, the composure, we kind of let down a little bit,” South coach Delanoy said. “When we got in the man-up situations, we started to force the ball, started to do things we weren’t used to doing, things that were uncharacteristic. It’s frustrating, but I think it’s a learning experience for the kids.”

“We made a couple of key saves, got a couple of very key ground balls from Ty (Washam), and from our ‘D’ middies and were able to get the ball up,” Muser said. “Once we got the ball up and down to our attack. … then the tide kind of turned, right, they started getting penalties. Just being aggressive on the offensive end.”

Jace Colon had 10 saves in the North goal but South’s Jacob Lynn was outstanding with 13. “He made some outstanding saves,” Muser said. “Five, six, seven yards away it was a little easier to move the goalie.”

The game was close throughout. Peters scored twice for a 2-0 Titan lead and then Dubois rattled off three and South led 3-2 after one and his goal with 12 seconds left in the half sent things into the break tied at 5.

Their battle was incredible.

“It was great,” Delanoy said. “Two very good athletes, they know the sport, so it’s a chess match.”

“It was awesome,” Peters said. “I give props to Beau, he’s a great player, he had a great game today.”

“It’s fantastic, it’s great lacrosse,” Muser said. “Jack’s my best defenseman, so I’m going to put him on (Dubois) and let them go toe-to-toe. It’s what both these programs are build on right now, those two guys.”

And they meet again on May 17 at 4 p.m. at Stellos, and the winner will take home the Monsen Cup, in honor of former South coach Bill Monsen, who passed away suddenly in December.

“Looking forward to playing them again,” Delanoy said. “Hopefully the result will be different.”

Either way, the enertainment value will be the same.

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