Nashua North back Dharyus Sisay tries to get around Bedford's Dean Poltronieri in the first quarter of Friday night's season opener at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The Bedford High School football team looks like it hasn’t missed a beat after winning two straight Division I championships.

And Friday night, that was bad news for Nashua North.

The Bulldogs, led by highly regarded running back Brody Helton, stormed past the Titans by dominating in the second half en route to a 35-3 season opening win.

“They’re athletic, they’re big, they’re strong, they’re just a good football team,” North coach Chad Zibolis said. “That being said, we did exactly what we wanted to do, we kept the ball out of their hands, the first half was amazing. We had two opportunities to punch it in and a couple of mental mistakes kept us out of the end zone….

“And then the wheels came off the bus there in the third quarter.”

“It was a good start, we’ll take it,” Bedford coach Zach Matthews said. “I think every year it gets harder to do what we do, right? The target gets bigger on your back, everybody knows what we bring to the table. … Our kids know we have to step up in games like this.”

And they did just that as Helton, despite cramping up in the second half, rushed for 169 yards and two TDs while first year varsity starting QB Jack Maye tossed three touchdown passes.

North took the opening kickoff and drove down to the Bulldog 8, chewing up nine minutes, but came up empty with a missed field goal and the ‘Dogs got a 19-yard TD run on their first possession to grab a 7-0 lead. That set the tone right there.

“That was really big, it’s a different game at that point,” Zibolis said. “That hurts. I talked to the kids. We did not physically get beat, we didn’t quite finish the drives.”

Including their second drive, which went 51 yards in 13 plays. But at least the Titans got three points out of it on a 26-yard field goal by Marco Raposo. But North went into the half down 14-3 when Maye, despite being hit as he threw, found Dustin Westcott for a 31-yard score with 49 seconds left in the half and a 14-3 lead at the break.

“He was behind some pretty good players,” Matthews said of Maye, a senior who simply waited his turn. “He knows the system like the back of his hand, and I think that poise and his play is just a testament to his believing in the process. … He’s waited a long time for this.”

Nothing went North’s way in the second half, even with Helton bothered by leg cramps. Still, his 32-yard run set up a Maye-to-Peter Suozzo 10-yard TD to help make it 21-3 five minutes into the second half. A 50-yard Bennett Matthews punt return set up a 2-yard Helton TD, and it was 28-3 with 5:12 left in the third. That pretty much did it, although a Helton 40-yard run set up a 33-yard Maye-to-Matthews TD late in the third to wrap up the scoring.

“You can only hold on to him for so long,” Zibolis said of Helton. “He’s eventually going to break a few, we expected it.”

Meanwhile the Titans were without one of their sparkplugs, senior back/receiver/linebacker Luke Peters, who injured his shoulder in the preseason and is working to get back soon. Darius Smith rushed 15 times for 51 yards as a workhorse, but this Titan offense is a work in progress.

“I’m proud of the kids, I really am,” Zibolis said. “The kids played exactly the way we wanted to, you look at that first half we moved the ball… We finish those drives, it really is a different football game.”