Nashua South's Ava Kopicko gets ready to let a shot fly ahead of Alvirne's Celia Fain (18) and Alekhya Buddhiraju (10) during Wednesday's Division I clash at Nashua South. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – A game played Wednesday afternoon at a throwback location – the Nashua High School South field complex – deserved a throwback player to be the main focus.

Come on down, Panther Ava Kopicko.

The tall senior is a player that, as in years past, can be moved all over the field, and she proved that with a goal and an assist in Wednesday’s 3-1 win over local rival Alvirne. But this wasn’t at Stellos Stadium, but at Nashua South’s soccer field, where the singular Nashua High team used to dominate opponents with the sounds of cars whizzing on the nearby highway and football practice in the immediate vicinity.

“When we had her in the back, she owned the back,” South coach Curt Dutilley said of Kopicko. “We we had her in the middle of the field, she owned the middle of the field.”

Even Alvirne coach Kevin Brassard – the former Campbell mentor – had to watch in admiration.

“She’s fantastic,” Brassard said. “You can just tell from her body posture that when she gets the ball she knows what she’s doing, she’s a very smart player. We had identified her as someone we had to watch before we even got to the game.”

The win was big for the Panthers, who evened their mark at 2-2 while Alvirne fell to 0-3-1. The game was played on the South grass field since first, it had to be moved back in August from Tuesday’s original date due to a lack of available officials, and second, Stellos was already booked with two games for Wednesday.

It made for a hot day, but the Panthers were able persevere. Dutilley, more well known for being the North head hoop coach, took over as the South girls soccer coach midway through the summer and the Panthers are adjusting, including Kopicko.

“I think he’s given us a new atmosphere to help us get better every day, help improve us,” she said. “And it’s shown in our game and we get better and better game by game.”

With the game tied at 1, Kopicko got the game winner late in the first half on a penalty kick that beat a diving Alvirne keeper Ashtyn Willard (seven saves), who otherwise was keeping the Broncos in it. The penalty kick was thanks to an inadvertent handball by the Broncos’ Samantha Da Silva in the penalty area. Kopicko buried it in the far right corner.

“You’ve got to be confident and just go with your gut,” she said, “and that’s what I did.”

Kopicko set up Ella Bois about 12 minutes into the second half to give the Panthers an insurance goal. Bois actually came into the preseason as a back but Dutilley moved her up front.

South dominated two-thirds of the first half, but until the penalty kick only had one goal to show for it. That in itself was a throwback, a perfectly placed corner kick by Addison Varley for a 1-0 lead 12:30 in.

Alvirne did tie things up 1-1 on a goal from the right side by Haylie Christman off an Angie Rivera feed.

“They came out fast, they came out strong, and were kind of outworking us,” Brasssard said. “So the talk at halftime was we needed to play our game. I saw a different team in the second half.”

But that team couldn’t get another in the net, partly because of the four saves by South keeper Corinne Rivera, one a leaping swat on a Bronco shot that had goal written all over it.

It’s a season of adjustment for the Broncos as well.

“They’re a great group of girls,” Brassard, who guided the Cougars to the 2020 Division III title game. “They’re coming off a tough season, I’m coming in as a new coach, they’re starting to buy in to the way that I want them to play. I’ve seen the effort.”

So has Dutilley.

“We’re still young,” he said. “I don’t think we played our best, but … I think we’re better on the turf.”

But for a throwback day, it wasn’t bad.