Nashua South's Colvin Levesque and Central's Owen Taylor-Gelinas can't reach a pass intended for Taylor-Gelinas during Saturday's game at Manchester's Gill Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER – Saturday was just an other measuring stick day to see how far the Nashua High School football team has come in a year.

Last year, they lost in the rain 20-8 to Manchester Central. But fast forward to yesterday, and pretty much the same Panther team walloped the Little Green 41-15 at sun-splashed but more-than-half empty Gill Stadium.

“Same kids, exactly, same coaching staff,” Manchester Cenral coach Ryan Ray said. “If you can get kids to buy in, and I think Coach (Scott) Knight and his staff are getting a lot of kids to buy in and work hard, and they’re really making the transformation (from last year) into something potentially real special.”

The Panthers (4-0 Division I, 5-0 overall) trailed 7-6 after one quarter, but from then on reeled off 35 points on QB Cody Jackson TDs of 18 and 40 yards, Sam Levine’s 9-yard scoring run, Jackson’s 49-yard TD toss to Josh Tripp, and John McDevitt’s 8-yard run.

Pretty efficient.

“For the most part, we got going and did the things we can do,” Knight said.

Things did start flat for South, starting with a bobble on the opening kickoff, an interception by Jackson, and Central’s 21-yard TD toss by Caydin Salvi to Owen Taylor-Gelinas just over two minutes into the second quarter that helped Central get its only lead. South had struck first with 1:36 left in the first quarter on Josh Tripp’s 10-yard TD run for a 6-0 lead (two-point attempt failed).

“We were flat today,” Knight said. “They (Central) were going so slow, great game plan on their part, slow it down a lot. We’re used to going, and we play a lot of teams that like to go, to. I don’t know if it affected us, we need to adapt to that slow pace.”

But no matter, the Panthers picked it up, just five plays after the Little Greens’s score with Jackson’s 18 yard jaunt. Preston Bois’ PAT gave them a 13-7 lead they never relinquished. They added to it when Jackson ripped off a 40-yard run with 1:51 left in the half, helping South take a 20-7 lead into the break.

Nashua South’s Cody Jackson tries to fend off Central defender Liam King duirng Saturday’s game at Gill Stadium in Manchester. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Nashua South’s Cody Jackson tries to fend off Central defender Liam King duirng Saturday’s game at Gill Stadium in Manchester. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Jackson finished the game with 80 yards and two TDs on just four carries, a dual threat as he also tossed a 49-yard TD pass to Tripp with just 3.3 seconds left in the third quarter that gave South a commanding 34-7 lead entering the final quarter.

“He’s a threat, he’s starting to see some escape hatches,” Knight said. “His acceleration the last few weeks. … It’s become a thing now. Just another weapon.”

Central fell to 0-5, and Ray gave all the credit to the Panthers.

“We didn’t execute real well, and I think that’s because South was so good and so aggressive, they were just flying around the ball,” Ray said. “They were doing a lot of good things. On a day like today, you have to give credit to South.”

That’s been the case the first five weeks, right?