Nashua North's David Pereira, center, shown earlier this season, had two goals in regulation and one in the penalty kick round as the Titans stunned Londonderry in the Division I prelims. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Nashua High School North boys soccer coach Jeremy Zelanes had seen his No. 14 team play perhaps its worst half of the season on Wednesday, trailing No. 3 Londonderry 2-0 at halftime in the Division I preliminary round.

So he told his seniors that it was time to decide whether this was the way they wanted the season to end.

“I challenged them,” Zelanes said, “and they responded.”

North’s David Pereira scored two goals in the second half, getting the second one with under 15 minutes to play, to send the game to overtime, and the Titans (6-7-4) went on to stun the 11-3-3 Lancers in penalty kicks 3-2 (3-2).

“I think it took the first half just to get the nerves out,” Zelanes said. “And our senior leadership decided they didn’t want the season to end here.

“Senior leadership took over today. We had a game plan going in. It wasn’t getting executed and the senior leadership of Brady Martin stepped up.”

There was still plenty of drama, however, as things went through two 10 minute scoreless overtimes to penalty kicks. North kicked in the top half of the frames, with Pereira, Jordan Olliviera and lastly Josh Dos Santos all scoring. Meanwhile, Tyler Byrne made the game-ending stop.

“He played like an All-State goalie today,” Zelanes said.

The Titans now expect to head to face No. 6 Keene on Saturday in the quarterfinals. The two teams played a scoreless tie back on Sept. 26 in Nashua.

Last year North was a lower seed and won two road tourney games to reach the semifinals. The Titans would love a repeat.

“We’ve seen this before,” Zelanes said. “We seem to play our best in the tournament. We didn’t play like a 14th seed today.”