Nashua North's Caleb Smith gets control over Nashua South's John McDevitt during Monday night's Battle of the Bridge at South. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It was the kind of battle you love to see, where every match counts.

In the end, it was a match that never took place that counted the most in Nashua High School North’s 37-36 Battle of the Bridge clinching victory over rival Nashua South on Monday night at South’s Medium Gym.

The Panthers, who were down 27-6 at one point, had rallied thanks to five pins in the final six matches for a 36-31 lead. But when it came to the final individual match, heavyweight (285) the Titans had one (David Cole) and South didn’t. Thus a forfeit, six points for North, and the win.

It was the only forfeit by either team in the match.

“The comeback was nice, that’s kind of what we were expecting,” South coach Tony Spero said. “It was a little disappointing because we had some failures earlier on. We needed one of those guys to win.”

North coach Sebastian Arroyo agreed, saying that a couple of those early matches got him the points needed, especially Caleb Smith’s 9-6 decision in a rally over John McDevitt at 138.

“It was a toss-up match, and we got that right at the end,” Arroyo said. “Caleb’s been doing a real good job, getting gritty at the end of matches, staying hungry, and competing and finishing the job when it needs to get counted. He’s doing a really good job finishing stuff out.”

North also got a big win at 190, a major decision 14-1 by Ruben De Jesus over South’s Logan Rice to retake the lead at 31-30. Knowing they had six points in the bag, the Titans just had to win one out of the two matches before heavyweight. South’s Ian McCubrey quickly pinned Ben Laflamme at 215 for a five-point lead that mattered little in terms of the final outcome.

Early on, South’s John Signor pinned North’s Bryce Baumeister to start, but then the Titans won xx straight matches for their lead. Christian Rodriguez got a 10-3 decision over South’s Aarush Dutta, then one of the Titans’ best wrestlers, Owen Gagnon, pinned South’s Robert Signor, and Titan Hayden Durocher got a 13-8 decision over Panther Marlon Gomez at 126. Gavin Page pinned South’s James Nydam-McKenna, Smith got his decision win, and Titan Julian Pallandini pinned Hamir Pathania for the 27-6 lead.

It looked like a runaway, but then the Panthers flexed their middleweight muscles. Benny Byrne pinned North’s Kayden Vallerand-Kenneally at 150, Nick Samos rallied and pinned Yuri Soares at 157, Connor Whitman pinned Fernando Pages Naranjo at 165, and then, with the Panthers within 27-24, freshman Nate Cast pinned North’s Lucas Sisson at 175 in just 26 seconds to give the Panthers the lead back, 30-27.

“For the most part, most of the guys out there got it done,” Spero said. “Most of the team did well, just a few people we were relying on that didn’t get it done. … As soon as the 190 was done, that was it.”

The Titans just hung tough.

“We’re kind of just staying resilient, and remember to go out there and compete,” Arroyo said. “Going out there to compete puts you in the right mindset to score points, even when you don’t need to and minimizes making mistakes.”

Still, with the Divisional Meets just under two weeks away, it was nice to get a meaningful event. North wins the winter Battle of the Bridge 8-6.

“Just like last year,” Arroyo said of how close the match with South was. “Hopefully the tradition continues to build and continues throughout the ages.”