Nashua North's Ousmane Bah Sy (20) and Anthony Ciraso (7) battle Portsmouth keeper Aidan Piela during a mad scramble Tuesday night at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Sometimes chaos can be fun.

With that in mind, Nashua High School North boys soccer coach Thomas Prentice challenged his team after a scoreless first half with Portsmouth on Tuesday.

Challenge accepted.

Prentice wanted more, yes, chaos, and he got it in the second half as the Titans (1-1) achieved a 2-0 victory despite a 12-save effort on the part of Clippers keeper Aidan Piela.

And he also got his first career win as a high school coach.

“Feels like a monkey off my back,” Prentice said. “The first half was good, we were still kind of asleep, trying to do to much with the ball. The second half was we wanted to create more chaos in their box, we got rewarded for it.

“He (Piela) had some real good saves, but we challenged the boys at halftime, and they responded. We were happy to see the level that we can be.”

Still, the Titans had to wonder if they could solve the Portsmouth keeper, who was dazzling. A Titans goal near the end of the first half was disallowed as it was more or less shoveled in.

Finally, though, North broke through, as Gavin Suchecki, just in the game, had a clear shot from about 20 yards out and he moved in even closer and nailed it for a 1-0 lead at 51:50.

“He’s one of the players that I think is under the radar,” Suchecki said. “He didn’t play last year, but was a good track athlete. I’m happy for him that he found a spot for himself in the box, and had the confidence to take it.”

Later, though, Piela robbed Anthony Ciraso twice in a minute, the first time on a header in point blank range and again on a penalty kick at 62: 35.

“He was great,” Portsmouth coach Eric Martens said of his keeper. “In our first two games he’s been a fantastic goalkeeper for us.

“Soccer’s always about momentum shifts. You miss this opportunity here, it gives teams a breath of fresh air. … We’re a really young team, for us we’re happy creating chances, for the growth throughout the year we’d like to see a few of those start to go in.”

Indeed, the Clippers (1-1) had their chances, but not quite as much as North. Alan Hernandez hit the crossbar just above the left post in the first half, and Portsmouth had a couple of empty net views as the Clippers had Titans keeper Logan Deleon (five saves) scrambling at times, but no harm, no foul. Deleon got shaken up in the opener at Hanover but was good to go for his shutout. “When he was called on,” Prentice said, “he rose to the occasion. It may have been a little boring for him at times, which is tough.”

Still, North wasn’t comfortable until Cameron Thompson scored on a booming free kick from about 30 yards out with 2:30 left. Piela got a piece of it but not enough to keep it out. Thompson then kicked his cleats off and did a backflip to celebrate.

“Here in the second half, everyone was involved in the goals that we had,” Prentice said. “Their keeper made some unreal saves, it made it hard, he’s one of the better keepers we’re going to see. That’s why we challenged them to create more chaos, because we weren’t going to beat him with just a shot.”

No, they beat him with two, and a little bit of chaos.