Nashua South's Sergio Lopez leaps to control the ball against Alvirne's Anthony Branco (4) as fellow Panther Alex Sennik looks on during Tuesday's Divison I clash at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Get out of the way this fall if you don’t want to get run over by the Nashua High School South boys soccer team.

The Panthers are on a mission, it seems.

“They got some swagger to them, man,” South coach Tom Bellen said after his team stunningly decimated a decent Alvirne team 7-0 with six second half goals. “I think they’re a little bit upset they got bounced early (from the tournament by Pinkerton) last year, and everybody kind of counted us out for this year.”

Not any more. Both teams came into yesterday’s game at sun-splashed Stellos Stadium with 2-0-1 records. South took a 1-0 lead into the half thanks to a goal by Michele Esposito nearly midway through the half, off a nice feed by Damien Rodrigues, who him self had two tallies.

But in the second half, the Panthers turned the game into their own personal shooting gallery, as both Bronco keepers Danny Burke and Brendan Funk were besieged, constantly dealing with the Purple Wave.

Rodrigues is the engine, as his two goals and two asssits showed. After Esposito scored his second goal just over a minute into the second half, Rodrigues scored a 34 seconds later, then got another nine minutes later to put things out of reach at 4-0.

“Damien right now is an absolute menace,” Bellen said. “He’s a menace. Good for him. He’s getting a little stronger, doesn’t get bounced off the ball as much. They’re all buying into it and playing team soccer.”

What happens to turn a game like this into a sudden blowout?

“I think it’s like anything,” Bellen said. “Sometimes you get that early goal, and the floodgates open. It gets contagious, then everybody wants to do it. We’ve been working on some fast restarts like we scored on … again, you get one or two, everyone gains that confidence.”

It had to be tough for the Broncos, who started the game off with some pressure but then South pretty much controled the first half. But Alvirne thought it could counter that in the second 40 minutes.

“Yeah, it was just a failure to adjust,” Alvirne coach Christien Dubois said. “We had a clear game plan going into it. We felt like we were competitive in the first half as much as they were controling the game. We were mentally and physically prepared for that.

“In the end, we tried to make some adjustments and they failed to execute on it, plain and simple.”

Vitor Gabriel Da Silva had a goal and an assist, while Alex Sennik and freshman Ethan Fournier scored the other goals. Other assists went to Kevin Araujo (two), Steve Long and Mateo Suljic. The loneliest guy on the field had to be South keeper Antonio Pancine with just one save.

Count Bellen as a believer. He wasn’t sure before the season began, though.

“They’d been telling me all summer they’re ready to go, and I was like ‘I don’t know, we’ll see’,” he said. “And now, like I said, they’ve made me believe. I’m a believer.”

“They played a great game,” Dubois said. “They had a great game plan, excellent attacking play. We felt that we were making some gaps in their defenses in the first half. But at the end of the day, they made the adjustments, and we didn’t.”

The Nashua South boys soccer players had a lot to celebrate on Tuesday during a 7-0 win over Alvirne at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“I think what happens sometimes is we make good teams look bad,” Bellen said. “They’re (the Broncos) not a bad team. They’re not a 7-0 team (game score). They’ll be in the hunt.”

And if the Panthers, who unfortunately have a week to try to keep that energy bottled up until they face another good team, fellow 3-0-1 Merrimack next Tuesday at Stellos, keep this up, they’ll be the hunted.

“They’re a spunky group, man,” Bellen said. “They’re on it in practice. They listen, they buy in to every single thing that we work on. They listen, being creative up top.”

Because they don’t want to be anywhere near the bottom. And they won’t be.

Purple Reign? Try the Purple Wave, and move out of the way if you see it coming.