South's Kevin Araujo, left, celebrates one of his three goals with teammate Michele Esposito during Tuesday night's Battle of the Bridge at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – You always expect the unexpected in the Battle of the Bridge contests.

What no one expected Tuesday night at Stellos Stadium was that the Nashua High School South boys soccer team would be six goals better than their Nashua North counterparts.

Win, sure. But by a 6-0 score?

“I’ve never seen it since I’ve been here,” South coach Tom Bellen said of such a one-sided win in the rivalry. “The Battle of the Bridge is a great equalizer, but these guys are feeling it. They’re on it right away. They’re getting forward right away, they’re putting teams under pressure right away. A little deflection goal and the floodgates open.”

The goal was by Panther sophomore Kevin Araujo, and that was the first of his three scores.

“Every year this is what we look forward to, to get on the field against North,” Araujo said. “It’s always one of the biggest games we look forward to the whole season. You just got to come out here, play your game and have fun…And as a team we had fun.”

Arajuo’s goal was a blast that got deflected past besieged North keeper Logan DeLeon nearly 10 minutes in. He got another on a free kick 23 minutes later to make it 3-0, and got his third just over 11 minutes into the second half.

“Kevin I think now that he’s tasted it, is going to start rolling,” Bellen said. “Offensively we’re as good as anybody going forward.”

“They’re definitely better on the day than us,” North coach Thomas Prentice said, his team now 2-5-1. “I think they got rewarded with some bounces for how well they did play. This was our first test against at top team in New Hampshire, and it was eye-opening as well, to see the speed of play.”

It’s not like the Titans didn’t try to mount a counter attack and as Bellen said of the opponent, “They never quit, they were still working.” South keeper Antonio Pancine had six saves before giving way to fellow keeper Ray DeRusha later in the second half. But they were no match for the Panthers’ tenacity. South, which led 4-0 at the half, got two goals by Sergio Lopez and one by Michele Esposito. Also playing in goal for North was Justin Ayotte.

“We can try to put this behind us,” Prentice said, his team headed to Keene on Thursday. “They deserved to win today as well as they played. We’ll find a way to bounce back and turn it around.”

Nashua North’s Sevastian Arango, left, South’s Michele Esposito (10) and Titan Daelyn Ruiz watch the ball roll over the end line during Tuesday night’s Battle of the Bridge at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

For the 7-0-1 Panthers, there’s just nowhere else to go but forward at warp speed – the only speed they play at.

“We’re electric,” Bellen said. “We’re fun to watch. We can do some pretty fun things, some pretty good things and they do it well.