Nashua South's Bruno Goncalves leads the celebration, holding up the Edward Lecius Memorial Trophy after the Panthers' 48-34 win over Nashua North in the Battle of the Bridge Friday night at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – You always want your best players to show up in the biggest games.

If you’re a Nashua High School South football fan, you got your wish Friday night in a 48-34 Panther Battle of the Bridge win over Nashua North before a Stellos Stadium crowd of some 2,000 fans.

That’s because the Panthers’ QB Cody Jackson threw six touchdown passes – five to his favorite receiver, fellow senior Josh Tripp – and ran for another. Career night for them both as South grabbed a 25-15 series lead and improved to 2-1 in Division I, 3-1 overall.

“I agree,” Tripp who overall had nine catches for 228 yards while the Panthers had 541 yards of total offense. “Obviously it’s the Battle of the Bridge, always an outward factor coming into the game so we wanted it a lot more (than usual). But I just think it was game plan, coaches called up the right plays and we were just executing well.”

Jackson was 15-of-19 for 383 yards. His TD throws were 28, 52, 16, 83, 3 and 34 yards and he turned the corner and ran 55 yards with 5:28 left for the clincher that made it 48-21.

“It feels easier every single week as all of our seniors get better,” Jackson said. “It’s kind of impossible to not have a good game throwing when you have somebody like Josh Tripp, (Justin) Fish, Colvin (Levesque) and Preston (Bois).”

And the passes to Tripp were to a receiver who often had no one near him.

“There’s really not a lot to it,” he said “He’s wide open so I threw him the ball. Just like in practice. Playing with him for three years, our chemistry is definitely great. We go to the field sometimes, we definitely have built a strong bond over the three years.”

“It was good to get them on track,” South coach Josh Porter said. “Josh was phenomenal, and Cody obviously …. Those two are incredible. I can’t talk highly enough about those two guys for sure. They worked so, so hard all off season, and it showed up. So proud of them.”

North’s plan was to try to pressure Jackson, and at times the Titans did. But not often enough.

“We knew we were going to try to get to him,” North coach Chad Zibolis said,his team dropping to 2-2 in Division I. “We basically manned up and tried to get pressure and that’s what we stuck with. We knew there was going to be some deep balls that they were going to get on us. They’re unbelievable athletes. We stuck with our game plan, we rattled him here and there.

And the Titans made it a game at one point, closing to 34-21 on Brady O’Connor’s 56-yard TD pass to Jayden Beaulieu late in the third quarter. O’Connor completed 15 of 19 for 207 yards and three scores.

“I’m super proud of the kids, “hey did not back down, they continued to play. Being the underdog, they didn’t back down at all. They kept playing and playing hard. I was proud of them for that.”

It was a crazy game. You got a hint of it when, after a 73-yard TD pass to Tripp was called back on a hold on South’s first possession, Colvin Levesque was alone for a 28-yard TD and Bois made the PAT kick to cap a 13-play opening drive.

Then Tripp got going for his TD receptions of 52 and 16 yards, and it was 20-0 early in the second quarter, then another Tripp TD, just your usual 83-yard touchdown, made it 27-0.

The Titans finally responded on a Beaulieu 13-yard TD reception from O’Connor with just 6.6 seconds left in the half to make it 27-6 at the break. It was set up by a 47-yard O’Connor throw to Titan senior Dylan Noble, who also had a 47-yard TD catch and 51-yard kick return.

Nashua South’s Colvin Levesque cruises into the end zone ahead of North’s Jedwin Lluveres for the game’s first score in Friday night’s Battle of the Bridge at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The second half was crazy. After a scoreless possession for each team – the exception rather than the rule in this one – North made it 27-14 with a 47-yard TD pass from O’Connor to Noble, and two-point Harrison Joshi run with 5:27 left in the third. South answered just a minute later, a 37-yard catch-and-run along the sideline by a tackle-breaking Fish down to the 1 setting up a 3-yard flip from Jackson to Tripp, 34-14. Then North on Beaulieu’s 56-yarder to make it 34-21 late in the third.

The Titans had the chance to make it even closer, but a drive stalled at the South 31 three plays into the fourth quarter. Six plays later Jackson hit Tripp splitting the defense on a 34-yard score and that left little doubt after Bois’ PAT, 41-21, with 8:44 left.

The Titans had two scores left in them. Joshi flipped a pass to Noble who took it 51 yards to the house with 4:08 to go, and Beaulieu had 52-yard scoop and score off a muffed South handoff with 2:56 left.

“Having a second half like this where the kids didn’t give up was a huge thing for us,” Zibolis said.

But they came after the play when Jackson turned the corner on a run for his 55-yard score and a 27-point South lead with five-plus to play.

“Even on that I really didn’t do anything,” Jackson said. “I just ran a straight line because Fish had a great block on the left sideline.”

And then he said the words that were evident by those who saw it.

“It’s easy,” Jackson said, “when you have players like this.”

NORTH WINS OVERALL BATTLE

While South won Friday, North clinched things with a freshman football win and leads the overall Fall Battle of the Bridge 9-7 with JV football set for today.