The Nashua North field hockey team celebrates its season-ending win on Wednsday night at Stellos Stadium. The victory ended a program winless streak of 121 games.(Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The final whistle sounded, and they ran out on the field in state championship celebration form.

That’s because their 2-0 win over the Manchester Memorial-Central co-op team Wednesday night at Stellos Stadium felt that way. The Titans ended a program long 121-game winless streak, as it was North’s first field hockey win since 2017.

“It’s amazing, it means the world to them,” Nashua North coach Katlyn Previte said. “They can score, they just need that mindset, right? That really helped them get that motivation to get that ball in the net.”

At halftime, Previte wanted her team to be more aggressive to the net.The Titans had enjoyed a run of penalty corners in the second quarter, but went into the half still scoreless. But not frustrated.

“Nope, they were pumped up,” Previte said. “There were some things we needed to change. Looking up, putting the ball on net, not just passing it.And they just changed their mindset going into the second half and were motivated to score.”

And they did just that, as Jordi Lopez, one of nine Titan seniors playing their final game, got the contest’s first goal with 7:26 left in the third quarter. It was the only goal they’d need, but Anna Foley got another just in case with 34.6 seconds left. Senior goaltender Anya Seo got the shutout.

The Titans had an inkling. Memorial-Central was also winless on the season, and as a result finished 0-16. North wrapped up the year 1-15.

“I went into the game thinking it was going to be very competitive, equally matched game,” Previte said. “They (Manchester) played their hearts out, I was nervious for a little bit because they were running to the ball and moving it. … I was hoping we would come out with a win, but you never know.”

Lopez has been an offensive sparkplug all season, and her persistence paid off.

“Oh my gosh, I’ve been waiting three years for this,” she said. “This mean so much, especially since I scored tonight, it’s even bigger. Especially for our program, too, this is so amazing for us, I can’t wait to see what the future holds. It was our senior night, last game. … This was a long time coming.”

“This was the perfect game to win,” said Foley, later adding “The perfect scenario.”

The Titans had shown glimpses of this. They gave Bishop Guertin a tough game, losing just 1-0, and got on the board for the first time this season exactly a week ago with two goals vs. defending Division I champion Keene.

“We worked really hard for this,” Titan Madelyn Dratch said. “We keep getting coaches saying they’ve never seen our team this strong, and we seriously worked our butts off to get here.”

The timing couldn’t have been better, as the Titans go into the off-season with a great feeling to prepare for next year. The players, including seniors, are helping to build a youth program at the YMCA, and Previte said her returnees “need to get their stick on the ball more than just coming day one of preseason, and they know that.

“Next year will be another challenge, but we’ll grow from that,” Previte said.

The players all paid tribute to the seniors before them that kept working despite the results. As Lopez said, they left the message that “It doesn’t matter how many games you lose, if you put your heart on the field, that’s all that matters.”

“It feels so good,” Titan Alexa Farrell said, “to win in their names.”

“It couldn’t be better,” Dratch said. “This feeling couldn’t be better.”