Bishop Guertin's Julia Balzano (8) and Nashua South's Ayvah Chrisman battle for the ball during the first half of Tuesday night's Divison I preilm at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – They kept up their end of the bargain.

The Bishop Guertin High School girls soccer team set up a rematch with Nashua North of last year’s classic Division I quarterfinal with a methodical 4-0 prelim round win over its other city rival Nashua South Tuesday night at Stellos Stadium.

So mark it down: No. 3 BG (13-1-2) vs. North (13-4) Friday afternoon at 3 at Stellos.

The Cards did it with two goals apiece by Kelsey Ackerman and Zoe Horton-Sousa, and two of them coming in the first 10-plus minutes. With the No. 14 Panthers (2-9-6) having scoring problems much of the season, the tone was set.

“We talked about that, it was a goal of ours to start early and get our offensive attack going,” Cards coach Chris Millett said. “We did just that.”

But the Panthers weren’t making it easy. Ackerman converted a feed from Horton-Sousa six minutes in, and nearly five minutes later a hand ball was called, and Horton-Sousa nailed the penalty kick past South keeper Corinne Rivera to give the Cards an all-important 2-0 lead.

“To be fair, that may have proved all the difference,” Millett said. “The two-goal cushion was a lot better than one, and they (the Panthers) were sound in the back. South was organized themselves.”

But always on the defensive. They managed just four shots on goal, with Oliva Baker and Hailey McGowan sharing BG netminding duties (four saves).

“So much momentum created by a penalty kick early in a game,” South coach Curt Dutilley said. “When you go down one, early, we talked about that scenario, keep playing we’ve got a long way to go. But when you follow that up quickly with a questionable hand ball, it just melts your emotion. It takes the steam out of you.”

Add to that the Panthers were playing as many as seven freshmen at times, the 2-0 deficit seemed much more.

Ackerman made it 3-0 5:14 into the second half, and Horton-Sousa, who got her second assist, made it 4-0 in the 53rd minute.

“Kelsey had two hustle plays, she’s been doing that all year long,” Millett said. “So proud of her as a senior. You could tell her grit, her determination, was really on today.”

That’s what Dutilley hopes to be saying in the future as his young team gets more seasoning after an injury plagued fall.

“In the end, we had seven starters in street clothes on the sideline,” Dutilley said. “I’m just happy we got a playoff game under our belt. There was too much experience on (BG’s) side. Quality of touch, ability to move the ball. That’s just skill and experience and having played together. I’m proud of all (the Panthers’) efforts. They played great.”

And now the rematch. The city soccer fan couldn’t have lost, it would’ve been either BG-North or North-South in the quarters. The Cards and Titans met two weeks ago with BG coming out on top 4-1.

“It’s going to be an awesome,” Millett said. “We know they’re going to be coming at us flying, and they’re going to be ready to play, so we’ll need our ‘A’ game and everyone needs to be ready to go.”