Nashua Ward 9 Alderman John Sullivan took to social media on Friday night with a screen shot of a broadcast of the Nashua High School South vs. Bishop Guertin Division I quarterfinal game at Stellos Stadium.

“Love that Nashua has a big-time rivalry on thefootball field!” he wrote.

Well he got the rivalry part right, but big time?

More like one-sided.

Yes Friday night’s 31-14 Division I quarterfinal Panther win over the Cardinals made it a sweep for a second straight year. The pattern was the same; in 2024 South won in overtime early in the season and then rung up 59 points on the Cards in a Division I prelim. This year, the Panthers rallied from being down 24-8 at the half to win the regular season battle 28-24 over a month ago. Then, one round later than last year, last night’s game was close until South broke it open in the second quarter for a 24-7 halftime lead.

Simply put, BG’s defense inexplicably couldn’t handle South’s passing attack, which ended with South’s Josh Tripp wide open on a fourth down play in the end zone for a third quarter TD that took the air out of BG’s comeback hopes. As Guertin coach Anthony Nalen said, “We should have had two on Tripp, we had no one on Tripp. So go figure that one.

“When they score at that rate and we don’t score, we’re out of the game. … It just didn’t bend our way tonight, they’re a real good team.”

It’s been like that over the years for BG football.The Cards have had good regular seasons only to face a juggernaut in the playoffs; Pinkerton was that team for a couple of years, and the last two it’s been South.

While the Panther offense was giving Guertin all kinds of fits, South’s defense was also making plays. Lineman Kevin Hamel was everywhere, and he knocked down a key screen pass attempt in the first half that helped squelch a Cardinal drive.

“It starts with the preparation at practice all week,” Hamel said. “The film room. We were ready for this team. Even a couple of weeks ago when we played them, we weren’t sound on defense, but it showed up tonight.

“Definitely the energy was contagious, offense and defense. As long as we come out with high energy, we’re the team to beat.”

South coach Josh Porter didn’t want to get in a shootout with the Cardinals, just like Nalen didn’t want to on his end. It looked early on like that might happen, but nope.

“They’re (BG) a very very tough team to plan for on the defensive side of the ball,” Porter said. “We had a hard week of practice getting after it and preparing. … Keep the game plan simple for defense and just fly around and make plays. We like to say we like our dudes on our side of the ball. So simplifying it, let them play fast and get to the football.”

It was a tough matchup for Guertin. The Cards could run the ball, but they had to abandon it after their final scoring drive of the season to start the second half. Junior QB Nate Bowen had to try to figure out a South secondary that’s been together it seems since Stellos Stadium was built. They’re seniors, they’re smart and they were able to shut down BG’s top receiving threat, junior Rocco Roy.

“Rocco’s their main guy, they try to free him up a lot of ways,” South two-way stndout Colvin Levesque said. “We watched some film, so when he runs that curl route he likes to run, he has his outside foot out, so shout out to Justin (Panther junior corner Fish) for calling that out. Early in the game, before he figured out we knew, we were kind of able to shut that play down because we knew when he was running.”

The Bishop Guertin football team says its good-byes on Motta Field after falling to Nashua South in the Division I quarterfinals Friday night at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

There you go. The Cards went into the locker room quickly after the game, only to re-emerge and gather on the field for one last time as a group, with hugs galore.

“Proud of the seniors, though,” Nalen said. “That’s a great group, they definitely built the foundation for us. We’ve got a lot of young guys that played tonight, so I think the future’s bright.”

Could be, should be, as next year will be Nalen’s first four-year group running the Cardinals, and he’d like to have them be the team in control rather than the other way around.

But the last couple of years, it’s been Purple reign in the city.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on X @Telegraph _TomK.