Nashua South's Justin Fish, right, was there if BG's Rocco Roy could have hung on to the football during Friday night's Division I quarterfinal at Stellos Stadium. (Telgraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Cody Jackson hopes Friday night’s Division I quarterfinal vs. Bishop Guertin wasn’t his last game at Stellos Stadium, since it’s the site of the state title game.

But he sure left an impression that will be tough to match.

Jackson carved up the Cardinal secondary almost at will as the No. 4 Panthers dominated their No. 5 city rivals to the tune of a 31-14 win that puts them in the semifinals vs. No. 1 Bedford next Friday for the first time in over a decade.

“He’s incredible,” Porter said of his quarterback, who threw for 220 yards and two TDs and ran for 66. “I feel that every week he does something more to amaze me even more. I can’t speak highly enough about Cody.”

Jackson said he just took what the BG defense game them.

“They wanted to play man,” he said. “And we definitely have the best receivers in the state.”

And that was that. The game was tied at 7 when South ran off 17 straight points to take a 24-7 halftime lead and never looked back.

“Obviously they’ve got some good skill players, they put a lot of stress on the DBs,” said Guertin coach Anthony Nalen, his team’s season over at a still good 8-3. “At times we didn’t get the calls in that we wanted. … When They score at that rate and we don’t score, we’re out of air, really. It takes us out of what we want to do.”

South came out flying, and put together a n 11-play, 73 yard drive with Colvin Levesque running it in from 2 yards out for a 7-0 lead after Preston Bois’ PAT kick.

Guertin, no slouch offensively either, matched it with a 14-play, 60-yard drive with Logan Curran running in from 7-yards out and Nate Bowen adding the PAT to tie things up.

But from then on, for the most part, it was South’s night. The Panthers (10-2 overall) marched 59 yards in 10 plays with Sam Levine’s 13-yard scoring run helping to make it 14-7. Josh Tripp then stopped a BG drive with an interception of a Nate Bowen pass, and ran it 68 yards down to the Cardinal 12. Jackson found Levesque on a 13-yard TD and it was 21-7. When the Panthers added a 27-yard Bois field goal on the final play of the first half, it was 24-7 – almost the exact reverse of the regular season matchup.

And yes, the Cards did use their running game to take the second half kickoff and march 63 yards in 10 plays, Will Adams scoring from 4-yards out to help make it 24-14 four minutes into the third quarter. However, Jackson and South answered with a fourth down, 4-yard TD to a wide open Tripp and that was that. It was stunning how wide open the South senior was.

“I was very surprised, actually,” Jackson said. “I almost threw it out of bounds on him.”

But Tripp kept his toes in bounds and the Panthers were back up 17 again with 3:06 left in the third.

“We came back and said, ‘That’s enough of that,'” Porter said. “We were happy to shut that down afterward.That could have swung momentum for sure.

“It’s funny, that’s what we were saying at halftime. Last time we were on the inverse side of that. Make sure we don’t let it happen to us. They came out, got a good drive, put it together, it was huge for us to get points and answer that the next time. If we go three-and-out, then all the momentum is their way. … That’s responding.”

Nashua South’s Sam Levine bursts through the BG defense, avoiding a tackle attempt by Ryan Connelly en route to a 13-yard TD run in Friday night’s Division I quarterfinal at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

It was pretty much over; other than one punt, the Panthers other failed scoring drive was when another Bois field goal attempt bonked off the right upright with six minutes to play.

And now the Panthers are on to the semis, the first time in several years, their last loss nearly a month ago. Simply playing their best football.

“We’re getting there, right?” Porter said. “Each week we take a look at what we did wrong, what we need to improve on, and hats off to the boys, they always seem to respond to the coaching and a little bit of adversity. But absolutely. We’re playing some awesome football right now, hopefully we’re peaking at the right time.”

Led by their senior quarterback.