Bedford back Brody Helton plows into Nashua South's Justin Fish during their regular season joust at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Josh Porter has taken likely multiple looks at the second half of the Nashua High School South football team’s 34-14 loss to Bedford back on Sept. 13 and can’t believe it’s the same team he’s coaching now.

As a matter of fact, it’s not.

No, these No. 4, 9-2 Panthers, while the names are the same, are playing much better football 11 weeks later than their September version as they head to Bulldog Stadium for a rematch with No. 1, 11-0 Bedford tonight at 7 in the Division I semifinals.

“Just talking with the other coaches, we believe we are an entirely different team at this point than10 weeks ago, whenever,” Panthers coach Porter said. “They just beat up on a very good Winnacunnet team. We know it’s going to be a dogfight and we’re going to have to be at our best to pull this one out.”

In that game, the teams were tied at 14 before Bedford, led by Bennett Matthews, Brody Helton, and Bryson D’Urso pitched a 20-0 shutout in the second half.

“A lot of fundamentals broke down in that second half,” Porter said. “Just over the last four or five weeks we’ve improved in that area, and it’s showing. “Just playing assignment football, everyone doing their job, trusting the other 10 guys on the field to do theirs. We’ve made a big effort to focus on the little things.”

And that’s led South to doing some big things. They clamped down on a potent Bishop Guertin offense in the semis, holding the Cards to two touchdowns. They’ve had no problem scoring points either, even when behind. Their signature wins, led by players like QB Cody Jackson, receiver/safety Josh Tripp, backs Sam Levine and Colvin Levesque have been rallying from 24-8 down at the half vs. BG to win 28-24, but even more so, beating Pinkerton 25-21 on the road after being down 21-7 late in the third quarter.

“We have plenty of confidence going in and the boys are riding high after the last four or five games,” Porter said. “We beat some very good opponents, and we’re battle tested.”

How are the Panthers different?

“We’re much better on the defensive side of the ball,” Porter said. “We’ve slowed down some really good offenses as of late. And playing complementary football as well. Getting the ball back to the offense has helped. … We like to say the O-line is the engine, Cody is the guy following the instructions, but I think Sam Levine has been a huge instrument in keeping us on schedule, and keeping us going for sure.”

Levine was a battering ram vs. BG and he ignited the win over Pinkerton as well. A lot is coming together for the Panthers right now.

And together is what many of these players have been, many of them for four years. Many of the seniors are four-year varsity players, and tight knit at that.

“It’s a huge thing for us,” Porter said. “They play together and they play for each other, which is a huge thing. They’ve been through it. They’ve been through the ups and downs. When you go through adversity time and time again with the same group of people, you form some of the strongest bonds out there. It’s awesome to see it show up off the field, but on the field on Friday nights.”

Meanwhile, what has Porter seen in the Bulldogs since 10 weeks have gone by?

“It’s still the same narrative,” Porter said. “They’ve got two of the elite players in the state (Matthews and Helton), and they’ve got their complementary guys.”

D’Urso, who had three scores vs. South, is one of those, as is receiver Landon Elsmore, who didn’t play in that September meeting. They try to get their running game going with Helton, and if successful, hit on some play-action.

“We have to make sure we tackle well in space, and we’re getting a lot of hats to the ball,” said Porter, noting that D’Urso burned South on some “go” routes in the earlier meeting.

“I would say it’s definitely a challenge,” Porter said. “As I said to the boys the other day, when we play to our standard and what we’re capable of, we can beat anybody in the state. It’s not enough to say it. Let’s go do it now.”