There was a smattering of blood.

“You saw, there was blood everywhere,” Nashua High School South football coach Josh Porter said.

He was talking about a cut suffered by Panthers quarterback Cody Jackson on his throwing hand on Friday’s Division I semifinal’s first series. Maybe that impacted him, maybe it didn’t in the 35-21 loss to No. 1 Bedford at Bulldog Stadium.

But it certainly enhanced the Legend of Cody Jackson. He fought through it, nearly brought the Panthers back from a 21-0 deficit, as he threw for 107 yards and ran for 111 and a TD. But he also threw an uncharacteristic three picks – one a pick six – so you can put two and two together if you want.

“Cody’s tough as nails,” Porter said. “For him to battle, and everything like that. And we hadn’t had turnovers all season. Unfortunately it happened here. Cody was fantastic tonight and all season long.”

The kid put the Panthers on his back, did what he could, but you could tell it wasn’t easy. It made him stand even taller with his teammates. His 38-yard run set up Sam Levine’s second TD run that cut the gap to 28-21 at the end of the third quarter.

“He put the team on his back,” Jackson’s favorite receiver, fellow senior Josh Tripp said. “He knew it was an elimination game, he gave us everything he had. That’s all I can ask. He’s a great teammate.”

And bad hand or not, Jackson was making things difficult for Bedford. He was scrambling, throwing, or running for some of his 111 yards on the ground.

“It wasn’t shut down defense, Cody was running around making plays like great athletes do,” Matthews said. “But being obviously getting turnovers to stop those drives were huge.

“Cody does a really good job with a lot o his presnap reads. So I think a lot of times when he carves people up, it’s based on people just lining up and ‘OK, you’re giving me this receiver pre-snap,'” Matthews said. “And so I think we tried to close a lot of those windows presnap and make him have to make him process coverage post-snap …while the rush is coming. We wanted to make him have to hold it a little more to try to find the open guy.

“What we didn’t do well necessarily was handle his legs. We covered well, but when we were covering really well he went out and made plays and we didn’t get him on the ground in those situations. But that’s what great players do.”

You hated to see this group have to see its season end with a loss. Tripp was part of a senior group that included some four-year varsity players. Jackson joined the party as a sophomore, and proved to be the life of the party the last two seasons. He, Tripp, and the others fought their hearts out last night. They had the Bulldogs back on their heels, but Bedford was unbeaten for a reason.

Nashua South QB Cody Jackson looks to make a play with some help from his blockers during Frday night’s Division I semifinals at Bedford. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“We left it all on the field, I can’t complain,” Tripp said. “Couldn’t ask for a better group of guys.”

Comebacks, fighting back from adversity was this team’s trademark. Once Jackson would find a rhythm, it was over for the opposition. Last night he walked off the field with a few bloodstains on the legs o his jersey.

“I’m so proud of the way our boys fought all season long,” Porter said. “They achieved tremendous things, not just on the field this year but off the field. And a great group of young men that are going to continue to be successful and go on.”

Cody Jackson, no doubt, will do just that. Warrior.

Winner.

(Tom King may be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or you can follow him on X @Telegraph _TomK.)