Nashua North's Sebastian Ochoa gets control over Nashua South's John Signor at 132 pounds during Wednesday night's Batlte of the Bridge mtchup at North. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Nashua North’s Caleb Smith wants to end his high school wrestling career in style, and he took another step toward that end on Wednesday night.

Smith’s pin in the first minute of his match vs .Nashua South’s Arihant Gadari at 138 gave the Titans a comeback 42-40 win over the rival Panthers and secure the overall Winter Battle of the Bridge for the Titans in dramatic 7-6 fashion.

“I like having the pressure,” Smith said flatly.

And he showed it. The way things were working out, after an early flurry of Titan pins, the Panthers surged ahead thanks to two Titan forfeits at 113 and 120 to grab a 36-30 lead. South made it 40-30 at 126 when Robert Signor won a major decision 12-2 over Titan Avery Ramos. But Ramos avoided a pin, so the win was worth four points, not six. Then Sebastian Ochoa pinned South’s John Signor at 132 to make it 40-36, and Smith did the rest.

“Caleb’s my only four-year starter in the lineup,” North coach Sebastian Arroyo said. “And not only this year, but last year’s Battle of the Bridge he won a tossup match, a gritty match. He came into tonight with a different mindset. Senior Night in the gym, last time wrestling in front of the home crowd, his photo’s there up on the wall. He really came out and took care of business. And used a technique that I showed him.”

But Arroyo felt the key was no South pin at 126.

“That’s what ended up deciding this dual,” he said. “If they get a pin at 126 we go to (tiebreaking) criteria, and it’s a tossup from there. … I’m just glad my kids went out there and wrestled their butts off.”

Nashua South’s Benny Byrne has the edge on North’s Fernando Pages-Naranjo during Wednesday night’s Battle of the Bridge at North. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

South coach Anthony Spero didn’t want to give up valuable points in a forfeit (they did have to at 150) so most Panthers wrestled a weight class up. “Those were all swing matches, so we needed one more of those guys to not get pinned or get a win, and it just didn’t happen,” Spero said. “The lightweights went pretty much as expected. … Bobby’s match at 126, if he got the pin we could have tied. It was very close. Another really close (overall) match.”

North got pins in four of the first five matches with Tavyon Moore at 144, Jace Gallego at 157, Ethen De Jesus at 165 and Liam Collins at 190 for a 30-6 lead.

But a few pins can wipe that away in a dual meet, and South scored 34 straight points, starting with its best wrestler, Benny Byrne, wrestling up at 175. Then a match removed, three straight pins by Logan Rice at 215, Ian McCubrey at 285, and somewhat surprisingly Eli Phillips at 106.

“Shout out to Eli, put a ton of pressure on him and he got it done,” Spero said. “And Bobby (Signor) got a win where we really didn’t expect him to get a win there. So that was good. But the others were kind of in the book there.”

North has had a so-so season but Arroyo likes where they are now.

“It’s been up and down,” Arroyo said. “Early we had a lot of down, some injuries, kids were sick. But they just kept buying into the program.Now they’re at where they’re at.”

Including Smith, which is the tail end of a special season and career.

“Tonight was really awesome, having my family here and the connection with my coach (Arroyo),” Smith said. “He started my freshman year so I’ve been with him for four years.”