The finish line is within sight.

Can they make it?

One more week. The fall sports season has certainly had its interruptions, mishaps, and COVID catastrophes. But hopefully that won’t be the case for the Nashua North and Souhegan High School football teams as they are set for Championship Saturday next weekend in Division I and II, respectively.

“It’s great to be in this game, and compete for a championship, especially after the crazy year we’ve all had,” North coach Dante Laurendi said after Saturday’s 33-28 nailbiter vs. Salem. “Just kind of fingers crossed and keep forging ahead as best you can.”

Ah, but the games get tougher at this stage, from the semis on to the finals. Souhegan had blown out Timberlane during the regular season, but the game was scoreless late in the first half until two TDs gave the Sabers the lead at the break of what was a 31-7 Division II semifinal win.

And North? Laurendi said the two words he was thinking when Salem had drove the ball right down the Titans throats to start Saturday’s game for a 7-0 and later a 14-6 lead. The first two times North had trailed all year.

“Oh boy, he said, chuckling.

They were probably a little stronger than that. And as Laurendi said, the entire game, even up 33-21, “It was never comfortable.”

No it wasn’t. But North had the ultimate weapon in Curtis Harris-Lopez, who ran for 140 of his 202 yards in the first half. But he was also on the defensive side of the ball that was struggling. This wasn’t going to be easy.

“Just stay locked in,” Harris-Lopez said the defensive mindset was. “A lot of our guys with big yards, obviously, it’s my job to make sure everyone keeps their head up and move on to the next play.”

He also said the Titans were expecting a knockdown, drag-out fight.

“We were,” Harris-Lopez said. “With semifinals, we knew they weren’t going to roll over and let us win. We knew they were going to come out like dogs and fight.”

The Wing-T offense that the Blue Devils run is hard to stop right away if you haven’t seen it. But Salem had something else that was essential.

“I’ll tell you what our advantage was,” Salem coach Steve Abraham said. “Our kids our tough, man. Our kids are tough. That’s the advantage. I’ll take these kids for the rest of my life. Holy cow, man, these kids come to fight.”

Laurendi knew it would be an old fashioned slugfest. So did Bowkett with Timberlane, which wasn’t able to recover from that late second quarter.

And in these playoffs, the cream is rising to the top. Newport (Division IV) and Pelham (Division III) won state titles on Saturday, and all four teams in the Division I and II finals – North, Goffstown, Souhegan and Plymouth – are undefeated. Only Newport had a loss, and that was to Division III Lebanon. And Lebanon, sadly, wasn’t able to make it to last lap before the finish line as it had to forfeit its semi vs. Plymouth due to potential virus exposures.

So that’s why Laurendi, Bowkett and the other coaches of teams left are crossing their fingers.

Laurendi and Titan fans had their fingers crossed Saturday for other reasons. North made big defensive plays after its defense faltered early.

“Someone said we have the best defense in the league,” Harris-Lopez said. “We obviously don’t get enough credit (defensively) because our offense does most of the work, I guess you could say, with the scoreboard. Our defense is pretty good. They should get more credit.”

They will this week. Why? It’s Championship Game Week. Let’s hope all four teams stay safe.

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

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