Telegraph Sports Reporter Tom KIng.

Three weeks ago, Souhegan High School cross country runner Chloe Trudel crossed the finish line at Nashua High School South’s Fran Tate Track in the annual Meet of Champions.

She was exhausted, as the day was unusually warm, taxing the runners, and simply dropped down and laid on her back, gasping for air but relieved after finishing an impressive second.

It was quite an effort, quite a finish.

Trudel’s reaction was echoed in the last couple of weeks by local high school athletic directors, coaches, student athletes and their parents.

And, when the Nashua North Titans topped Goffstown 49-21 to win the Division I football title in Bedford, and Souhegan captured the Division II crown with an epic 26-21 win over Plymouth in Amherst, the end finally came to a 2020 fall high school sports season that no one will forget for many reasons.

It came about as the result of planning, adjustments, safety protocols, and included competition, masks, fan restrictions, cancellations, some reschedulings on the fly, and a lot of tough decision making on the part of administrators, coaches and parents.

There were heartbreaking moments – contending football teams like Exeter and Lebanon having to bow out of the playoffs. The very capable Milford boys soccer team had to bow out of the Division II tournament. Pinkerton Academy pulled all its teams off the field in mid October.

Locally the only high school football team that didn’t suffer a single cancellation or postponement, be it regular season or playoffs, was Bishop Guertin. Campbell ended up having its Division III quarterfinal playoff game with Pelham first cancelled, then moved to a Monday night thanks to a parents petition in Pelham. Just one of those years.

As North football standout Curtis Harris-Lopez said, the players went “week to week” with their thinking and preparation. Everyone held their breath after the Division I and II semifinals, hoping that no one would have to forfeit in the finals. No one did.

The Titans and Saber football teams won two of the three area champinships. The other? The Hollis Brookline golf team, which captured the Division II title a year after the event was cancelled due to rain and they had to settle for being named runnerups.

The Souhegan field hockey team reached the finals against Kennett, but thanks to the blind draw, had to travel to North Conway and lost 2-0 in the Division II finals. Normally, these games would be played at neutral sites.

The Campbell High school girls soccer team fell to Hopkinton in the finals, but was able to host.

Hollis Brookline fell to Bedford in the Division I girls volleyball finals at BHS.

Two soccer teams that were very, very talented, the Nashua South boys and Bishop Guertin girls, fell short in the semis on the seacoast – the Panthers at Winnacunnet and the Cards at Exeter. Tough ones.

So in these cases, it was compeititon as it should be.

In any event, the fall season has finished. We unfortunately didn’t get the Turkey Eve Bowl at Stellos Stadium to gift wrap it all, but that was the right call.

Perhaps the best description of the season was by a post on social media that called North’s football campaign “the shortest season, the longest season.”

The historic season that reached and crossed the finish line.

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