Go ahead and say it, the results of this weekend back you up.

The city of Nashua is now the soccer capital of New Hampshire.

It’s hard to argue. When the high school sports season began, you try to identify a couple of teams you think will do some special things. After a week or two, you could tell, those teams were the Nashua High School South boys and Bishop Guertin girls soccer teams.

They had the talent. They had the grit needed to pull out tough wins, because that’s what it takes in November. South beat Hanover 3-2 in the 11th round of penalty kicks Friday and BG beat Bedford 1-0 on Sunday night.

And they both had the ability to withstand drama. Trust us, nobody saw more drama in the last 10 days than the Tom Bellen-coached Panthers, who beat Exeter in the quarterfinals with a goal in the last seven seconds of a second overtime, and then had to face its arch rival and city rival Nashua North in a game for the ages with a goal with 29 seconds left in regulation.

And then had to win in the 11th round of penalty kicks in the bitter chill at 11 o’clock on Friday night at Stellos Stadium. All this for a No. 1 unbeaten seed.

“Crazy,” Bellen said. “We had to go deep into overtime to beat Concord (during the regular season). We won a lot of one goal games. Any given day. We say it all the time.”

Guertin, meanwhile, waited until Sunday night for its drama. The Cards, like the Panthers, suffered a tough semifinal loss last year, and were also on a mission. Their tourney drama, though, waited until Sunday night’s thriller. Guertin coach Winston Haughton had a deep bench and needed it, because bodies were down all over the place. Their MVP may have been trainer Sara Horne.

“I think it was just grit and battling hard,” Haughton said. “We had plans but (Bedford) played a really good game today. And even at the end, after we scored, we really had to battle hard. … We knew we had to be on the ball the whole entire game. I’m just so proud of everyone in the program.”

Guertin, of course, being a private school draws from all over the area, and had depth to survive injuries last night. It’s depth Bellen feels his and Nshua North’s program should have and needs.

“We’re in a big city,” Bellen said the other night. “We should have some talented kids. We should perennially be a strong powerhouse. Right now we have only two eighth graders at Fairgrounds that feed us. That’s insane. So I’m hoping this is bringing some excitement to youth soccer.”

It was certainly exciting on Sunday night, as the Cards held the fort late vs. the Bulldogs, who were living up to their nickname.

“It was definitely very stressful, and it got a little crazy at the end,” Guerton’s Alexa Psidiris said. “We pushed.”

Nashua hadn’t seen a high school soccer champion since the BG boys won it all in 2004. The last public school team was the unified Nashua team in 1998.

But the city has seen it on the collegiate level, the last time when the now closed Daniel Webster won the New England Collegiate Conference men’s soccer title in the fall of 2016. The coach of that team, Matt Correia, then took over the Salem State program down in Mass., and guess who won the MASCAC title on Sunday?

Hey, like South’s and BG’s titles, it was in the cards.

Nashua, city of champions for the Beautiful Game.

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

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