After win over Bishop Guertin, Nashua North football hoping to fix bad habits

Through two games this fall, the formula has been simple on offense for the Nashua High School North football team.

Commit penalties and turnovers, don't score points.

Don't commit penalties and turnovers, score points.

The Titans had nine possessions in last Saturday's 34-6 win over Bishop Guertin. One of those was at the end of the game, with North in victory formation; of the other eight, half ended with the Titans playing mistake free and finding the end zone.

"We didn't help ourselves early," North coach Dante Laurendi said. "We're doing good things, moving the football, and it only takes one play. A little hold and a second-and-2 is now second-and-12, or even worse."

On its first two drives of the game, North (2-0) put together two similar possessions. The first was an eight-play, 49-yard drive that featured a holding call on the Titans and ended with an interception.

The second went for nine plays and 53 yards, all the way down to the Cardinals' 8-yard line, but another hold and a lost fumble stopped the threat.

In all, North was called for eight penalties for 85 yards, but despite that, scored on five of its six final possessions, and kept Bishop Guertin's offense in check for most of the night.

"It's certainly not anything we want to get used to," Laurendi said. "We explain that to them, there are going to be times you can't overcome it. We're fortunate that our defense was playing very well and keeping us in the game. We don't want to get used to the bad habits."

Laurendi also didn't want to blame the mistakes on having not played in consecutive weeks. After opening the season with a 24-7 win over Nashua South, the Titans had a week off after their game against Merrimack was cancelled.

"It's easy to say it affected us since we were sloppy," the coach said. "We had a good week of practice. It comes down to being disciplined, making sure we are not only mentally but physically. Part of it is aggressiveness, which is nice, but not to the point of it hurting us."

The Titans were certainly aggressive late in the first half, when they got the ball back on their own 37-yard line with 53 seconds left. North needed just five plays to find the end zone, with Curtis Harris-Lopez hitting Jayden Espinal in the back of the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown as time expired.

While Harris-Lopez had a big game for North, rushing for 192 yards and two scored and going 10 of 11 passing for 87 yards, the rest of the offense stepped up.

Espinal finished with 73 total yards and the touchdown catch while Brian Mwangi had 56 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Anthony Greene and Isaac Smith also contributed in the rushing attack.

"They're all really doing a great job," Laurendi said. "They're getting opportunities to touch the ball and doing great things with it. They're also doing great things blocking for each other.

"I like the fact that they are contributing not only when the football is in their hands. The guys on the edge, too, like Lucas Cunningham and Eddie Bracetty, they really put great effort into blocking so we have an outside run game."

Although North has yet to play an official home game, it also hasn't played outside of Stellos Stadium. That will change Friday when the Titans travel to Alvirne to face the Broncos for the first time since 2017.

"They compete and they've got tough kids," Laurendi said of Alvirne. "They've got a good quarterback back (Kyle Gora) and a couple of guys who can catch the ball. They play physical. Everyone is going to come to compete."