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# Bedford football goes to the ground to get win over Nashua South (video)
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/bedford-football-goes-to-the-ground-to-get-win-over-nashua-south-video/
- Published: 2024-10-26T15:30:57.000Z
- Updated: 2024-10-26T15:30:57.000Z
- Description: BEDFORD - It was a second quarter to forget for the Bedford High School football team. Three turnovers not only kept the Bulldogs from extending their lead over Nashua South, but they gave the Panthers an opportunity to get back into Friday night's game. And when South tied it at 14 on the first dr
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division I, Bedford, football, Nashua South, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

BEDFORD - It was a second quarter to forget for the Bedford High School football team.

Three turnovers not only kept the Bulldogs from extending their lead over Nashua South, but they gave the Panthers an opportunity to get back into Friday night's game.

And when South tied it at 14 on the first drive of the third quarter, Bedford coach Zach Matthews knew his team had to go with its ground game to pull out another win.

The Bulldogs ran the ball on 10 of 12 plays on their first drive of the second half, capped the drive with a touchdown, and then turned things over to the defense on the way to a 38-14 win over the Panthers in a showdown of undefeated teams from the Division I West Conference.

The win was the 24th in a row for Bedford (7-0 in D1, 8-0 overall, No. 1 in the NHHSSports Coaches Poll) and will likely give the Bulldogs the top overall seed in the D1 playoffs and a first-round bye.

"I thought, second quarter, was bad football for us," Matthews said. "Turnovers, tipped passes, and that’s not just on us because they were doing some good things, some things that people hadn’t done to us this year. I think the important piece was getting to halftime.

"Our body language was terrible, it was like we were losing. Why are we looking like we’re sad and the kids said we could just be playing so much better. They felt like we were leaving points out there. We broke down some of the things they were doing and how they were getting into positions to stop them. The kids made our adjustments and I think we started to build confidence back and got it rolling again."

The biggest adjustment was going to the running game, as Brody Helton had 171 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 32 carries, part of a 262-yard rushing performance for Bedford.

Jack Maye was 7 of 15 passing for 57 yards and two interceptions in the second quarter, but his 7-yard touchdown pass to Dustin Westcott finished off the Bulldogs' opening drive of the third quarter and gave them the lead for good. Bennett Matthews added a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to go with 74 yards of offense.

"(Helton is) our most proven entity," Zach Matthews said. "He’s been there before in a championship game and he’s a handful to stop. They were putting a lot of bodies at the line of scrimmage. The thing I’m most proud of with Brody, and with our offensive line, we were running the ball at times when they knew we were going to be running the ball, and we needed to get some first downs and we got things going."

Samuel Levine led South (6-1, 7-1, No. 5) with 129 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 14 carries, with his 58-yard burst on the third play of the third quarter, and a two-point conversion run by quarterback Cody Jackson, tying the game at 14-14 just 54 seconds into the second half.

But with Bedford keeping Jackson from doing damage in the running, South was unable to do some of the things it likes to do offensively.

"They did a good job (defensively) and credit to them," South coach Scott Knight said. "They flew around on defense. You’ve got to score points to win games and you need to score more than 14 to beat them, for sure."

Jackson was 10 of 20 passing for 50 yards and an interception, with Kyle Emmons catching seven passes for 41 yards, all in the first half.

"The quarterback run game is what gets them going, and if we could control the quarterback run, we felt like we were going to be in a good position," Zack Matthews said. "I think that held true. We were able to keep him under wraps."

After Bedford's go-ahead drive took more than seven minutes off the clock, South faced a fourth-and-3 at its own 42-yard line on the ensuing possession. The Panthers opted to go for it, but Jackson came up a yard short of the first down, giving the ball back to the Bulldogs after taking just 40 seconds off the clock.

Bedford needed eight plays to find the end zone again, this time on a 13-yard run by Helton, and after South jumped offsides on the extra point, Bennett Matthews ran in the conversion for a 29-14 lead.

On the Panthers' next possession, Jackson was picked off by Bennett Matthews, and four plays later, the junior scored to make it 36-14 with 7:11 remaining in the game.

"We’re down seven and I thought we had been playing pretty good," Knight said of the decision to go for it on fourth down. "We’re near midfield. We felt confident in what we had and came up a yard short. Then we throw an interception and give them another short field."

Despite that, the Panthers coach felt like his team was right there in its biggest test to this point of the season.

"I think we belong," Knight said. "You’re playing the two-time defending state champs and it’s 14-6 at half. Then we come roaring back and it’s 14-14\. We had a good feeling and then it was a field position thing and they got us on a couple of plays."