Bedford football steps up when it needs to in win over Nashua North

NASHUA - Derek Stank wasn't worried about how many yards the Bedford High School football team might allow in Friday night's opener against Nashua North.

The Bulldogs knew shutting down the Titans offense wasn't going to happen.

But shutting them out, that was a different story.

For most of the night, Bedford was able to accomplish the later, as the defense withstood two North drives inside the Bulldogs' 10-yard line and kept the Titans off the board until the third quarter on the way to a 31-7 win at Nashua's Stellos Stadium.

"We’ve always had the mentality on defense that you’ve got to bend but not break," Stank said. "There’s no way to shut down a good team, and this is a good team. They’re going to move the ball, but the question is, are they going to move the ball where they need it. We fortunate we were able to keep them out of the end zone when we needed."

North opened the game with an 11-play, 67-yard drive that saw the Titans get down to the Bedford 7, but on fourth down, Ryan Toscano intercepted North quarterback Mike Loveless to end the threat.

Six plays later, the Bulldogs capped an 88-yard drive with a 7-yard touchdown run by Harrison LeGoullon for a 7-0 lead.

Bedford scored 21 points off turnovers and the Bulldogs held North to just 145 yards on the night and forced four turnovers.

"I liked our effort and our competitiveness," North coach Dante Laurendi said. "We need to clean it up. We can’t turn the ball over ever, but we definitely can’t turn the ball over on the 5-yard line going in, especially to open the game.

"We didn’t do things that were fundamentally sound. We had opportunities to score a couple of times and we lost our composure. Our kids fought until the end and we’ll try to build on that."

Toscano led Bedford with 109 yards rushing and a touchdown and also added a 50-yard fumble return for a score in the fourth quarter to put the game away. The senior also came up big on defense on another fourth-down play at the goal line.

With the Titans facing fourth-and-goal at the Bedford 2, Toscano came up to bring down North running back Curtis Harris short of the end zone.

"The running back came right at me and I was able to make a play," Toscano said. "All week, coach Stank stressed how the line was going to make big plays for us. I’ve got to give all the credit to the line. They squeezed the back right to me. I was very proud of that play."

Harris led North with 53 yards on the ground and a touchdown, and he also caught three passes for 32 yards and was 2 of 4 passing for 10 yards and an interception. The sophomore split time under center with Loveless, who was 6 of 10 for 53 yards and two interceptions.

"They both have an element in what they can bring to a football game," Laurendi said. "They both did some good things. We stalled out no matter who was in the game at times. We feel good with both of those guys in there."

Bedford led 17-0 at halftime but after a three-and-out to open the second half, Thomas Morgan was picked off by North's Justin Edwards on the Bulldogs' second possession.

A 22-yard run by Brian Montminy on third-and-2 set up an 8-yard touchdown rush by Harris to cut the lead to 17-7 with 4:11 left in the third. But North's offense struggled after that and a 4-yard touchdown run by Morgan made it 24-7 with 9:08 to play.

Morgan finished the game 14 of 22 for 149 yards and two interceptions.

"We made some big-time plays in the first half to prevent them from putting some points on the board," Stank said. "We knew we were going to come out in the second half into a fight. Our guys were able to continue to make some big stops and some big plays and we were able to finish it out the right way."