Defense leads the way as Nashua North boys soccer knocks off Exeter

EXETER - It’s crowded atop the Division I boys soccer standings, and Thursday, Nashua High School North showed why the Titans are a top-three team, as they took down Exeter 2-1 at Eustis Field.

The win broke a two-game winless skid for the Titans and improved them to 8-2-1 on the season.

The Titans won thanks to a phenomenal defensive performance. It started with sophomore keeper Stephen Norris, who turned aside 10 shots for North to do his part in maintaining the lead.

Many of those saves were easy to make thanks to a stout defensive line in front of him that kept Exeter from finding many holes through to the goal. The centerback duo of junior Ryan Downing and senior Martin Flaherty clogged up passing lanes all game and kept the Blue Hawks attack from getting into a constant rhythm.

“I thought they played outstanding,” North coach Josh Downing said. “They played that same style of soccer all year. They’re new to that position. They were outside defenders last year and got moved to center defenders after I lost a couple of seniors, and they’ve run with it.

"They’ve done really well. They play off each other. Ryan’s really fast, really physical on the ball and instincts are awesome. Martin’s great in the air. Between the two of them it works really well.”

With the defense dialed in, the North attack took its time to counter and did so effectively. Junior Ely Ostler crashed the net in the 23rd minute and buried a rebound off the post with ease to put the Titans up early.

Just two minutes into the second half junior Colin Miller took his time, waited for fellow junior Joe Morse to make his run, and feathered a perfect cross into the box that Morse buried from five yards out to give the Titans an insurance goal.

“Colin had a perfect pass,” Morse said. “I made the run in, executed, put it in with my left foot. I want to stay wide and time the run behind the defender.”

The Blue Hawks had their chances, as they outshot North 15-5, but could not finish. Downing cleared a sure goal off the line in the opening five minutes and Exeter didn’t have many quality chances again until Garrett Roberts poked in Exeter’s only goal with a little over two minutes to play.

Exeter was unable to must a shot on goal in the final two minutes.

“I thought in the first five minutes we should have had a couple,” Exeter coach Jim Tufts said. “We put those in it’s a different game. North played well, they battled, and they worked hard. I thought we played really good soccer. At the end of the day we were on the wrong end of the ledger.”