Final moments were hectic for Nashua North, Bishop Guertin football

Five times Saturday night, the Bishop Guertin High School football team found itself inside the Nashua North 10-yard line.

On two occasions, the Cardinals came out in a tight formation, ran the ball, and found the end zone.

On two of the other occasions, they were spread out, tried to throw the ball, and both times, the Titans got to quarterback Mike MacDonough. One ended in an interception, one in a sack, and Bishop Guertin settled for a field goal.

So when the Cardinals found themselves creeping closer to the Titans' 10 for the fifth time in the final moments, they went back to the power running game.

After AJ Holmes picked up 12 yards to give Bishop Guertin a first-and-goal at the 5, Sam Fayad powered forward for two more yards. But on second-and-goal at the 3, North's Jonathan Torres made a play that altered the end of the game.

MacDonough took the snap and pitched to Holmes, who was on the wing and running from right to left of the formation. Torres chased after the junior from the backside and tackle Holmes for a 2-yard loss, setting up third-and-goal back at the 5.

The Titans took a timeout there with 1:15 remaining in the game, still leading 21-17.

"It gets them out of that formation," North coach Chad Zibolis said of the play by Torres. "We get down there and we start looking at the clock. We’re thinking, do we let them score or do we hold it off for a little bit? We started using our timeouts instead and figured we could hold them off."

Bishop Guertin came out of the timeout spread out, and this time, MacDonough connected with Connor Lennon in the back left corner of the end zone. But Lennon juggled the ball as he was trying to get both feet in, and by the time he had control, he was out of bounds.

This time, the Cardinals took a timeout, with 1:09 left to play.

Lennon beat North's Luke Peters on that play, and a few times previously, but the junior had an adjustment that he could make if Bishop Guertin came his way again.

"One of my friends on the sideline told me to look back at the ball," Peters said. "It was the same play. He got open two times in a row and I knew it was going to him again."

As the teams lined up out of the timeout, Zibolis reminded assistant coach Kyle Tave that the Titans had one more timeout if they needed it. When they realized they did, it was too late.

"I told Tave if you need me to use a timeout, lets burn it, it’s the last play of the game right here," Zibolis said. "He looks at me and goes ‘we’re misaligned, I need it.’ We start running down to call it and the snap happens."

MacDonough looked again for Lennon, and this time, Peters jumped in front to make the game-clinching interception for the Titans.

"We really depended on the run game to get down there, but when they tightened up, we had to pass the ball," Bishop Guertin coach Anthony Nalen said. "We thought one of our best opportunities was to go to our 6-foot-5 guy. We took two chances with him and it ended up not paying off."