Nashua North football beats Bishop Guertin to win D1 West Conference

NASHUA - The Nashua High School North football team was on the verge of getting blown out.

Already down to scores a little more than four minutes into Friday's game against Bishop Guertin, the Titans had just lost a fumble to give the Cardinals the ball at the North 38-yard line.

But three plays later, Bishop Guertin fumbled the ball back, and the Titans took advantage. North scored two touchdowns in a span of 15 seconds, and after back-and-forth first half, the Titans pulled away in the second for a 67-36 win over the Cardinals at Stellos Stadium.

The win clinches the West Conference championship for North (7-2) and the Titans will host a playoff game on Nov. 5 when the Division I postseason gets underway. Bishop Guertin (6-3) will go on the road for the quarterfinals as the third or fourth seed, depending on Saturday's game between Dover and Nashua South.

"I think we settled down," North coach Dante Laurendi said. "The first series, we shot ourselves in the foot with a penalty and two negative plays. I think it was that we just kind of we regrouped a little bit. We got some positive yardage and settled down. We got another turnover on the kickoff, which was a big momentum changer.

"You can get down to these guys real fast. Fourteen can become 28, so we needed those breaks, and that kept us in the game."

The Titans came back behind its offensive line and running game, as they rushed for 536 yards on 63 carries, an average of 8.5 yards per tote. All 10 of North's touchdowns came on the ground.

"They wore us out," Bishop Guertin coach Jeff Moore said. "They were tougher than us. We couldn't stop them. We've got to play better defense to compete with a team like this and we’re not doing that. They were much tougher than us and we weren't tackling, just playing terrible defense."

Quarterback Jeff Baldassari led the way, rushing for 187 yards and four touchdowns, including 57-yard run on the third play of the fourth quarter that gave the Titans a 54-36 lead and seemed to put Bishop Guertin away.

"He played calm, he played confident," Laurendi said. "He looked like he was having fun out there. He enjoyed the moment and made some great reads in the run game. He's a great kid who worked hard to get to this point."

North also got two touchdowns each from Jordan Buckmire (98 yards rushing) and Sky Boykin (77 yards rushing), while Tylor Chase and Spencer Desroisers also scored.

But it looked like it would be a different ending for the Titans early, as the Cardinals scored on the third play of the game on a 73-yard run by Dylan Fagan. After a North punt, Bishop Guertin quarterback Sam Raitt found Fagan wide open for a 25-yard touchdown pass that made it 14-0 just 4:03 into the game.

The Titans fumbled on the ensuing kickoff, Bishop Guertin recovered, and two plays later, had a first-and-goal at the North 9-yard line. But Raitt fumbled while he was trying to run to the outside and North's Brian Montminy recovered at the Titans' 8.

"I was thinking we've got to get the ball back and get a drive together and then we did that," Baldassari said.

Seven plays later, Baldassari capped a 92-yard drive with a 24-yard touchdown run that got North on the board, and this time, it was the Cardinals who fumbled away the kickoff. The Titans recovered at the Bishop Guertin 10, and on the next play, Buckmire scored from 10 yards out to tie the game.

"Turnovers killed us," Moore said. "You can't win games doing that. They're a good football team and we knew that. We can score on anybody, but we've got to play better defense."

Bishop Guertin got to midfield on its next drive, but was forced to punt, and North went 73 yards in eight plays, taking its first lead on a 26-yard touchdown run by Boykin. After that, the teams traded touchdowns on five straight possessions, as North took a 34-28 lead into halftime.

Chase scored from 2 yards out to cap the opening drive of the second half to put North up two scores, but Bishop Guertin answered with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Raitt to Henry Boyle to cut the lead to 42-36.

But that was as close as the Cardinals would get.

Rait finished with 312 yards on 19 of 32 passing with three touchdowns and an interception, but also lost two fumbles, while Boyle had eight catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns. Fagan had 119 yards and a touchdown receiving and added 86 yards and two scores on the ground.