Nashua North football beats Portsmouth-Oyster River to finish regular season undefeated

PORTSMOUTH - Jayden Espinal hadn’t prepared to play quarterback in a couple of years, but that all changed after last week’s injury to Nashua High School North’s dynamic starter, Curtis Harris.

North wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the East/West cluster of the Division I quarterfinals in last week’s victory over Merrimack, but Harris left the game with a knee injury. Espinal took a couple of snaps during the game, but it was his full-time job in Friday night’s regular-season finale against Portsmouth-Oyster River.

It was far from perfection, and the North offense struggled the most it had all season, but Espinal and his defense did enough to cap off a perfect regular season with a 7-0 victory on Tom Daubney Field.

“I played quarterback my freshman year. I’m a little rusty and I’m just trying to get back at it, but I’ll be better next week and we’ll be better as a team next week” Espinal said. “I think I can improve on my throwing a little. On my running, I think I just have to stay up more. I was a little head over heels.”

Espinal, who transitioned from slot receiver, ran for 65 yards on 19 carries and completed 5 of 16 passes for 70 yards with an interception. The junior’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Sam Nicholls with 4:49 left in the third quarter was the game’s lone score.

“I think he did great. He made plays when he needed to make plays,” North coach Dante Laurendi said. “Obviously they’re real tough, real physical on defense and we knew we were going to have to grind one out. Throwing the touchdown pass in the second half was big, but he also made some key runs to grind time off the clock. He’s tough on himself because he wants to get better and he works hard.”

Laurendi said the status is unknown for Harris, who is the division's leading rusher with over 1,200 yards. North (9-0) hosts No. 4 Merrimack (6-3) in next Saturday’s quarterfinal at Stellos Stadium.

“We’re still waiting to see,” Laurendi said. “I don’t want to get my hopes up. There are more tests and obviously we want to make the best decision for him.”

Portsmouth-Oyster River’s huge defensive front led by Casey Gladu and Harvard-bound Thor Griffith (two sacks) immediately made it difficult for the Titans to sustain any drives. North gained only 184 yards and came into the game averaging 29 points.

ClipperCats’ senior quarterback Jacob Bouton was hurt in the first quarter, and was replaced by Billy Omahen. Portsmouth-Oyster River was handed an opportunity after Anthony Green fumbled the ball away at North’s 30-yard line late in the second quarter, but Espinal came up with an interception to send the game into halftime scoreless.

“We obviously had some issues offensively, and when (Boutin) went down, that hurt,” Portsmouth-Oyster River coach Brian Pafford said. “But defensively, we played really well. I know Harris wasn’t there, but they got a lot of good players on that team, they got a lot of speed and I thought they handled the speed tonight.”

Portsmouth-Oyster River (3-6), which gained only 114 yards, went three-and-out to open the second half to set up the game’s only scoring drive at midfield - and Espinal’s two biggest throws of the night.

On fourth and 4 at Portsmouth-Oyster River’s 41, Espinal completed an 18-yard slant pass to Lucas Cunningham. Three plays later on third and 10, Espinal rolled left and tossed a jump ball in the corner of the end zone that Nicholls out jumped Oscar Lalime to give North a 7-0 lead.

“I had some good pass protection, and I had my best receiver go up and get it,” Espinal said. 

Nicholl’s second-best play of the night came via his 50-yard punt that pinned Portsmouth-Oyster River at its own 5 with 1:20 left in regulation.

After taking over at quarterback for Portsmouth-Oyster River in the second half, Cam Francois was forced to lead final drive. Francois completed 4 of 7 passes for 31 yards, but a sack by Anthony Sexton resulted in a 15-yard loss back to Portsmouth-Oyster River’s 25. Francois then threw an incomption to effectively end the game.

“The thing we do is play good team defense, we run to the ball, and they’ve been doing it all year,” Laurendi said. 

Espinal isn't a hundred percent certain he’ll be quarterbacking next week, but if he is, he’s confident that he’ll be prepared to the lead North to the semifinals. The North-Merrimack winner plays either Nashua South (6-3) or Exeter (8-1).

“We’ve worked really hard for this and now we’re in the playoffs,’ Espinal said. “I’m going to work really hard this week to come out better in the next game.”