Nashua North football hangs on long enough to beat Nashua South

NASHUA - It may not have been the worst quarter ever played, but no one on the Nashua High School North football team will be including it in his highlight reel.

Despite gaining just 39 yards and turning the ball over three times in the third quarter Friday, the Titans held on to a one-score lead over Nashua South.

And when the fourth quarter started, North got rolling again, going on a long touchdown drive to put the finishing touches on a 27-16 win over South in a Division I West Conference matchup at Stellos Stadium.

North turned the ball over four times, and saw the Panthers twice get in position to take the lead in the second half, but the Titans (3-1) managed to make a play when they truly needed one. That included an 11-play, 79-yard drive that ate up over five minutes and ended with a 5-yard touchdown run by Max Fay.

"That was clutch," North coach Dante Laurendi said of the touchdown drive. "We weren't moving the ball real well in the second half, and we sure turned the ball over enough, but we were able to at least put something together and take some time off the clock.

"I just said we've got to keep playing. We knew they were. These guys have been down before and they can come back real quick. We had to keep playing, and we're fortunate that we did, and we hung in there."

Quarterback Jeff Baldassari led the way for North, completing 9 of 16 passes for 252 yards, two touchdowns and an interceptions. The scoring passes came on Baldassari's first two pass attempts of the game, as he hit Steve Lambert (three catches, 151 yards) for a 66-yard touchdown on North's third play, and Jordan Buckmire had a 22-yard scoring reception that made it 13-6 in the second quarter.

North also ran for 161 yards, getting more than 40 yards rushing each from Tylor Chase, RJ Jenkins and Sclyler Boykin, who also had a 32-yard touchdown run.

But the Titans did most of that damage in the first half, as South held them to just 51 yards rushing in the second half.

"We've been good run stoppers, but some of those money downs, giving up those deep shots, it was tough," South coach Scott Knight said. "That (third quarter) was one of the best quarters we've played all year on defense, but the offense needs to take advantage of those opportunities."

South (2-2) twice had the ball inside North's 10-yard line early in the third quarter, but the first time, they settled for a 32-yard field goal by Caio Campos that made it 20-16 Titans.

The second time, following a fumble by the Titans, the Panthers elected to go for it fourth-and-8 from the 9-yard line and a fumble by Sean Holland gave North the ball back on its own 26.

"We could have still gotten a first down," Knight said. "I knew we were going to have to score a touchdown to win the game. We’re not going to get too many field goal opportunities. The one we hit put us in a position to put us in the lead. If we don't get it, they're going to be buried, and we're in good shape."

The Panthers were in good shape two plays later, when Baldassari hit Levi Gosselin for a 20-yard gain, but Gosselin lost the ball. South recovered at its own 48, but was forced to punt after a couple of dropped passes.

"We had a case of the drops, which was tough," Knight said. "We couldn't get the running game going and we had a case of the drops. If you're not going to run the football, you've got to at least catch it."

Holland was 12 of 35 passing for 153 yards with two touchdowns and rushed for 76 yards, but 49 of that came on one play early in the first quarter.

"We just ran around and our front seven played great," Laurendi said. "We tackled as well as we can and we contained Sean. He still made his big plays, but we limited it, which was great."