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# Nashua North holds off Salem to advance to D1 football final (video)
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/nashua-north-holds-off-salem-to-advance-to-d1-football-final-video/
- Published: 2020-11-15T13:00:10.000Z
- Updated: 2020-11-15T13:00:10.000Z
- Description: NASHUA - The Nashua High School North football team was ready to get a game unlike any other it had this season. Salem did not disappoint. The Blue Devils opened Saturday's Division I semifinal by executing a ball-control game plan and moving down the field against the Titans' defense. But when Nort
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division I, football, Nashua North, playoffs, Salem, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

NASHUA - The Nashua High School North football team was ready to get a game unlike any other it had this season.

Salem did not disappoint.

The Blue Devils opened Saturday's Division I semifinal by executing a ball-control game plan and moving down the field against the Titans' defense. But when North needed a play, its seniors were there to make them.

Curtis Harris-Lopez rushed for 215 yards and four touchdowns and the Titans' defense made stops late in the game to preserve a 33-28 win over the Blue Devils at Stellos Stadium. The win sends North to the D1 championship game for the first time since 2010, where it will face Goffstown on Nov. 21 at Bedford High School. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.

Chris Acevedo and Jayden Espinal came up with interceptions for North (6-0) in the second half to end a pair of Salem possessions and Espinal added 81 yards rushing and a touchdown.

"It’s what we expected," North coach Dante Laurendi said. "We expected a dog fight and we were able to make a couple of more stops and that was huge for us.

"They’re real good. That is a tough offense to defend. When you have real good athletes and a real good line running it, it’s even tougher. They showed that. We had to settle down a little bit, and it took us a little while, and we were just able to make a couple more stops than they did."

Salem (5-2) got 99 yards and a touchdown on the ground from Aidan McDonald while Dante Fernandes had 86 yards rushing and a touchdown and also had a 55-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown from Cody Clements. That score made it a five-point game with 7:33 remaining.

North was forced to punt on its next possession, giving Salem the ball on its own 12-yard line with 4:57 to play. But after McDonald picked up a first down, the Blue Devils stalled, and on fourth-and-4, a halfback option pass by Fernandes was picked off by Espinal to give the Titans the ball with 2:27 left.

"We had it at the end," Salem coach Steve Abraham said. "We had the play, but (Fernandes) threw it to the wrong guy. We thought it would be open and it was. I’m so proud of these kids. We executed the game plan, which was take time off the clock and run hard-nosed football. We did it. We kept punching."

The Blue Devils started the game swinging, taking the opening kickoff and going 71 yards in 13 plays, with Clements giving Salem a 7-0 lead with a 1-yard touchdown run with 5:16 left in the first quarter. It was the first time North trailed all season and the first time the Titans had allowed a team to score in the first half.

After North went three-and-out, Salem started driving again, but on fourth-and-1 at the Titans' 39, Jake Brady was stopped for a loss of a yard on the final play of the first quarter. In the first 12 minutes, the Blue Devils had run 20 plays, to North's three.

"We knew they’d come out and fight," Harris-Lopez said. "With it being the semifinals, we knew they weren’t going to roll over and let us win. We had to stay locked in and move on to the next play."

On the second play of the second quarter, Harris-Lopez scored on a 31-yard run, but the kick was blocked to keep Salem in front 7-6\. The Blue Devils responded with an 11-play, 55-yard drive that ended with a 6-yard touchdown run by McDonald on fourth down to make it 14-6.

North came right back with two touchdowns in less than a minute to take its first lead, going on a 10-play, 62-yard drive, capped by a 5-yard touchdown run by Harris-Lopez. Espinal ran in the two-point conversion to tie it at 14 with 2:26 left in the first half.

After Salem went three-and-out, the Titans got the ball at their own 49 with 1:49 remaining until halftime. Isaac Smith ran for 18 yards on first down and Harris-Lopez did the rest, scoring from 33 yards out to give North a 21-14 lead it would take into the break.

"It was big because we were getting the ball back (to start the third quarter)," Laurendi said. "We didn’t really have the drive we wanted coming out of the gate in the second half, so it was even more important that we got the ball back and had the lead at the half."

North turned the ball over on downs at the Salem 29 on the first drive of the third quarter and the Blue Devils to advantage, going 71-yard on just five plays, with Fernandes scoring from 24 yards out to tie it at 21.

The Titans looked like they might have another drive stall on Salem's side of the field, but on third-and-11, Harris-Lopez hit Lucas Cunningham for a 37-yard gain to the Blue Devils' 5-yard line. Two plays later, Espinal scored but Salem blocked the kick again, keeping it 27-21 with 4:25 left in the third.

Harris-Lopez made it a 12-point game on a 2-yard scoring run with 8:53 remaining and the long catch-and-run by Fernandes got Salem back within five, but that was as close the Blue Devils could get.

"We didn’t think they’d seen a team that does what we do and the physicality of it," Abraham said. "They were in a dogfight.

"We were in the right positions, most of the time, but that kid (Harris-Lopez) is great. You can’t give him an inch. There’s a reason he’s getting all these Division I (college) offers. But I don’t think they’d want to play us again."