Nashua South boys lacrosse settles in, takes care of Nashua North (video)

NASHUA - The intensity is always there whenever the Nashua High School South boys lacrosse team takes on Nashua North.

But what the Panthers needed most Thursday night was to settle into a groove.

After a quarter of peppering the Titans' cage with shots, South started to find its way in the second quarter, as the Panthers outscored North 7-0 in the 12-minute frame on the way to a 15-2 win at Stellos Stadium.

Drew Fleury led the Panthers (6-3, No. 7 in the NHHSS Coaches Poll) with five goals and Joe Bodi had two goals and five assists as South bounced back from a tough loss to Souhegan on Tuesday. Jaden Murphy added three goals and two assists and Jordan Bodwell had two goals and three assists.

Nate Campbell, Aiden Walsh and Brad Deitrich also scored for South and Dom Pasquale made six saves.

South scored five goals in a span of 2:19 to take control of a game that had been kept close in the first quarter by the North defense and the Panthers' shot selection.

"Their goalie (Ryan Palmer) in the beginning, he did well," South coach Bill Monsen said. "They had a nice zone package which gave us a little bit of difficulty at first, but after that I think we were fine. We played well. I think we came out a little too fired up and were taking some ill-advised shots at times, but once we got into a groove, we were fine."

Palmer finished with 14 saves, six of which came in the first quarter, but the Titans (1-6) had trouble setting up their offense.

"We’ve got to get out of our own end," North coach Nick Sampson said. "It’s hard to play offense when you can’t get the ball on the offensive end. It’s pretty evident that transition has been a point of struggle for us. Certainly, if you can’t get the ball up, it’s going to be tough for the defense all day."

Despite that, North kept it close in the first quarter, and a goal by Martin Flaherty with 1:29 left in the frame made it a 2-1 lead for South. But Fleury scored off an assist from Bodi with 46.2 seconds left in the quarter and Bodi got a goal of his own two minutes into the second to double the Panthers' lead.

Penalties on both sides slowed the pace until Murphy found Bodi for a goal that made it 5-1 and then Murphy scored 59 seconds later to put South up five. North's Aidan McGrath was called for an unnecessary hit on the goal and South capitalized with back-to-back goals by Bodwell and Murphy in just 15 seconds.

Another faceoff win by Jaiden Dupont - who won 6 of 8 in the second quarter - set up a goal by Fleury and the Panthers led 9-1 with 4:51 left in the half.

"We knew we could put the ball in the back of the cage once we got into the flow of the game," Monsen said. "We were just trying to take good shots, not just the first shot. They started putting it away."

Fleury added another goal with 3:28 remaining in the half and South kept the Titans at a distance in the second half to come away with the win.

Both teams are on the road for their next game, as South heads to Dover for a 4 p.m. start on Monday and North travels to Londonderry on Tuesday for 4 p.m.