Nashua South football comes back to beat Nashua North (video)

NASHUA - Scott Knight already had decided that if the Nashua High School South football team was going to win Friday night's game against Nashua North, it was going to be with the offense on the field.

So when the Panthers scored on an untimed down with zeros showing on the Stellos Stadium scoreboards, the offense stayed on the field to go for two points.

Connor Rowsell took the handoff, slipped and nearly fell at the line of scrimmage, but was able to keep his balance, and after getting hit, fought for the goal line. With his right hand holding him up off the ground and the ball in his left, Rowsell reached for the end zone.

The ball came free as Rowsell crossed the goal line and South's Nathan Smith fell on it in the end zone. After conferring in the end zone for a few moments, the officials signaled for a successful conversion, giving the Panthers a come-from-behind 43-42 win over the Titans.

The Panthers (1-3) trailed by two scores at halftime and by seven after North (3-1) scored with under four minutes remaining. South went 80 yards on 13 plays in the final 3:40 of the game, its fourth long touchdown drive of the second half.

"We knew we were going for two when there was four minutes left," Knight said. "We were struggling in our coverages (on defense). We’re playing better on offense than we are on defense right now and I wanted to put the game in our offense’s hands. We’re going to let our guns finish the game for us."

Finish it they did, as Rowsell, Josh Compoh and Michael Rutstein almost all of the Panthers' 458 yards on offense.

Compoh led the way with 212 yards and four touchdowns on 35 carries, including an 8-yard scoring run on the untimed down that set up the two-point conversion. That run came after the senior appeared to have scored from 3 yards out, but South was called for an illegal formation, negating the play and setting up the final one with no time left.

Rutstein also went over a hundred yards on the ground, as he rushed for 111 with two touchdowns and was 6 of 14 passing for 67 yards and an interception. All six of those completions went to Rowsell, who had 102 yards of offense for South.

North got a huge game from quarterback Derek Finlay, who was 6 of 6 passing for 228 yards and three touchdowns and also ran for 61 yards and 20-yard touchdown that gave the Titans a 42-35 lead with 3:44 remaining in the game. Jack Peters had three catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns while Jordyn Raisanen-Andino carried eight times for 49 yards and two touchdowns.

While the Titans were trading blows with the Panthers all night, their defense was on the field for long stretches, as all six of South's touchdown drives were eight plays or more.

"We were on the field a long time," North coach Dante Laurendi said of his defense. "They had some long, sustained drives, and they are tough to tackle. We never got a clean tackle on them and we didn’t have consistent downs where we put them behind the chains back-to-back. We’d get them down for a 2-yard gain and then they’d pound up for 8. They were physical and we didn’t tackle well because they’re tough to tackle."

North was able to take a 27-14 lead into halftime thanks in part to an interception by John Barry, Jr., which set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Raisanen-Andino, and the junior added a 1-yard scoring run with three seconds left before halftime, that was set up by a 59-yard reception by Peters.

But South opened the second half with an 8-play, 67-yard drive, and got within one score on a 2-yard touchdown run by Compoh. The Titans answered on a 30-yard scoring pass from Finlay to Peters, but the Panthers came right back with a 12-play, 61-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard run by Rutstein as the third quarter ended.

"Mike Rutstein bailed them out a lot," Laurendi said. "Second half, they went to more quarterback runs, we had him, he bounced out and made some great plays."

On North's next drive, a personal foul on the Titans turned what would have been a fourth-and-1 near midfield into a punt situation, but a good kick by Toby Brown, Jr., put the Panthers back on their 30-yard line. But South went 70 yards in eight plays, getting an 11-yard touchdown run from Compoh to tie the game at 35 with 7:08 remaining.

The Titans looked like they might have to punt again, but on third-and-11 from the 28, North's line gave Finlay plenty of time to throw, and he hit Barry for 39 yards. Four plays later, the junior quarterback scored to put North back in front.

On the winning drive, South faced a fourth-and-4 at its 43, but Compoh picked up six yards for a first down. Two plays later, North was called for pass interference, and the penalty gave the Panthers another first down, this time at the Titans' 36.

Rutstein connected on back-to-back passes to Rowsell for gains of 6 and 17 yards, respectively, to give South a first-and-goal at the 3. After a 1-yard loss by Compoh on first down, the Panthers used their final timeout with 25 seconds left.

On the next play, Rutstein again connected with Rowsell, but only for a yard, and with the clock running, the Panthers rushed to the line. They got a play off, with Compoh rumbling into the end zone, but the flag for illegal formation moved South back to the 8-yard line.

North used up its final two timeouts before the play, but Compoh was able to get to the outside and dove across the goal line, setting up the game-winning conversion.

"We had a couple of things we liked," Knight said of the final drive. "We went back and forth. We thought we could hit that. One play, do it perfect.

"We found ways to get it done."