Nashua South football continues to improve with win over Manchester Central

MANCHESTER – Saturday was just another measuring stick day to see how far the Nashua High School South football team has come in a year.

Last year, the Panthers lost in the rain to Manchester Central. But fast forward to this season, and pretty much the same South team walloped the Little Green 41-15 at sun-splashed but more-than-half empty Gill Stadium.

“Same kids, exactly, same coaching staff,” Manchester Central coach Ryan Ray said. “If you can get kids to buy in, and I think Coach (Scott) Knight and his staff are getting a lot of kids to buy in and work hard, and they're really making the transformation (from last year) into something potentially real special.”

The Panthers (4-0 Division I, 5-0 overall) trailed 7-6 after one quarter, but from then on reeled off 35 points on quarterback Cody Jackson touchdowns of 18 and 40 yards, Sam Levine's 9-yard scoring run, Jackson's 49-yard touchdown toss to Josh Tripp, and John McDevitt's 8-yard run.

Pretty efficient.

“For the most part, we got going and did the things we can do,” Knight said.

Things did start flat for South, starting with a bobble on the opening kickoff, an interception by Jackson, and Central's 21-yard touchdown toss by Caydin Salvi to Owen Taylor-Gelinas just over two minutes into the second quarter that helped Central get its only lead.

South had struck first with 1:36 left in the first quarter on Tripp's 10-yard touchdown run for a 6-0 lead (two-point attempt failed).

“We were flat (Saturday),” Knight said. “They (Central) were going so slow, great game plan on their part, slow it down a lot. We're used to going, and we play a lot of teams that like to go, to. I don't know if it affected us, we need to adapt to that slow pace.”

But no matter, the Panthers picked it up, just five plays after the Little Greens' score, with Jackson's 18-yard jaunt. Preston Bois' PAT gave them a 13-7 lead they never relinquished. They added to it when Jackson ripped off a 40-yard run with 1:51 left in the half, helping South take a 20-7 lead into the break.

Jackson finished the game with 80 yards and two touchdowns on just four carries, a dual threat as he also tossed a 49-yard scoring pass to Tripp with just 3.3 seconds left in the third quarter that gave South a commanding 34-7 lead entering the final quarter.

“He's a threat, he's starting to see some escape hatches,” Knight said of Jackson. “His acceleration the last few weeks, it's become a thing now. Just another weapon.”

Central fell to 0-5, and Ray gave all the credit to the Panthers.

“We didn't execute real well, and I think that's because South was so good and so aggressive, they were just flying around the ball,” Ray said. “They were doing a lot of good things. On a day like (Saturday), you have to give credit to South.”

That's been the case the first five weeks, right?

Tom King is a staff writer for the Nashua Telegraph.