Nashua South football rediscovered its focus in playoff win against Bishop Guertin

AMHERST - The Nashua High School South football team learned a tough lesson in the final week of the regular season.

Going into the finale against Goffstown, the Panthers had a shot at finishing as high as fourth in the Division I standings, meaning they'd be hosting playoff games in the first two rounds if they made it that far.

Instead, South's defense struggled to get off the field and the offense tried to hard to make up for it in a 14-6 loss that dropped the Panthers to the sixth seed.

"We weren’t playing real disciplined on defense, so (Goffstown) held the ball," South coach Scott Knight said. "They held the ball for like a whole quarter. When you’re playing like that (on defense), you’re playing desperate on offense. It’s easy to drop a pass or miss a block. You start to play not to lose instead of just going out and letting it all hang out."

Perhaps the best news for the Panthers was that they had at least one more game to right the ship and the week of practice leading up to last Friday's D1 preliminary-round game against No. 11 Bishop Guertin was a good one.

"I honestly think that loss last week (against Goffstown) helped us in a way because it showed us not to underestimate anyone," South junior quarterback Cody Jackson said. "We just took this seriously and our intensity was way higher at practice the entire week. Overall, I think it just helped us."

South got off to a fast start, leading 20-0 in the first quarter, and held off a second-quarter comeback by the Cardinals before pulling away for a 59-26 win. That sends South to the quarterfinals, where it will go on the road to face No. 3 Londonderry at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

The Panthers had three players score twice and three more find the end zone once, with Jackson scoring two rushing touchdowns to go with three passing. Sam Levine added two scores on the ground and Justin Fish caught two scoring passes, while Kyle Emmons and Bruno Goncalves each had a rushing touchdown and Diego Cabrera had a touchdown reception.

"This game probably showed our depth even more because I think we had six different guys score a touchdown," Jackson said. "It’s kind of crazy.

"Once one person makes a big play, we really just feed off each other’s success. We all keep improving as the game goes on as a team. Once we start going, it usually keeps going."

South looked like it might take a comfortable lead into halftime when Jackson hit Cabrera for a 67-yard touchdown with 2:52 left in the second quarter. That made it 34-14 Panthers, but Bishop Guertin had a quick answer.

The Cardinals needed less than two minutes to go right down the field, getting back within two scores on a 39-yard touchdown pass from Nate Bowen to Ryan Connelly with 59 seconds left in the half.

South's Gus Smiley returned the kickoff to midfield, and six plays later, Levine scored from 11 yards out for a 40-20 lead with 13 seconds to go until halftime.

The Panthers' defense forced a three-and-out on the Cardinals' first possession of the second half and then the offense went on a 12-play, 64-yard drive, with Jackson hitting Fish for an 11-yard score and a 46-20 lead.

The drive was kept going on a fake punt, where Emmons kept it and ran 35 yards on fourth-and-18.

"That was huge," Knight said. "We knew going in, we need a stop, go three-and-out, and then score and put this thing to bed. That’s what we did. That was awesome."