No big plays needed for Nashua North football in win over Nashua South

There are always mistakes early in the football season, especially when the preseason gets shortened and doesn't include scrimmages.

The miscues the Nashua High School North football team made on offense Friday night against Nashua South ended what was a decent opening drive and threatened to undo the Titans' second possession.

Fortunately for North, senior Curtis Harris-Lopez is the kind of player who can make up for those mistakes.

A holding penalty helped end the Titans' first drive of the game at the South 36-yard line, and another hold and a false start left North with a third-and-13 from its own 23 on its next drive. But the Titans' fortunes turned on that play, when Harris-Lopez dropped back to pass, didn't see anything open and took off, running for 26 yards and a first down.

Seven plays later, Harris-Lopez scored from a yard out to give the Titans a lead they never relinquished in a 24-7 win over the Panthers.

"That (run) was huge because we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties," North coach Dante Laurendi said. "To recover from that and make a play, it gives us another shot to have the ball."

It was the only third down the Titans (1-0) converted in the first half, but that wasn't because they struggled on offense. North's offense picked up an average of almost six yards on first down in the opening half, giving the unit second-and-short situations for most of the half.

Despite the success on first down, North had only one play in the first half that went for more than 20 yards. And the Titans' first two touchdown drives looked more like a team that relied on keeping possession.

The 1-yard touchdown run by Harris-Lopez capped a 13-play, 87-yard drive that chewed up 5:20 of the first quarter. North's second score, a 2-yard run by Anthony Greene, came at the end of a 10-play, 55-yard drive that took 4:35 off the clock.

"Any time you can keep the ball out of their hands, it's definitely in your favor," Laurendi said. "We didn't have any 80-yard bursts, but we were able to effectively move the chains. It allowed us to steal momentum, wear them down."

North was able to do the same on defense as the game wore on, holding South to 134 yards, 71 of which came on the Panthers' lone score of the night, a touchdown pass from Chris Keefe to Jaiden Murphy.

The Titans came up with three sacks, one each by Evan Soares, Max Ackerman and Devin Bracetty, and gave up 27 yards rushing on 26 attempts by South, including minus-5 in the second half.

"The guys hung together," Laurendi said of the front of his defense. "They played pretty physical. Max Ackerman had a nice night. We got contributions from a lot of people, like Spencer Whiting, Evan Soares, Toby Brown. Jack Peters played well at inside linebacker."

With Friday's game being the first of the season after the start was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it made sense to Laurendi that the defense on both sides might be a step ahead of the offenses.

"South played aggressive and they have a bunch of guys who can run," the coach said. "They're a fast defense. Early on defense tends to have more of the advantage. Not having scrimmages against other people definitely affects play offensively. We're still trying to find timing. Not having anybody to judge yourself against was definitely a factor."

Now North has something to look at going into another game where the Titans won't need much motivation. Merrimack comes to Stellos Stadium Friday night, and the last time the Tomahawks were there, they knocked an undefeated North from the playoffs in 2019.

Since Merrimack moved into the West Conference before the 2018 season, the Tomahawks have won three of four meetings with North, including twice in the playoffs. And in the Titans' lone win, in the regular season last year, Harris-Lopez was hurt in the second half and missed the rest of the year.

"They've had our number the last couple of years," Laurendi said. "(Merrimack coach) Kip (Jackson) and his staff do a good job, they're always well-prepared. It's another game where we have to do things right and keep things pretty clean in order to win."