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# Panthers look for first division win against Crusaders
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/panthers-look-for-first-division-win-against-crusaders/
- Published: 2011-09-23T18:37:18.000Z
- Updated: 2011-09-23T18:37:18.000Z
- Description: The Nashua High School South defense has given up over 500 yards in each of its last two games. Two weeks ago, in a blowout loss to Pinkerton, that was a bad thing for the Panthers. Last Saturday against Lowell, it wasn't.
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division I, Fall Sports, football, Manchester Memorial, Nashua South, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

The Nashua High School South defense has given up over 500 yards in each of its last two games.

Two weeks ago, in a blowout loss to Pinkerton, that was a bad thing for the Panthers. Last Saturday against Lowell, it wasn't.

Of course it helps that South won, 44-41, but in a game that featured over 160 plays between the two teams, stats are going to pile up.

"Our defense gave up a lot of yards, but we had some key stops," South coach Scott Knight said. " We’re a hurry up offense and they’re a hurry up offense. You run a lot of plays like that, you’re going to get yards."

South got three interceptions of Lowell's R.J. Noel, including one that was returned by Ray Ramos for a touchdown, and made its biggest stop at the end of the game.

"They had the ball at midfield and we stopped them on four pass plays in a row," Knight said. "We stopped them when we had to."

In fact, Knight was more disappointed that his offense failed to score on two of its trips inside the red zone. On one, the Panthers (0-1 in Division I, 2-1 overall) dropped a touchdown, and the other was plagued by penalties.

Although the win over Lowell won't count in the division standings, it will prepare the Panthers for what they're about to face. Starting with Friday's game against Manchester Memorial, South will face three consecutive spread offenses, but none that play at the same pace as the Red Raiders.

"They’re a spread team with a real fast pace, and we’re playing a spread team for the next three weeks," Knight said. "They’re pace is faster than ours. Not to slight anybody, but that quarterback, we won’t face a kid like that all year."

Memorial is coming off a 44-34 loss to Salem in which the Crusaders had the lead until the Blue Devils scored with 17 seconds to play. Knight knows Memorial (0-1, 1-2) will present the same kind of challenge to South, thanks to the combination of quarterback Cody Dalton and running back Steven Dwight, who had 194 yards rushing and two touchdowns against Salem.

"This kid Dalton, is pretty good," Knight said. "He can run, he can throw, so he’s similar (to Noel). They’re committed to running the football. They have a pretty good back (in Dwight) and they try to pound people with him. We’re going to get a heavy dose of that, I’m sure. They’re quarterback is pretty slippery. They’ve got four or five good weapons. And they’ve got decent size up front."

The key for South will be sticking with what it does best and building off that. The Panthers were able to execute their bread-and-butter plays against Lowell, which then helped them build success.

"We were running stuff that’s made us successful the last few years," Knight said. "Everything else that we do is off that and that helped us. We had some success doing our basic stuff and we kind of found ourselves again. When we get going, our tempo improves, our passing game improves, and we step up."

South and Memorial will kickoff Friday at 7 p.m. at Stellos Stadium.