Seniors expecting big things for Nashua South football

NASHUA - The seniors on this year's Nashua High School South football team have experienced a lot of success in their first three seasons.

The first two seasons, the Panthers reached the postseason, and last year, they finished first in the regular season in the Division I West Conference.

But the one thing South hasn't done in that time frame is win a playoff or conference championship game.

"This is the year," Andrew DeCarteret said. "We're doing our best to be great this season.  We're really focused and we’re going to bring it to them."

South has a lot of the pieces already in place, despite the season only a week old. The Panthers lost very few seniors who contributed on varsity a year ago, although two of those losses - quarterback Trevor Knight and tackle Brayden Hollowell - will be felt.

"We have a few guys stepping up with Trevor gone," John Hixon said. "It's not that much different because we do have a lot of experience. It's been pretty good."

The numbers are also good for South, which had a couple of down years as far as program depth. With a freshmen class of close to 40 kids the Panthers are back near a hundred players, and coach Scott Knight thinks there could be more who show up once school starts.

"We're in that 40-something range with the freshmen team and we're in the 50-something range with the varsity, so it's not bad," Knight said. "The last couple of years, we’d been way down, but football is coming back. I anticipate having more freshmen. We'll probably pick up 10 more by the first week of school. We always end up with a handful in the first week."

The Panthers success this year will depend largely on what that experienced senior class can do on the field.

"Our senior group is probably one of the best that our coaches have had," Hixon said. "They talk us up a lot to the younger kids. Everyone is a good example of what you should be as a team in the weight room and outside of the weight room. Everyone does what they're supposed to do."