Titans, Blue Devils meet in rematch of title game

The gauntlet continues for the Nashua High School North football team, but this week’s game is likely to be the only one circled on the Titans’ calendar.

North, coming off back-to-back wins over Pinkerton and Manchester Central, now gets the rematch the players have been waiting for since last year’s Division I championship game ended. The Titans travel to Salem on Saturday. The game was originally scheduled for Friday, but rain postponed kickoff to 10 a.m. Saturday.

High school teams change from year to year, and while both North and Salem suffered losses to graduation, the major players return on both sides of the ball. The Titans still have running backs Andre Williams and Jahmar Gathright and quarterback Brandon Karkhanis; the Devils also have running backs Jerickson Fedrick and Max Jacques along with quarterback Matt Cannone in the fold.

“We have new faces, they have new faces,” North coach Jason Robie said. “Some of the big names are still there, but I think it’s going to be some of the role players that make the difference.

“I think a lot of them circled it on their calendars. That’s OK. They know it’s the only team in our young program’s history that we’ve never beaten. They beat us twice last year. They scored 82 points against us in two games. We have a lot to prove.”

North has done a good job of showing what it’s capable of this season. Since losing to Winnacunnet top open the season, the Titans have won three in a row by an average of 22.3 points. Two of those wins were over the Astros and the Little Green, two teams that are expected to challenge for playoff spots this season.

What has Robie feeling good about his team is that it’s been getting wins without the element of surprise, something the Titans had on their side a year ago.

“There’s a lot of film out there about us now,” he said. “There’s no mystery player, there’s no mystery formation. We are who are and teams know what we are. They’re going to try to find our weaknesses and exploit those things. To our kids’ credit, they just keep playing hard.”

If North is to make it four division wins in a row, its defense is going to have to play like it did in last year’s championship game – a 28-21 loss – than the 54-33 regular season loss.

In the title game, the Titans improved by making tackles and taking better angles to the ball.

“We did terrible job tackling the first game, and we played poor angles,” Robie said. “Our scheme at times was questionable, and we learned a little bit and made some adjustments at the championship game.

“We had to take something away from them and we realized that was the run game. Unfortunately, a good football team, if you take something away from them, they’re going to exploit something else.”

North’s offense might have an opportunity to do some exploiting of its own when it’s on the field. Salem has allowed 125 points this season, an average of more than 31 a game. Included in that is the 38 points Pinkerton scored against the Devils last week, after the Astros combined for just 30 in their first two division games.

“Salem is a good football team,” Robie said. “It should be a great game.”