Nashua South's Ray Karuru grabs ahold of Lowell QB Jack Casey during Friday night's interstate game at Stellos Stadium. South meets North on Friday night. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The regular season Battle is here for the Nashua High School North and South football teams.

They meet on Friday night in the annual Battle of the Bridge, and it’s a must game for at least one of the two.

That would be Nashua North, as they’ve begun the season in an 0-3 hole. It’s a role reversal, as that was the case for South last year, but the Panthers are a much different team in terms of results with basically the same personnel, 3-0 overall but 2-0 in Division I play.

The Titans’ comeback vs. Keene fell short in a 23-20 loss on the road; South rattled Lowell, 36-13.

The Panthers have developed an offense that doesn’t shoot itself in the foot not nearly as much as it did a year ago.

“Boy, I tell you what, with those weapons,” Scott Knight said. “We got (Kyle) Emmons some touches, and he felt really good. You’re going to see more of him.”

Emmons missed the win over Keene, but is thought of as one of South’s top guys. The Panthers have seen so many things go their way that they were able to fill in for some injuries on the offensive line on Friday with a running back, Bruno Goncalves, in the win over Lowell.

“He played tackle, we taught him two days ago,” Knight said. “He did great. But hopefully we won’t need him there next week.”

And defensively South has been tough to throw on. “We’ve got some pass rushers,” Knight said. “You get some pass rushers with some good guys behind them in the secondary, we can create some problems. … Moving forward.”

North wants to do that too. But the Titans, after two lopsided losses, couldn’t seal the deal vs. Keene despite a 75-yard kick return by Kobe Perry and a 77-yard pass by Dharyus Sisay to Luke Peters off a busted play. Those three are North’s speedsters.

“That’s the kind of stuff you have to do,” North coach Chad Zibolis said, “when you’re not moving the ball.”

They have a few days to figure out how to get that done.

BISHOP GUERTIN GETS EXPERIENCE

The Cardinals saw how a good team can overcome things on Saturday night when two-time defending champion Bedford had early hiccups plus an ankle injury to top back Brody Helton yet still beat BG, 35-13 at Stellos Stadium.

“There are things we need to clean up,” Cards head coach Anthony Nalen said, “and we also have to go out and just execute. From our perspective, there were times we had them in what we wanted,and we just didn’t execute how we did in practice.

“I said to some of our juniors that this is the standard. This is who you have to beat and this is what you have to do moving forward to get there.”

Guertin is lacking depth in the backfield, as both Logan Curran and Hudson Schmitt are out for the season, according to Nalen. That left A.J. Holmes, who was cramping a bit, with the bulk of the work at running back Saturday night.

“We’ve got some stuff to work through,” Nalen said, “but A.J.sucked it up and finished it.

Guertin, now 1-2, has a non-league game at North Middlesex in Townsend, Mass. next Saturday afternoon

HOLLIS BROOKLINE, MILFORD LOOK AHEAD

Both Milford and Hollis Brookline after the Spartans beat the Cavs teams will now shift their focus to next week, with 1-2 Milford hosting John Stark, which got beat and 0-3 Hollis-Brookline away against Pelham, which still has its long winning streak.

Milford Coach Max Morrelli and all-purpose player Kadyn Tessier agreed that they’re going to need their best to win next week: 

“John Stark should be a good old fashioned rock fight. They like to pound the rock, and they’re a good team, so we definitely got to bring it. You know, their programs really going in the right direction. Their coach is doing really good job. It’ll be a test, a formidable opponent, for sure,” Morelli said. 

Tessier continued, “It’s going to be a competitive game. I think we’re ready for it, but we need to have a good week of practice.” 

(Telegraph correspondent Jed Heald contributed to this report).