The Nashua South football players hoist the Ed Lecius Memorial Trophy as they celebrate Friday night's Battle of the Bridge win over Nashua North at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The Nashua High School South football team picked the perfect time to come of age.

No better spot than a game against your arch-rivals, right? The Panthers trailed Nashua North 10-6 early in the second quarter – the first time they had trailed all season – and stormed back with 35 unanswered points for a 41-10 Battle of the Bridge win Friday night at Stellos Stadium.

“I don’t know if we were a little bit tight,” South coach Scott Knight said after his team improved to 3-0 in Division I, 4-0 overall. “It’s a rivalry game, anything can happen. Credit to (North), they came out ready to go, did some things we hadn’t seen and we had to work for it.

“It was the first time we had been behind in the four games. We were down 10-6, and they responded. Sometimes those games are important. To be in that situation, rivalry game, what are we made of? And the kids pulled it out.”

Did they ever, led by quarterback Cody Jackson, who threw for three TDs and ran for two more. His 25-yard run with 4:13 left in the first half gave the Panthers the lead for good, 13-10 after Josh Bois’ PAT, and he also ran it in from 1-yard out with 32.2 seconds left as South marched an improbable 96 yards starting with 1:42 left in the half. Jackson hit four passes for 85 yards on the drive.

He finished the night completing 15 of 23 for 247 yards and three scores.

“I can’t think my receivers and my O-line enough,” Jackson said. “Some of those throws weren’t really that good. We just got the momentum and we never looked back.”

On the flip side, the loss left the reeling Titans at 0-4. They had given up the game’s first score, a 21-yard Jackson TD pass to Josh Tripp just over three minutes in to trail 6-0. But back Luke Peters (88 yards on 16 carries) had gotten untracked and scored on a 7-yard TD run with 1:49 left in the opening quarter after the Titans recovered a South fumble. Marco Raposo’s PAT put the Titans up 7-6, and Raposo later added a 30-yard field goal for a 10-6 lead.

Then, well…

“This has been the story of the season,” North coach Chad Zibolis said. “We go a quarter, a quarter and a half, maybe two quarters. Then the wheels come off the bus when kids are cramping up and getting tired. We need to finish a game. If we can’t finish a game, we aren’t going to win a game.”

The killer was the Panthers score just before the half. With the ball on their own 4, South had called a timeout before second down, which the Titans felt would be a gift, envisioning getting the ball back in good field position with plenty of time left on the clock down three. But Jackson hit Sam Levine on a 38-yard pass to midfield, then two more to Josh Tripp to set up the score to lead 20-10 at the half.

“That,” Zibolis said, “took the air out of our sails. They had a great drive at the end of the half.”

“We had some things we thought we could do,” Knight said, explaining the time out. “That was a back-breaker, that score, because we were going to get the ball (to start) the second half. The key for us was coming out at halftime we had to pop another one in, and we were able to do that.”

Nashua South’s Josh Tripp scores the first TD of Friday night’s Battle of the Bridge, despite the efforts of North’s Kobe Perry at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Nashua South’s Josh Tripp scores the first TD of Friday night’s Battle of the Bridge, despite the efforts of North’s Kobe Perry at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Yes they were, thanks to a great effort by receiver Diego Cabrera. He grabbed a pass over the middle of the field, took a heavy hit and used his hands to keep from going down, then bounced to the outside for a 49-yard TD just 2:28 into the half. The PAT kick made it 27-10, and on South’s next series, Jackson found Tripp for a 17-yard score to help give South a 34-10 lead after three quarters.

Tripp put the icing on the cake for his third TD, intercepting pressured North QB John Canaway and returning it 50 yards to paydirt with 10:27 to play.

What a change from being down in the second quarter, the opposite of a year ago when South had gone out to a 15-0 early lead only to lose 28-15. The Panthers now lead the series 24-15, and have a big sense of confidence.

“I wasn’t really worried at all,” Jackson said. “I don’t think any of us were.”