North edges South in OT, advances to face BG

Nashua North celebrates its walk-off win over cross-city rival Nashua South Tuesday night./Stacy Harrison photo

AMHERST, NH – Curt Dutilley is in his first year coaching varsity soccer at Nashua High School South.

He’s also the longtime head girls basketball coach at rival Nashua North, a team that includes a handful of the same girls his soccer squad faced in the first round of the Division-I playoffs Tuesday night.

Knowing both teams as well as he does, he said he wasn’t surprised to see the contest come down to one key play.

In this case, it was a North free kick from just outside the 20-yard line with five minutes remaining in overtime that found its way into the back of the net to secure the 2-1 victory for the eighth-ranked Titans over Dutilley’s ninth-seeded Purple Panthers.

“You had a feeling it was going to be an overtime game and come down to something like this, I’m happy for (North), but I’m proud of my girls and the way they battled,” he said.

Stacy Harrison photo/Stacy Harrison photography

It was Allison Frye who redirected the game winner off her head on a perfectly-placed free kick from he sister, Sarah.

The two of them always have to find a way to connect anyway, one way or the other,” said Thompson. “It was pretty much going in and Alli finished it off to seal the deal.”

Thompson said she had every confidence Sarah Frye would seal the win after spending countless hours in practice working on those outside kicks.

“When I know the ball is on her foot, I just trust her,” she said. “There’s nothing more to it. It’s that simple.”

While the Frye’s stamped North’s passport to the state quarterfinals, it was Nora Ross and Rachel Gauthier who combined to limit South to one goal in the contest.

“They’ve been our star keepers for years now,” said Thompson. “I think they’re two of the best in the state, so they pretty much split 50/50 depending on the momentum of the game.”

“Our mindset isn’t ‘I can do this,’ it’s ‘I will do this,'” said Thompson. “We’re not going back to last year and ending it and turning around and going home, this year, we’re turning around and moving forward.”

North is now faced with a tough matchup when it faces another city rival, Bishop Guertin, in the state quarterfinals, which is tentatively scheduled for 2 p.m.

“I know if they want it, they can go all the way,” said Thompson. “It’s not going to be an easy road by any means. There’s a lot of tough competitors … now it comes down to how bad do we want it and then fine-tuning the little things to get that finish.”