Titans will try to regroup against Crimson Tide

The Nashua High School North football team has had a lot of time to digest and dissect its 47-0 loss to Nashua South.

The game was last Thursday, and with the Titans not playing until Saturday at Concord, coach Jason Robie and his staff have had quite the change to regroup.

“We could really take a look at the South game and see where we came up short, which was pretty much everywhere,” he said. “We were able to sit down and look at that and talk about that and then put it behind us. We’ve had three days to put in a game plan for Concord and we’ve had opportunities to tweak things a little bit. I think the kids and coaches feel more comfortable with a full week of practice.”

North (1-4 in Division I) will travel to Concord for the Crimson Tide’s homecoming at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The Tide are coming off a tough 28-26 loss to Manchester Memorial in which Concord had the ball at the Crusaders’ 2-yard line when time expired. The loss was just one more bad break in what has seemed to be a season full of them for the Tide (1-4).

Concord has been relying on a sophomore at quarterback, as Marc Gaudet has been filling in for Graham McIntire, who broke his collarbone in the second game of the season.

“That’s a very good football team,” Robie said. “(Gaudet) runs the offense really well. He throws the ball well, he runs the ball well and he’s a good-sized kid. They’ve been in some close games. The way they lost last week was unbelievable.”

North, however, has not been in close games for the last four weeks. After opening the season with back-to-back wins, the Titans have been outscored 162-20 in losses to Pinkerton, Manchester Central, Salem and South.

“That’s potentially four playoff teams,” Robie said. “Sometimes you’ve got to take a couple of steps back before you take a few steps forward.

“One of the things that was really glaring to us was that this game (against South) wasn’t lost (last Thursday). It was lost in the preseason and last summer and the end of the school year, when we had the development camp. Kids didn’t take advantage of those things. You have to put the time in. You can’t just show up on Aug. 10 and expect things to take off where they were a year ago.”

Despite what the Titans might not have done in the offseason, Robie is pleased with how the players have prepared for each game.

“The good thing for our kids, with the exception of last week, they have been able to come in and get their work done and focus and concentrate,” he said. “I can’t complain about that. I love the character of that team and I think they’re ready to move forward.”