It’s not likely either coach was doing back flips when the Division I playoff matchups were announced.

Nashua South, which finished the regular season 7-1 and needed a botched late-game punt to beat Manchester Central by a point on Sept. 26, was forced to meet the same foe in the first round of the playoffs.

The Little Green, on the other hand, turned in the same regular-season record but went on the road to beat three-time defending state champ Pinkerton, 24-21, on Nov. 1.

Yet a three-way tie atop the standings between Central, South and Pinkerton resulted in CHS heading back to Nashua to open the postseason.

And for the boys from the Queen City, that turned out to be a very bad draw.

The Little Green looked sloppy and failed to take advantage of several key opportunities during a contest in which the Purple Panthers jumped out to a 14-0 first-half lead before holding on for a 24-9 victory on Friday, Nov. 14.

“It’s extremely hard. You know, you talk about it, and your seniors only get one shot at a championship,” said Central coach Ryan Ray. “I thought we were close, but obviously we weren’t close enough.”

After forcing a three-and-out to open the game, Central turned the ball over on its first drive, then allowed South to convert a fourth-and-1 and score minutes later.

The locals seemed to recover, piecing together a six-minute, 14- play, 75-yard drive that moved the ball inside the South 5-yard line. But South intercepted the ball and again made the Little Green pay for their transgressions, driving down the field and finding pay dirt for the second time.

Central regrouped in the locker room, however, and came out in the second half looking like a different team … sort of. The Little Green marched 66 yards on their first possession and put an exclamation point on the drive when senior Brett Parenteau made a circus catch in the end zone off a well-placed Pat Tatro pass.

After his team failed on the two-point conversion, Parenteau snagged his second interception of the day on the ensuing South drive, but the Purple Panthers turned around and picked up their third INT to take the ball right back.

Once again, the hosts put points on the board after a Central turnover, this time extending their lead to 17-6 with a field goal.

Central proved less opportunistic. Though the squad put points on the board with a Kevin Regan 21-yard field goal following Jake Tremblay’s 60-yard punt return, the Little Green failed to score when they took the ball back on the South 39-yard line with 3:44 remaining.

Tatro, who had been hurt earlier in the quarter, returned for the drive, but was sacked and then forced to make a desperation pass on third-and-17 that was picked off.

South, as it had done all day, scored again off Central’s mishap, this time on a 76-yard run by its star, David Zocco, to cap the scoring.

“If we played a perfect game, we would have been in a dogfight and had a chance to win, but we didn’t play a perfect game,” said Ray. “A lot of our mistakes were because South was playing great football on both sides of the ball.”

Now Central heads to the annual Queen City Turkey Bowl where the team hosts Manchester Memorial on Thanksgiving. “This is going to be a tough pill to swallow,” said Ray. “But we’ll go back to work on Monday and get ready to send our guys out as winners in the Turkey Bowl.”