Senior Henry Long, captain of Nashua High School South (left), shakes hands with sophomore Matthew Ruggiero, captain of Bedford High School, during a prior match. Courtesy photo

DURHAM – Nashua High School South will face off against Bedford High School in the first quarterfinal game of the Granite State Challenge on April 9 at 8:30 p.m. on New Hampshire PBS.

Nashua South is captained by senior Henry Long and includes fellow seniors Eric Picanco and Thanasi Miris, along with sophomore Charles Long. Rounding out the team is alternate Jerry Primo, a senior. The team is coached by Social Studies teacher Lex Duval and English teacher Kelli Thornhill-Telerski. The Purple Panthers were Granite State Challenge champions in 2016 and 2017.

Long said his team has a leg up thanks to their recent experience on Granite State Challenge.

“We know kind of how Bedford works because we got to see them play,” he said. “We looked at that and evaluated what we needed to work on to counter them.”

Reflecting on how close her team is, Thornhill-Telerski believes this could be their advantage.

“They sit together at lunch, they are constantly hanging out with eachother and they’re involved in a lot of other things together,” she said. “I think the camaraderie with our team is incredibly strong and that has been really fun for us to watch too.”

The Bedford Bulldogs are led by sophomore captain Matthew Ruggiero along with junior Tabitha Arp, sophomore Sumedh Godavarthy and freshman Sam Dooley. Supporting the team is alternate Samantha Arp, a junior. The Bulldogs are coached by Kelly Chausovsky.

Ruggiero said he feels pretty confident about the upcoming game.

“I think we’ll be able to put forth a strong team,” he said. “We’ll just try to focus on making sure people don’t feel the tension of the increase of moving up the bracket.”

Chausovsky expressed how excited the team is to make it to the quarterfinals.

“They’ve had fun practicing some more and they’re excited to see what happens,” she said.