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| By Dave Haley, Posted 09-15-2010 |
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We welcome our newest sponsor to the site in Makris Lobster & Steak House of Concord at http://www.eatalobster.com/ , the best restaraunt in the Capital city. Makris wanted to sponsor what looks to be the surprise team in the 2010 Division I football season. Today we take a look at the seven biggest games of the weekend as we head into week 3. We'd also like to welcome two new members to the Players Lounge; Luke Somers of Pinkerton Academy & Derek Paradis of Nashua South. Thank you to both families for supporting New Hampshire Sportspage. On to the games; Division I Nashua North (1-1) at Pinkerton Academy (2-0) (The coverage of Pinkerton Academy is sponsored by T-Bones and Cactus Jacks at http://www.t-bones.com/ ) Nashua North shook off an opening night loss to Winnacunnet with a solid 27-7 road win over Londonderry last week and this week they face what is quickly emerging as the best team in Division I. Pinkerton's youth movement took another giant step forward with a win over Nashua South last Friday night and they have done their damage by spreading the production around on offense. Emmitt Smith is 4th in the division in rushing with 230 yards (on only 19 carries) and is followed in the rankings by teammate Kevin Davies with 223 yards. The Astros got a huge lift off of a kickoff return for touchdown by Manny Latimore while the defense led by Lounge member Luke Somers has held up nicely against two very good offenses (suddenly that opening weekend win over Timberlane is starting to look more impressive). Nashua North defeated Pinkerton 23-12 late last season. For the Titans it will come down to controlling the clock and they're more than capable of doing it. Andre Williams is off to a bit of a slow start (109 yards on 26 carries) but is due for a breakout game. Brandon Karkhanis has played well at quarterback, Javon Williams has speed on the outside and Jamar Gathright remains one of the better playmakers in the state. Pinkerton has an offensive line built to wear your defense down late. Nashua North will need a big game out of Williams to win their second in a row over the Astros. Concord (2-0) at Manchester Central (1-1) (The coverage of Concord high school is sponsored by Makris Lobster & Steak House at http://www.eatalobster.com/ ) ( Manchester Central's coverage is sponsored by both 900 Degrees Pizzaria at http://www.900degrees.com/ and T-Bones and Cactus Jacks of Manchester) The two leading rushers in the state square off in this one as sophomore running back Tolbert Nemo has helped Concord high school become the story early on in Division I. On the other sideline Khari Halliburton has been everything head coach Ryan Ray hoped he'd be heading into the season. For Concord it has been a long time since they've had two young stars like Nemo & quarterback Graham McIntire and Eric Brown's team comes into this road test with a lot of confidence. They beat a Goffstown team many have picked to compete for the Division III title fairly easily in week one and then blew out an Exeter team that was favored to beat them in week two. The defense has played extremely well and Nemo has averaged a ridiculous 12.6 yards per carry. This team has every right to feel like they can go to Manchester and win. Central had a tough draw a week ago in their 45-19 loss to Salem. The Blue Devils were playing under the lights at home for the first time and was coming off an embarrassing debut against Bishop Guertin. There was no way Salem wasn't going to come in going 110 mph in that game and Central took the loss. They can bounce back with a win here and in a very wide open division where all nine teams think they're a playoff team, protecting your home field is crucial, even this early. Division II Dover (0-2) at Winnacunnet (2-0) Dover has played well and fought hard in two tough losses but this is a Division in which Winnacunnet, Keene and Merrimack have all gotten better, Timberlane showed real signs of life last week and Bishop Guertin is still very much the juggernaut. The Green Wave need a statement win. This is a big seacoast rivalry game and as we known, funny things can happen in rivalry games. Winnacunnet on the other hand looks to be 1a to Bishop Guertin's 1 in the division. Players Lounge member Steve Cronan has complete control of the offense and defensively they are only allowing 14.5 points per game. Now that we've gotten a better idea of the landscape after two games how about Winnacunnet's final four regular season games of the year; at Timberlane, Bishop Guertin at home, at Keene and Merrimack at home. Those are four teams that look like top 5 teams in the division right now. Division III Goffstown (0-2) at Souhegan (2-0) (The coverage of Goffstown high school is sponsored by Bob Hayden of State Farm Insurance of Bedford) If you are Goffstown head coach Rob Cathcart your hope is that a 7-6 win over Salem in a pre-season jamboree is not the highlight of your season. In the Grizzlies defense they have played two very good teams out of the shoot in Concord and Bedford. Two teams in fact that are better than most people expected. Souhegan was a team the past two years that could beat you running the ball with Steve Jellison or throwing it with DJ Petropolis. Through two games they no longer have that kind of balance as the Sabers have not had a ton of success running the football although Nick Calvetti ( 116 yards on 28 carries) has been solid. What they have done extremely well is throw the ball as quarterback Mike Luks' 529 passing yards and 4 touchdowns lead the state. The Sabers passed their first big test of the season by winning at Portsmouth high school last week and begin a stretch now where they will play four of their next five games at home. Division IV Trinity (2-0) at Laconia (2-0) (The coverage of Trinity high school is sponsored by Edible Arrangements of Manchester at http://www.ediblearrangements.com/) (The coverage of Laconia High school is sponsored by T-Bones and Cactus Jacks of Laconia) This is a good match-up on Friday night in the Lakes Region. Trinity is one of the best pure running teams in the state. Adam Chambers has stepped in and done a very nice job at quarterback while the running duo of Rob Hoeagland (leading the division with 287 yards) and Josh Hughes have been all-state worthy. Defensively Trinity kept Hanover from doing anything in the running game and shutout Merrimack Valley in the opener. So why does Laconia still have a good shot at winning this game? First of all if there is one thing Laconia does really well it is stopping the run. The Sachems have one of the biggest defensive lines in the division behind Raige Hollis and Anthony Abbott and Doran Logsdon is All-state worthy at linebacker. The Sachems, like Trinity, forced Hanover to rely solely on the arm of Sam Carney and had Merrimack Valley shutdown until the game was decided in the 2nd half. Laconia doesn't have enough offense to win a 31-28 game, they need to keep the Trinity running game somewhat in check and try to force turnovers. If there has been a red flag for Trinity early on it's taking care of the football. They put it on the ground five times against Hanover and it was the only thing that kept the Marauders in the game. If they turn it over anywhere near five times against Laconia they are going to lose. A win on the road over Hanover and Laconia establishes the Pioneers as the second best team in the division. A win by the Sachems does the same for them. Hanover (0-2) at Lebanon (2-0) Too early for a must win game? Well maybe, but if Hanover doesn't come away with their first win of the season they face a very steep climb the rest of the way. An 0-3 start in an improved division with Plymouth and Kennett still on the schedule is probably too much to overcome. They face a Lebanon team that is winning with defense and that defense is led by linebacker Cody Patch. Patch intercepted a Ryan Baumgartner pass near his own end zone last week against Monadnock and returned it 92 yards for what turned out to be the winning margin in a 13-6 win over the Huskies. Lebanon got just enough offense behind quarterback Chris Barker to upset Kennett in week one and held Monadnock running back Blake Bolewski relatively in check (105 yards on a workman like 31 carries) to move to 2-0. In Hanover they won't be facing anyone that is going to carry the ball 20 times let alone 30. Players Lounge member Sam Carney leads the division in passing with 357 yards on the season and has targeted his top receiver Dan Gorman for 183 of those yards. The Marauders defense has been solid but the running game has struggled. Lebanon isn't going to score a ton of point on you so look for Hanover to try and strike quickly with Carney going over the top. Lebanon possesses a very good pass rusher in Alexander Morrill so keeping Carney on his feet will be a key for Hanover. Lebanon takes a very big step towards a playoff berth with a victory over their arch-rival while Hanover's season may depend on a win here. Division VI Newfound Regional (2-0) at Newport (2-0) Call this the weekend we find out just how good Newfound really is because they face a very good Newport team and this is never any easy road trip to make. Shannon Tucker (299 yards rushing in two games) is out in front of the player of the year race and the Bears defense has done a nice job protecting big leads. Newfound has a lot of depth in their running game behind Jamal Brito, Zach Ellis and the underrated Shawn Downs-Rule (I'm calling him underrated because I feel guilty I didn't talk about him more in the pre-season) so they have plenty options when they have the football. Newport opened a lot of eyes by blasting Inter-Lakes 39-7 last week. Kevin Brady or no Kevin Brady that Lakers team has some talent coming back from a championship season and Newport took it to them. They do the same to Newfound and it will look like their division to lose.