I’ve decided to change it up this week and take a look at the top two divisions 1/3 of the way through the regular season. Next week we’ll take a look at Divisions III & IV.

 Every basketball season I write a mid-season snapshot column picking the teams I see meeting in the finals and identifying the contenders along with the biggest surprises at the half-way point.

 We’re not quite there yet in football but we’ve seen enough over the first three weeks to asses what we’ve learned. So in addition to pointing out the biggest games this weekend, and there are a bunch of them, we’re going to take a look at the top two divisions.

 We will be out covering two games on Friday night:

 ‘The Franchise’ Jennifer Chick-Ruth and I have our spot in the press box reserved for Mack Plague weekend when undefeated Londonderry goes to arch-rival Derry to face 2-1 Pinkerton Academy. We’ll have all the highlights plus the post-game interview with the entire winning team.

 A scene that should look something like this...

 Exeter post-game interview/celebration

 Meanwhile, Justin McIsaac & Nichole Marrero will be in Portsmouth when the Clippercats take on the Spaulding Red Raiders with the winner getting a team viewing party at Buffalo Wild Wings of either Rochester or Newington next week.

 

Thank you to Bow Football for being the latest program to support our team and get access to our 6-year library of full game videos!

 Thank you to our friends and partners at White Mountains Community College for their continuing support of high school sports. Check out their pre-roll commercial above produced by ‘The Franchise’ Jennifer Chick Ruth!

 

 Division I

 Games of the weekend:  Pinkerton at Londonderry and Exeter at Nashua North

 Londonderry Team Page & Statistics

 Pinkerton Team Page & Statistics

 Exeter Team Page and Statistics

 Nashua North Team Page and Statistics

 Let’s start with the East/West side of the bracket….this is the weekend we’re going to find out if Nashua North is on the same level as Exeter. The Blue Hawks were the pick to get to UNH from this side of the draw in the pre-season and we’ve seen nothing in 3 games that would make you want to re-consider that pick.

 Watching them clinically defeat a good Merrimack team 41-7 last Friday night was vintage Bill Ball football. A defense that tackles well in space knows their assignments and tries not to give up the big play. Working alongside an offense that is the very definition of death by a thousand papercuts. Its 4 yards, 5 yards, 3 yards, 9 yards, 5 yards, 4 yards, 9 yards all the way down the field.

 Adding to that consistency is senior quarterback Ryan Grijalva, who showed he could both throw a rope to the sidelines when he needed to on 3rd down and put a perfect touch on a 35 yards pass down the sidelines.

 His ability to throw the football might be the ingredient that puts Exeter over the top.

 Nashua North may have the best offensive player in the state in Curtis Harris but Dante Laurendi’s team is much more than just their all-state quarterback. Xavier Provost gives them speed on the edge, Anthony Greene is a big back who can run between the tackles and Max Ackerman is one of the best linemen in the state.

 Coach Laurendi has voiced concern about how his lines will hold up against the bigger, more physical teams in the state. We’ll find out for certain tomorrow night.

 If Exeter wins this weekend they’ve got a very good chance of running the table. Win or lose they are going to be at least a two-touchdown favorite in every game remaining on their schedule.

 Beating Exeter this season is not going to be easy as it is but beating them in the playoffs at Bill Ball Stadium is going to be a long shot.

 Nashua North has their chance to tip the scales tomorrow night.

 On the other side of the bracket, Londonderry already owns the biggest victory of the young season, a road win over a very good Salem team.

 We talked about it in the pre-season preview, Londonderry has to beat Pinkerton. Call it the monkey on their back, the Drago to their Creed or whatever gets the message across but Londonderry has not beaten their rivals since 2001 and it has to happen for the Lancers to be a bona fide contender to be the last team standing. They get that chance tomorrow night, and we will be there.

 The Astros lost a close one at Goffstown on opening weekend and unlike last season; this is a team that needs time to come together. Brian O’Reilly is a terrific head coach and probably underrated simply because he coaches at a school with 3,000 plus students.

 Last year he had a veteran team led by Gannon Fast, Ryan Auger, Gennaro Marra, and a very good, very deep senior class. It was a team ready to compete for a title on opening night.

 This season Pinkerton is a team that is likely going to be peaking right around early to mid-October. Londonderry can give their playoff chances a big hit with a win Friday night and if you’re a Division I program, you don’t want to see Pinkerton sneaking in because they would be a very tough out.

 Salem plays Timberlane this weekend before they go into a four-game gauntlet that will define their season. Rob Pike’s team will face Pinkerton; go at Windham, then face Bedford at home before a trip to Goffstown.

 I’m high on the Blue Devils, and I think they get out of that stretch 2-2 at the worst, but 1-3 means they will not be back in the playoffs this year.

 A year ago Windham finished strong but it was ultimately a close loss on the road early in the season at Exeter that kept them out of the playoffs. Does the 18-14 loss to Goffstown become the game that keeps them out this season?

 Division I fans may not have heard of Bedford Head Coach Zach Matthews before this season but we’ve known him for a long time. Matthews was an excellent head coach for some very good Kearsarge teams.

 In the pre-season, Matthews warned it was going to take some time for his new players and the system he was bringing with him to mesh together. In a 42-7 win over previously undefeated Goffstown last weekend, it seems safe to say it has come together.

 After struggling at times in the first few weeks quarterback Joseph Mikol was terrific against the Grizzlies, completing 14 of 18 passes with 2 touchdowns and an impressive 143.8 quarterback rating. The champs are once again the best team in their conference; the question is how they stack up against Salem, Londonderry, and Pinkerton?

 The loss to Bedford isn’t going to hurt Goffstown in their attempt to get back to the playoffs. They own the tie-breaker over both Windham & Pinkerton and their schedule is about to ease up. Can a team that most people felt was a year away get back to the post-season?

 This weekend they face Concord, a team that is much better than their 0-3 record would suggest. Don’t let the records fool you, Concord can absolutely compete with the Grizzlies and maybe even pull off the upset.

 My pick in the pre-season was for Londonderry and Exeter to meet at UNH. Three weeks into the season, I’m not changing that prediction.

 

 Division II

 Games of the weekend: Plymouth at Kennett and Milford at St Thomas

 Plymouth Team page & statistics

 Milford Team page & statistics

 St Thomas Team page & statistics

  Let’s start with the North…where Bow and Plymouth have already separated from the pack. The Falcons control their own destiny in regards to the top seed after earning an 8-7 win over The Bobcats on the opening Saturday of the season.

 Bow has played up to its lofty pre-season expectations and any conversation about the best football players in Division II has to include RB/S Steve Guerrette.

 Bow’s season-ending cross-over game with Souhegan, the team that beat them twice a year ago, is going to tell a lot about how the two conferences compare.

 Coaches seem unanimous in the opinion that the South is deeper but the North coaches like to point out that they always seem to be there in the end.

 Plymouth is not as experienced as they were two years or as explosive as last season but they are coming along quickly under head coach Chris Sanborn and his terrific coaching staff. Their cross-over game with St. Thomas is next week and that will be their opportunity to beat a team with title aspirations.

 I’m not ignoring Kennett’s 3-0 start; in fact, I was very impressed by their 40-6 domination of a Merrimack Valley team that beat Gilford-Belmont the week before.

 This weekend is Vaughn Beckwith’s team’s opportunity to prove they belong in the conversation. Their first two wins of the season came over two teams (Pembroke & Hanover) that are winless on the season but the new look Wing-T offense is working and the Eagles will go into their showdown this weekend with a lot of confidence.

 John Stark has had one major injury after another, with all-state receiver Nikos Biskaduros being the latest, which is too bad because there are some very good football players on Kevin McGinty’s roster.

 Gilford-Belmont’s loss in Week 2 to Merrimack Valley looks a lot worse after last week. Now they head to Bow as a group that still has to prove they can go toe to toe with an elite team for four quarters. Ultimately to get to the playoffs or at least have a chance, they are going to have to beat Kennett (in a game we’ll be covering) and John Stark.

 The South Conference is the Division II equivalent of the North/South bracket in Division I, where anything can happen & whoever gets out alive and reaches UNH will have absolutely earned it.

 Milford travels to St. Thomas this weekend after surviving Pelham in overtime last weekend. The Spartans have their areas of weakness but they’re physical, very well-coached by Keith Jones & his coaching staff and may have the best player in the division in Gavin Urda.

 Alvirne is winning with grit and proving they can execute at the end of the game. Running back Alex Giuffrida came up huge last weekend in an instant classic win over Souhegan and when they get 100% healthy along their offensive and defensive lines, they still might be the team to beat come November.

 I had one coach tell me Gavin Urda was the best player in the division and another tell me it’s Luke Manning of Souhegan. What is clear is that Robin Bowkett’s team has been able to rally around the loss of Trey Johnson in the off-season and looks capable of a run to Durham. If people expected them to be less explosive offensively, we haven't seen any evidence of that.

 The Saints of St. Thomas also has shown a lot of character, that win over Alvirne in Week 2 after trailing 12-0 said a lot about this group. Quarterback Cam Paquette is playing better by the week and I am a charter member of the Will MacLean fan club.

 Tom Babaian is doing another terrific job at Pelham where the Pythons might have the stingiest defense in Division II. Can they score enough points to beat the best teams in the division? We’ll know for sure after match-ups in Week 5 & 6 against Hollis-Brookline and Souhegan. Two teams that have no trouble scoring in bunches.

 The Cavaliers of Hollis-Brookline got a lot better last weekend with the return of all-state receiver Quentin Wimmer. Chris Lones’ team looks primed to get to 4-2 or even 5-1 before they close the regular season with the gauntlet of Souhegan, Alvirne and at St. Thomas.

 I’m sticking with my pre-season pick of Alvirne vs. Bow but Milford, Souhegan, and Plymouth all look capable of being there in the end.

 

Division III

Trinity (2-1) at Monadnock (2-1)

Monadnock Team Page & Statistics

 The champs have a chance to bounce back quickly from their 47-28 loss to Lebanon when another contender rolls into Swanzey this weekend.

 Lebanon decided to spread out the Huskies and attack them in space rather than trying to knock a very physical team off of its spot. Raiders quarterback Jon Willeman was terrific, completing 8 of 13 passes for 190 yards and 3 touchdowns in the win.

 Monadnock scored 28 points and racked up over 300 yards on the ground behind Lincoln Blodgett and Justin Joslyn but the defense couldn’t make a stop. Spending a lot of the night chasing in space rather than attacking the ball carrier at the line of scrimmage.

 John Thibeault is one of the best backs in the state and whether the Pioneers give him the ball 25 times or use him as a decoy to throw the football will be interesting to watch. The guess here is it is power running game vs. power running game, and few teams do that better than Monadnock.

 

 Division IV

 Winnisquam (3-0) at Raymond (3-0)

 Winnisquam Team Page & Statistics

 There are a few people who think this could be a championship game preview.

 The defending champs, who we will be out to cover next when they host Mascoma, have been unstoppable on offense through three games. Our 2018 NHsportspage Player of the Year Phil Nichols is putting up ridiculous numbers, to the tune of 799 yards passing and 11 touchdowns without a single interception.

 Against the undefeated Rams (who should be charging rent to Justin McIsaac for the space he is taking up on their bandwagon) come in averaging 33 points a game. So it is the Winnisquam defense that will get its first true test of the regular season.

 We know Phil Nichols, Gunner Horman and company can win a shootout.

 Will they have to?