It’s back! America’s favorite listicle, The Top 10. There are many lists and polls and power polls, but those are all garbage, and this one rocks. Also, I’m very humble.

The Top 10 is brought to you by TJ’S in Portsmouth! My absolute favorite spot in Portsmouth to catch a game. Tell Bethany that McIsaac sent you.

10. PINKERTON DIDN’T BLOW A 3-1 LEAD

The Astros Bowling team was reeling after going up 3 games to 1 in the best of 7 match on Goffstown, and then watching the Grizzlies win 2 straight to tie the match at 3 games each, but instead of panicking, the Astros ripped off a spare and 5 straight strikes to take home the 2020 NHIAA Bowling championship Saturday- congrats to the Astros!

9. THE PORTSMOUTH CLIPPERS ARE GOOD. THIS IS NOT A REPEAT FROM EVERY YEAR I’VE DONE THE TOP 10

A big win for the Clippers at Bedford have Portsmouth at 12-2 despite 31 from Justin O’Neil – O’Neil raced out to 14 points in the first Q and ended up with 8 3’s, but 4 Clippers in double figures, lead by 24 from Coleman Brewster was enough to get a W. Do YOU want to bet against Portsmouth in March? Because I don’t.

8. I KNOW IT WAS EARLIER LAST WEEK BUT LET’S GIVE SOME LOVE TO ALVIRNE AND LIAM O’NEIL

A bomb at the buzzer from Liam O’Neil was enough to beat Exeter, who had an amazing 39 game winning streak come to a close, despite 29 from Ryan Grijalva – Exeter had to lose SOME time, and while I’m sure it stung, you’d rather drop one in February than March

7. GOFFSTOWN’S HUFFT STEPS DOWN

 Guys named Justin are, as science has proven, usually around 300% at their given profession that folks with other names, and Grizzlie football coach Justin Hufft was no exception. Selfishly, I hope this isn’t the last go around for Hufft  at the head of a football team, because his teams are always a ton of fun to watch

6. GILFORD’S BIG W

Down the stretch we come in D3 and Gilford wrapped up at least a 2 seed by my math (I’m not good at math so I might be wrong) with a big win at Hopkinton – with 2 games left and looking strong as heck, this sets up the most dramatic question of the season… if Gilford gets to the D3 title game, does Dave ditch the D4 Championship, which at this point is his adopted child, for his Alma Mater, since both games are played on the same night?

5. AS IN 5 OVERTIMES FOR ST ANSELM AND FRANKLIN PIERCE

In the NEWHA semi-finals, history was made as the St. Anselm and Franklin Pierce women’s hockey teams played FIVE OVERTIMES to set the new record for an NCAA Women’s Hockey game. Somehow St A’s had enough energy to play a damn good championship game less than 24 hours later vs LIU, but came up just short 1-0.

4. SOMEONE FINALLY GOT THE CARDIAC CRUSADERS

Memorial forced overtime down 6 with less than a minute left vs Londonderry (BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DID!) but the Lancers managed to bounce back in the extra frame to hand Memorial just their 2nd loss of the season despite 23 from Tamrah Gould, but Courtney Shay and Ashley Rourke were too much with 21 each in the 68-64 W to get Londonderry to .500

3. BG TAKES A BIG NASHUA BATTLE

A balanced scoring attack for the Cardinals got them the W over South on Friday 52-46, and it’s conceivable that the 6 best teams in D1 might hail from either Nashua (North, South, and BG) or the Seacoast (Exeter, Portsmouth, and Winnacunnet), although Merrimack and Keene are probably saying HEY, WE EXIST TOO after reading that.

2. THE HELPLESSNESS OF WATCHING YOUR OWN KID

In the opening round matchup of the aforementioned NHIAA Bowling tourney, Spaulding was down 2 games to 1 to Goffstown, with a tall skinny Sophmore named Cameron McIsaac up in the 9th frame, basically needing a strike to keep Spaulding up by a pin. Cam threw a great shot that broke a little late, and he ended up with a split.

My legs turned to jelly as my heart broke for my kiddo. I knew he was crushed on the inside, but his only reaction was to shake his head a little, which is VERY on-brand for Cameron. Spaulding ended up losing by 12, and that was the match. It’s weird watching something like that not being able to do anything, but the kid handled it well. Good season, Red Raiders! (It’ll be worse for me next week in the individual tournament. Cam will be cool as a cucumber and I’ll be a puddle)

1. TYSON FURY BEAT DEONTE WILDER TO A PULP

I’m not gonna say I watched this on a bootleg stream that probably dumped 16 kinds of malware onto my laptop, but that is exactly what I’m saying. I thought Wilder would pulverize Fury, but Fury talked all sorts of mess and then backed it up, which is exactly what you want from a heavyweight champ.  

ALSO RECEIVING VOTES: Kelly Walsh still killing it, I’ve never been less excited for a Red Sox season, MY St. Louis Battlehawks of the XFL drew 30k in their win, I’ve gambled on NASCAR two weeks in a row this might be a cry for help

Justin McIsaac writes the Top 10 every week (usually). He is the 2018 & 2019 NSMA NH Sportscaster of The Year.  He has 1,000 jobs, including radio color commentary for UNH Football, Producer of "NH Today with Jack Heath", HS play by play for MOSN, The McIsaac On Sports Network, college play by play for Dartmouth, St Anselm’s, UNE, Harvard, and whoever else will cut the check. Follow him on Twitter: @justin_mcisaac