UNION LEADER/WGIR/WMUR FOOTBALL POWER POLL Sept. 28, 2014
 

The top 10 high school football teams in New Hampshire, as voted by the staffs of the New Hampshire Union Leader, WGIR AM and FM, and WMUR-TV after Week 4, with first-place/points in parentheses:

1. Pinkerton, 4-0 (6/60)

2. Bedford, 4-0 (52)

3. Concord, 4-0 (50)

4. Salem, 3-1 (40)

5. Londonderry, 3-1 (36)

6. Windham, 4-0 (25)

7. Exeter, 3-1 (24)

8. Portsmouth, 3-1 (17)

9. St. Thomas, 4-0 (11)

10. Kennett, 4-0 (7)
 

Others receiving votes: Nashua South, 2-2 (3); Alvirne, 3-1 (2); Bow, 3-0 (2), Goffstown, 2-2 (1).

Here's how I voted...

1. Pinkerton...shame on me for not believing in the Astros enough to pick them to win against their rivals from Londonderry last Friday night!  I was wrong to think Pinkerton was vulnerable against a much improved Lancers team and I won't make that mistake again because this version of the Astros is L-O-A-D-E-D and I think they are even better than last year's team that was runner up to Concord.

2. Bedford...speaking of Concord, I moved them down to 3rd from 2nd this week in favor of Bedford.  The way I look at it, Bedford has just been a lot more impressive on their way to a 4-0 start than the also 4-0 Tide.  It'll be settled on the field in 3 weeks when the defending champs travel to Bedford in a game that will likely decide home field advantage in the conference Championship Game.
 

3. Concord...the Tide survived yet another scare this past weekend, edging out winless Manchester Central 28-21 with a 4th quarter TD drive that snapped a 21 all tie.  After a memorable 2013 season which saw lots of running time blowouts, this Concord team has had 3 out of 4 games so far where QB Robert Law(his mom told me to call him by his full name) has had to summon late game magic for the win.

4. Salem...I thought about moving Salem down and Windham up after the Blue Devils closer than expected 24-21 win over Timberlane on Saturday.  But I'm giving Salem the benefit of the doubt for gutting out a win over the Owls 1 week after they took Pinkerton down to the wire before losing a 14-7 heartbreaker in Derry.

5. Windham...is there any chance we can arrange a Thanksgiving Day game vs Salem at the end of this year?  The 2 schools that only a few years ago were together as 1 before Windham opened up did play each other in hoops last year in the NHSportspage.com preseason jamboree and I bet lots of people would love to see them meet up in football in an I-93 Turkey Bowl!  Just how dominant have the Jags been so far?  They're 4-0 and have outscored opponents by a whopping 194-24 count!  

6. Londonderry...I got to see the Lancers in person for the 1st time this season and I came away really impressed despite the 20 point loss to Pinkerton.  Eric Fairweather is the real deal at QB and I think he's the most improved player in D1.  GREAT crowd too for the game, the biggest at a regular season game I've attended in my 20 plus years of covering NH High School football.

7. St Thomas...I'll be getting an in-person look at the undefeated Saints this Fridayin Laconia as they take on the Sachems in a key D2 battle.  Dave Haley, Jon Kesty and I will be there with the NHSportspage.com video camera for our "Game of the Week".

8. Exeter...just when everybody outside the Blue Hawk program was pretty much writing them off, Bill Ball's team clamped down on a good Winnacunnet offense in a 15-3 Exeter win in Hampton.  Tough road ahead for Exeter though with Bedford and Portsmouth coming in the next 2 weeks and a regular season finale date with Concord looming.

9. Portsmouth...the Clippers just keep on winning games after the move up in divisions.  This time it was a 30-24 win over a Goffstown team that was fresh off a 14 point win over Exeter which had the Grizzlies ranked in the Top 10.  I'm very interested in seeing how their spread offense matches up against the tough Exeter D.

10. Bow...I considered putting undefeated D2 Kennett in this spot and also thought about surprising 3-1 Alvirne, but I'm going with the high flying Falcons who absolutely destroyed rival Bishop Brady 62-0 on Saturday.  Thru 3 games Bow has scored 122 points and only given up 7.  I think that's worthy of my vote.