The top 10 high school football teams in New Hampshire, as voted by the staffs of the New Hampshire Union Leader, WMUR-TV and ESPN New Hampshire, with record, first-place votes/points in parentheses, plus previous week's ranking:
1. Goffstown, 9-0 (6/60), 1st
2. Bedford, 8-1 (54), 2nd
3. Salem, 7-2 (44), 4th
4. Pinkerton, 7-2 (39), 6th
5. (tie) Exeter, 7-2 (34), 3rd
5. (tie) Timberlane, 7-2 (34), 5th
7. St. Thomas, 8-0 (20), 8th
8. (tie) Bishop Guertin, 6-3 (18), 9th 
8. (tie) Winnacunnet, 6-3 (18), 7th
10. (tie) Milford, 7-1 (3), NR
10. (tie) Nashua North, 6-3 (3), NR
10. (tie) Souhegan, 7-1 (3), NR 
Also receiving votes: none.
 

Here’s how I voted…

1. Goffstown…the undisputed #1 team in New Hampshire, the Grizzlies finished the regular season as the only undefeated team in Division 1 and now they have home field advantage for the 1st 2 rounds of the playoffs if they can get by Nashua North, a team they beat 35-6 early in the season during Week 3.  The big question for Goffstown heading into the playoffs is how a team with zero postseason “experience” will respond when they are faced with playoff atmosphere pressure.

2. Bedford…the Bulldogs are trying to get back to the Championship Game for a 2nd straight season, but this is a very different group than the team that was blanked 37-0 by Pinkerton last year.  This Bedford team has a new coach and a lot of new players who have really impressed in 2015, but they also have a very tough task having to travel down to Nashua to take on a high scoring Bishop Guertin team that gave them a much tougher game than the 43-22 final score indicated back on September 19th.

3. St Thomas…the Saints finished off their unbeaten march thru the Division 2 regular season with a resounding 47-12 thrashing of a pretty good Trinity team last Friday night.  Now it’s time to see how that translates to the postseason where St Thomas will play Monadnock in the 1st round.  If Eric Cumba’s teams gets by the Huskies as expected they would host the winner of the Milford/Souhegan game in what will be their toughest test of the season so far. 

4. Pinkerton…the Astros needed their defense to step up and make a play late in the game on Friday night at Exeter and that’s exactly what happened as James Tulley pounced on a stripped football to recover an Exeter fumble on the Pinkerton 39 yard line with just under 3 minutes to play.  Then it was up to Tulley, QB Ryan Albrecht and RB Nico Buccieri to lead the offense down the field for the game winning score in the final seconds.  It was the kind of win that can provide much needed momentum at just the right moment for the defending Champs.

5. Exeter…speaking of momentum, the Blue Hawks are moving in the wrong direction at the start of the playoffs as they have now lost 2 games in a row after starting the season at 7-0.  Both of those losses were by a combined 3 points and have come in the last 30 seconds of the game, a FG with 18.4 seconds left beat them in Merrimack before Pinkerton scored the go ahead TD with 33 seconds left, so it’s not like Bill Ball’s team is reeling.  Exeter just seems to play tight games but I think that may help them in the postseason.

6. Salem…the Blue Devils finished 7-2 on the season and have won 4 in a row down the stretch.  Their last loss was a 14-10 heartbreaker at home against Exeter when Kyle Ball punched in a controversial TD run with 7 seconds to play.  So perhaps it’s fitting that the Blue Devils will have a chance to redeem themselves when they head into Exeter to take on the Blue Hawks in what should be a very exciting football game on Saturday afternoon. 


7. Timberlane…the Owls have won 5 in a row dating back to a 17-7 home loss against Salem on September 25th.  QB Jason Hughes and RB Tyler Furey have led the way for Timberlane as they have racked up impressive victories over Pinkerton and Winnacunnet on the way to the playoffs.  I really feel it’s a toss-up on how to rank the 4th-7th place teams on my ballot, so it’ll be nice to see how things shake out this weekend when they all play each other for the 2nd time this season as Timberlane tries to knock off Pinkerton again and Exeter does battle with Salem in a rematch.

8. Bishop Guertin…the Cardinals have kind of been flying under the radar which seems crazy for a team that has put up over 50 points 4 times and then eclipsed 60 in their 61-7 regular season finale win over my Nashua South Panthers last Friday.  The key for BG in the playoffs against Bedford will be how their defense can handle to Bulldogs spread attack which hits you with quick developing Nick Leahy runs behind a talented offensive line and then mixes in an effective short passing game.

9. Winnacunnet…here’s a perfect example that Power Polls may be good for lively discussion/debate, but ultimately they mean nothing as Winnacunnet would surely trade a spot in this poll with a chance to compete in the playoffs.  Where did it go wrong for the Warriors this season?  You can probably point to that game winning field goal Evan Royer of Exeter made against them on Saturday September 26th and then the 24-13 hangover loss to Timberlane the next week.  I still would like to see Winnacunnet(or even Exeter) take on St Thomas on Thanksgiving Day, but with the Saints and Blue Hawks in the playoffs that’s not going to happen. 

10. Souhegan…figuring out the last entrant on my Power Poll ballot this week wasn’t easy.  I had Merrimack in there last week, but when they got blanked by Timberlane I had to drop them out.  Nashua North also entered my mind, but I figured I’d slip another D2 team in there to show some small school love.  I had to rule out Windham because they are trending down as of late.  It came down to either Milford or Souhegan so I gave the Sabers the nod based on their regular season win over their rivals.  The Spartans have the chance to take the spot away when they meet in Amherst on Saturday in a D2 playoff game I will be covering on video for NHSportspage.com and on radio for ESPN New Hampshire.