Every week after I cast my ballot for the Union Leader/ESPN New Hampshire Power Poll I will reveal my personal Top 10...and why I voted that way.

1.       Bedford...if you want to be the best you've got to beat the best, and that's exactly what these Bulldogs will have to do over the next 2 weeks if they want to win their 1st ever football State Championship in school history.  The much anticipated rematch with Merrimack is on Saturday in Bedford and the winner of that game takes on the winner of the Exeter/Nashua North game for all the marbles in D1 at UNH on November 19th.  I can't wait to cover this game and you can listen to it LIVE on ESPN New Hampshire radio and watch the postgame highlight video on NHSportspage.com.        

2.       Merrimack...Joe Eichman and the rest of the Merrimack Tomahawks wouldn't take the bait from me after the Goffstown game last Saturday when I asked them if they were rooting hard for Bedford to beat Salem to set up a rematch in the Semis this weekend.  Eichman did the right thing by giving the politically correct answer and admitting, of course they would like another shot at the Bulldogs, but they really didn't care if it ended up being Salem.  So when injuries to Josh Sibanda & James LeBlond prevented both from playing against the Bulldogs, we now get to see what I think most people want...and that's Bedford/Merrimack Round 2! 

3.       Windham...the Jaguars rolled to a 52-7 victory against a pretty good Hollis/Brookline team in the Division 2 Quarterfinals last Saturday and now they are just 1 win away from their 3rd straight appearance in the State Championship game.  The Semifinal match-up with Plymouth should be the fastest played game all weekend as both teams like to run the ball a ton.  If you feel the ground shaking in the southern most part of I-93 between 1 and 3pm on Saturday it's probably not an earthquake...instead it's likely because of the many collisions that are going to take place between Windham's Victor Pizzotti and Plymouth's Garrett Macomber!

4.       Exeter...the Blue Hawks didn't roll all over my Nashua South Purple Panthers like I thought they would.  The 21-17 Exeter win had it's share of drama as Nashua South made a big 4th down stop to get the football back with a chance to win the game in the final minutes, but Bill Ball's defense stepped up to secure the victory.  The normally methodical Exeter offense made 3 big plays to score all their points as QB Kyle Ball hit Cody Morissette on a 65 yard TD bomb, Brayden Lowery ripped off a near 50 yard TD run and Ball finished the scoring with an amazing 89 yard TD scamper.

5.     Nashua North...who's the 2nd highest scoring team in the state of New Hampshire?  That would be the Titans of Nashua North!  Their 400 points this season ranks only behind Merrimack's 440.  Now it must be noted that almost half of the "Norf Side's" points have come over the last 3 weeks in blowout wins against BG twice(67-36 in the regular season finale & 64-41 last week in the playoffs) and against lowly Spaulding(54-8 on October 21st), so playing an Exeter team they were beaten by 42-6 in the regular season in Nashua is a totally different story.  We'll see how it all shakes out this weekend.

6.       Goffstown...what a great run it was over the last 2 seasons for the Grizzlies!  Hats off to coach Justin Hufft & his staff who knew they lost ALOT off their undefeated Championship team from last year, but they also knew they had some pretty good talent coming back.  Tough break literally for senior QB Nik Moquin who was lost to a broken ankle very early in the loss to Merrimack.  Don't count out Goffstown next year either as they return a bunch of good players and they should be in the mix for years to come.  

7.       Hanover...the Marauders bounced back from the blowout loss to John Stark in the regular season finale with a 13-10 slug it out rivalry playoff game against Lebanon on Saturday.  Now Hanover will host Bow with the winner moving on to the D2 title game next weekend.  It's hard to believe that not too long ago there were rumblings in the Upper Valley that Hanover might suspend their football program because of lack of participation/interest. 

8.       Plymouth...I have to give credit to coach Chris Sanborn and the Plymouth coaching staff who crafted the game plan which knocked off a red-hot St Thomas team in the Land of Lenahan last week.  I don't think anybody outside of Plymouth saw the 28-6 Bobcats domination coming.  One of the things that came out of the Plymouth win was they aren't just a 1 man team that completely relies on Garrett Macomber to carry the load.  Macomber still did his thing against STA with 145 yards and a TD, but Owen Brickley was also over 100 yards rushing with 2 TDs. 

9.       Monadnock...the Huskies continued their impressive march toward the D3 Championship game with a ho-hum 42-0 wipeout of Somersworth in Swanzey last Saturday.  Congrats to Levi Bassingthwaite, the best running back you probably haven't heard of, who became the all-time leading rusher in Monadnock history in the game.  If his team didn't crush most of their opponents(353-31 scoring margin in their 9 games) and limit his touches/playing time he'd have a lot more. 

10.   Bow...this edition of the Falcons are flying high into the Division 2 Semifinals thanks to their 2nd upset over highly touted John Stark in the last 3 weeks.  Bow, with their run-oriented offense is normally not the type of team that can play catch up if they fall behind in a game.  But after trailing 14-0 to the Generals early, they weathered the storm and then went on to outscore them 27-7 the rest of the way.  Interesting match-up at Hanover this weekend with the winner moving on to UNH.