The top four seeds all advanced to Saturday’s Division I semifinals, but it was hardly that simple.

 Both Bedford & Exeter led for good chunks of their games on the road and Londonderry was tied at the half 7-7 with Salem on the road before the Blue Devils running game kicked into gear.

 Today we take a look at a pair of rematches that will determine who meets on the field at UNH next weekend in the final football game to be played in the 2017 season.

 Goffstown (9-1) at Winnacunnet (10-0)

 Box Score of the first meeting

 Box Score from Winnacunnet/Bedford

 Box Score from Goffstown/Exeter

 Unlike the other side of the bracket both of these teams had to fight to stay alive last weekend. Goffstown’s all-state safety Andrew Duval shook off an injury to return an interception for a touchdown in a game we brought you full coverage of last Saturday afternoon.

 Meanwhile, hours later and forty miles down 101 Winnacunnet lined up across from Bedford with 3 feet separating them from moving on and going home. The Warriors defense, which has made plays all season long when they had to, made one more and sent the defending champs home. A defending champion that went down to the final second fighting & clawing for another trip to Durham.

 Expect another fight for every yard on Saturday when the two best defenses in Division I go toe to toe. Winnacunnet running back Billy Powers broke out with a huge game; 134 yards rushing and 3 TDs in the win. His effectiveness, along with fellow RB Jordan Fuller, on Saturday, will be a key. Exeter had to throw the ball over 25 times on Saturday in Goffstown in order to move the football. That’s not Winnacunnet’s game but if the Grizzlies negate the Warriors ground game then QB Patrick MacDougall is going to need to make plays down the field throwing the football.

 Same applies to QB Charles Keith and the Goffstown offense. Both of these excellent head coaches, Ron Auffant of Winnacunnet and Justin Hufft of Goffstown, trust their defense enough to play the field position game.

 The team that is more effective throwing the football has the edge in this one. Expect a huge crowd in Hampton on Saturday with a spot in Durham on the line.

Pinkerton (9-1) at Salem (10-0)

Box Score of the first meeting

Box Score of Salem/Londonderry

Box Score of Pinkerton/Nashua South

 The optics of this one changed the moment Salem’s Josh Sibanda, the Division I rushing champion, was ejected from the win over Londonderry after his second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The ejection carries an automatic one-game suspension and unless something changes between now & Saturday Salem will be without their senior back against Pinkerton.

 Sibanda was flagged for an unsportsmanlike penalty the week before in the regular season finale against the Lancers and after two more last weekend, Salem is going to have to win without him. That puts a lot of pressure on an excellent defense. Linebacker Ben Genest, Sebastian Mosher, Adam Maroun, QB/S Matt Soldano & 300 lb. nose tackle Jake Mullin are more than capable of winning a slugfest on Saturday but the Astros offense has peaked in the last month of the season.

 Running back Ty Hicks has been immense all season long for Brian O’Reilly’s team while Gannon Fast, Terrell Hicks, and Nick Lombard ensure that QB Aiden Goujon will have fresh weapons to hand the ball off to or find in the flat.

 Watching Pinkerton fly up & down the turf, in Nashua, last weekend has to give opposing teams nightmares about what you might see in Durham next weekend if the Astros can get past the undefeated Blue Devils.

 Dom Paci & Adam Maroun are more than capable of making up for the loss of Sibanda on Saturday. With the season on the line Rob Pike’s team gets their shot at knocking off the Astros on their home field.