We are back with the Thursday Thoughts to preview some of the best & most interesting games of the upcoming weekend. With all of Division IV on a bye week, we’ll focus solely on the top three divisions and let you know what to look for as we head into Week 6.

 Here are your quick-hit observations from each Division after Week 5.

Division I: Still feels wide open………Bedford has been dominant and will be favored by 20 plus points until their season finale against Merrimack…we’ll get to Winnacunnet in a minute but they face a brutal stretch to end the season..let’s see how they fare starting with Londonderry Friday night….the rest of the six playoffs teams look capable of a road upset..there is pretty solid parity at the top.

Division II: Plymouth is the favorite again….their defense was outstanding at St Thomas last Saturday in a game we covered….teams 2 through 8 are very close together, meaning the division that annually gives us the most upsets should not disappoint come November.

Division III: I’ll let Monadnock & Campbell settle who the favorite is on October 19th (we’ll be in Swanzey for that one) but Trinity is your #3 team for now with Hopkinton Hillsboro-Deering looming.

Division IV: Right now it looks like Winnisquam and Franklin have separated themselves. The Franchise Jennifer Chick-Ruth & I will be at their October 27th meeting.

 We will have coverage of two more games this weekend and are announcing in advance coverage we’ll have for you next Thursday night.

 Justin McIsaac & Nichole Marrero will be in Dover Friday night when Ty Vitko & The Green Wave host Portsmouth-Oyster River.

 On Saturday afternoon Matt Corsetti & Jennifer Chick-Ruth will be in Bow when the Falcons take on Merrimack Valley.

 Then next Thursday night Matt & Jen will be back together in Concord when Concord hosts 4-1 Merrimack.

 We’ll have all the highlights and the post-game interview with the entire wining teams.

 

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 Division I

 Winnacunnet (5-0) at Londonderry (4-1)

 Londonderry Home Page

 Winnacunnet Team Page

 This will be a great match-up between the Lancers offensive line and the Warriors defensive line led by Joe MacDougall (who might be the best defensive player in New Hampshire) and James Phennecie.

 Londonderry struggled to run against Pinkerton in their only loss and head coach Ron Auffant will try to turn Jimmy Lauzon’s offense into a one-dimensional one on Friday night.

 The Warriors are so tough to beat because they seemingly have depth in all the right places. They aren’t a terribly deep team but they can roll in several big-time players on the lines and they have six different runners that average 5 yards a carry or more (Winnacunnet player stats).

 With all due respect to Exeter, the Warriors are going to face the best three teams on their schedule in the final four weeks of the regular season. How Londonderry, Salem, and Pinkerton fare against the champs will likely decide who the top seed is coming out of the south conference.

 

 Goffstown (2-3) at Manchester Central (3-2)

 The Goffstown Grizzlies had a lot of dirt shoveled on them after a 0-3 start but Justin Hufft’s team saved their season, for the time being, with a win over Concord two weeks ago. Now they face another must-win game but against a Manchester Central team that has to be reeling after a 3-0 start.

 The Grizzlies offense woke up in the win over Concord and carried that over to another win over Memorial last weekend. QB Charlie Keith is one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the division and RB Jack Stinnett has scored four touchdowns in the past two games.

 The offensive line led by Dan Locke & Josh Wight is coming together and defensively they’ve gotten good play out of Josh Picard & Evan Cuddy upfront. Josh Juneau & Brad Baxter have played well at linebacker and defensive back Colby Putnam leads the team in interceptions.

 They’ll travel to face a Central team that lost a showdown with Bedford 45-0 a week after Nashua North came back to beat them at Gill Stadium. There is no shame in losing to Bedford but the Little Green didn’t compete, and that was really surprising.

 All of which makes this game feel like a loser leaves town match-up with the playoffs less than a month away.

 

 Division II

 Merrimack Valley (0-5) at Bow (4-1)

 Bow Team Page

 Paul Cohen’s team is a week away from a huge showdown with Hanover, before that they’ll look to take care of business Saturday against area rival Merrimack Valley.

 This is a team that is winning (four in a row) as a unit. Steve Guerrette and Matt Nicholls share the team rushing lead with 405 yards apiece while Jonathan Routhier is an evolving target for quarterback Corey Gott.

 The defense has been a collective effort as well, as the Falcons have given up only 13 points since an opening weekend loss at Plymouth. The defensive line has been anchored by Nicholls, Ben Boisvert, and 6’3 305 lb. Andrew Berube.

 Routhier and Chris Wheeler have played well at linebacker while Guerette, Andrew Robbins (who has been very solid as the team’s place kicker) and Jack Wixson round out an excellent defense.

 On Saturday they’ll face a Merrimack Valley team that has only scored 32 points on the season.

 

 Souhegan (2-3) at Pelham (3-2)

 It was surprising to see the Sabers get pushed around by Milford last Friday night in a game we covered.

 Souhegan was able to go toe to toe with St Thomas (a team that struggles to run it, but is very good in the passing game and the defensive line) but Pelham is going to play the same style as Milford. Tom Babaian's team wants to give the ball to Brett Lindsay and try to win the game in the trenches.

 If the Pythons decide to go the aerial route they can score that way as well. Ian Hoey is the 3rd leading passer in Division II and when he looks to take his shots downfield he usually goes to Nick Milano (324 yards receiving)

 The Sabers may match up better with Hollis-Brookline, a team they play next week, but a loss here puts them at 2-4 and makes their road back to the playoffs (where they were a 7 seed a year ago) very daunting.

 

 Division III

 Monadnock (5-0) at Hillsboro-Deering/Hopkinton (4-1)

Hillsboro-Deering/Hopkinton Team Page

 This is the week we learn if Hillsboro-Deering/Hopkinton is a true contender.

 The win at Laconia to open the season was impressive, the loss the following week to Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough seems downright baffling and they proved again last weekend that they can grind out wins when they beat Lebanon 14-7.

 Colby Quiet is a terrific football player, on both sides of the ball and Caleb Yianakopolos (280 yds. passing) is more than capable of taking shots down the field to receivers like Max Costello.

 Does the defense have the ability to hold the Huskies under 20 points to give them a chance for the upset?

 That’s the question going into this game.

 

 Somersworth (1-4) at Newport (0-5)

  There were few coaches in the state happier to see the calendar turn from September to October than Hilltoppers head coach Dan Hodsdon.

 Somersworth opened the season with Campbell, Monadnock, Laconia and Stevens (three of those teams are undefeated) and faced them with a roster of mostly freshman & sophomores and the usual challenge in Somersworth of players coming & going.

 There are only three seniors on the roster and not once have all three been healthy this season at the same time.

 Still the goal for a very young team is just to make the playoffs, meaning they only need to finish in the Top 8.

 In a 41-16 road win over Inter-Lakes-Moultonborough it seemed to look like the younger players were beginning to improve. Aidan Pratt So. (OG/DL), Jacob Gibson Fr. (Center/DL), and Ethan Marshall So. (OT/DE) have all made big strides since the beginning of the season while Anthony McHugh has begun to find running room on offense and is also leading the defense at the linebacker position.

 Christian Abkarian gives Somersworth a home run threat out of the backfield and QB Brogan Bonsaint has proven to be smart with the football when he has time behind his offensive line. The availability of Chase Sprague is vital for the success of the Hilltoppers lines as he has been dominant when he’s been able to play.

 After the ‘Is my AD trying to get me fired?’ opening stretch Somersworth now plays Newport, Epping-Newmarket and Kearsarge-Mount Royal in back to back to back weeks. Those teams are a combined 1-14, so if the time is now for a young team to make a push for one of the eight spots in the post-season.

 Listen LIVE to the New Hampshire High School Football Show with Pete Tarrier & Dave Haley every Saturday morning at 9 am.

 You can listen by clicking the listen live link right on our homepage or on 99.9 FM & 1370 WFEA radio in the Manchester area Saturday mornings. Our guest on Saturday will be Derek Stank of Bedford as former Souehgan head coach Mike Beliveau will sit in for me on Saturday as Pete's co-host.

 Get all the football scores from Friday night, a look at the Saturday games and analysis from Pete Tarrier & Dave Haley.