My Power Poll Ballot revealed

UNION LEADER/WGIR/WMUR FOOTBALL POWER POLL
Sept. 17, 2012
The top 10 high school football teams in New Hampshire, as voted by members of the staffs of the New Hampshire Union Leader, WGIR AM and FM, and WMUR-TV after Week 3 of the 2012 NHIAA season (first-place votes/points in parentheses):
THIS WEEK / LAST WEEK
1. Exeter, 3-0 (8/80) / 1. Exeter, 2-0 (8/80)
2. Pinkerton, 2-1 (72) / 2. Manchester Central, 2-0 (68)
3. Winnacunnet, 3-0 (59) / 3. Pinkerton, 1-1 (64)
4. Keene, 3-0 (58) / 4. Nashua South, 2-0 (52)
5. Bishop Guertin, 2-1 (43) / 5. Keene, 2-0 (51)
T6. Manchester Central, 2-1 (35) / 6. Winnacunnet, 2-0 (44)
T6. Nashua South, 2-1 (35) / 7. Bishop Guertin, 1-1 (30)
8. Bedford, 2-1 (28) / 8. Nashua North, 2-0 (21)
9. Concord, 2-1 (12) / 9. Bedford, 1-1 (11)
10. Souhegan, 2-1 ( / 10. Trinity, 2-0 (9)
OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES (points in parentheses): Dover (6), Plymouth (6), Nashua North (4), Portsmouth (4)
Here’s my ballot…and why I voted that way…
1. Exeter…I’ve seen all 3 of their games so far this year…and each time they look more and more impressive! Now that they have the booming leg of kicker Logan Laurent and the explosive Colby Swane back to compliment the already lethal running attack of Tyler Grant, Galen Antolino, Jamie Vogt and Chris Kelley, I don’t see anyone touching these guys the rest of the way. Rival Winnacunnet gets a chance in a big one in Hampton on Friday night.

2. Pinkerton…I still had Pinkerton ranked 2nd on my ballot last week even after Exeter knocked the Astros off in Derry 24-20. Pinkerton rebounded nicely with a big win over Nashua North and is still the most dangerous team in NH…outside of Exeter of course.

3. Winnacunnet…The Warriors have rapidly risen in the poll after being left off the preseason rankings. Even though the game vs rival Exeter doesn’t count in the standings you can bet that both teams will come to play. The winner will be #1 on my ballot next week!

4. Keene…it pains me to reward the D2 Blackbirds by moving them up a spot despite the fact they messed up my plans to watch a great crossover game featuring the star studded QB duel between Keene’s Lucas Luopa and Connor Benjamin at D3 Goffstown on Saturday. But I have to give credit to Keene coach John Luopa and Grizzlies coach Justin Hufft for going public before the game that neither side was going to play their starters in a game that doesn’t count in the standings. Keene’s backups won the game BTW so they managed to climb in the poll when both Central and South lost.

5. Manchester Central…they never really had a chance in Exeter on Friday as they fell behind 14-0 before 2 minutes were gone in the game and ended up turning the football over 6 times in a 49-0 loss. The good news for Central is they did move up and down the field as David Weekly ran all over the Blue Hawks defense with almost 150 yards in just over 1 half of play. They just couldn’t get it into the end zone…or stop Exeter from scoring.

6. Nashua South…I can’t really tell what the Panthers blowout loss at Lowell, MA means in the Grand scheme of NH High School Football rankings. What I can say is from here on out we’ll see what they can do against their D1 opponents who they’ll face the rest of the way.

7. Bishop Guertin…outside of their 20-3 season opening loss at Pinkerton, the Cards have blanked West and Merrimack by a combined score of 61-0. It gets tougher this weekend with a visit from Dover on Saturday night at Stellos Stadium.

8. Bedford…The Bulldogs responded after a tough home loss to Winnacunnet 1 week ago by trouncing a decent Timberlane team in Plaistow. James Caparell and Brian Collins hooked up for 3 TD passes in the game and are perhaps the most dangerous QB/WR combo in the state.

9. Concord…The Crimson Tide picked up what I think is a “quality” win over Manchester Memorial last Friday night. The still need to beat one of the teams I have ranked ahead of them before I move them up in the poll.

10. Plymouth…the Bobcats are back on my ballot thanks to a wipeout of Trinity who I had 9th on in my rankings last week. What really impressed me was the way Plymouth was able to hold the high scoring Pioneers offense to only 12 points. Coming in Trinity had scored 110 in 2 games against obviously inferior opponents than Plymouth. I've said this before and I'll say it again now...my philosophy for placing any "lower divsion" team on my Power Poll ballot is as simple as this...I'd rather show some love to the best team in D3 or D4 by "rewarding" them with a vote than to place the 5th or 6th best team in D1 or D2 on my ballot. I realize that most of these teams in D4 couldn't hang with the top teams in D1 or D2 on a weekly basis, but I don't see the harm in giving them some credit by including them in my Top 10.