Telegraph/WGAM Poll for 9/24

WGAM The Game/Nashua Telegraph HS FB Poll for 9/24

1. Winnacunnet (7)

2. Exeter (1)

3. Pinkerton (1)

4. Bishop Guertin

5. Manchester Central

6. Bedford

7. Keene

8. Plymouth

9. Concord

10. Souhegan

(First place votes)

Other receiving votes: Windham (3), Goffstown (2), Nashua South (1), Dover (1)

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I don't get why Winny doesn't get all the 1st place votes. Ah, Hello? Is someone asleep at the switch? Or is someone being a homer and not believing that Exeter lost the other night to Winny!

I agree with JAF and I also don`t get what they see in Central. I saw them play Friday
against a week Nashua North Team and they struggled all night.

Central at 5 five give me a break....................maybe 8 or 9 at the most.

Division 4 Plymouth in the top 10?????????????
So no better teams in D1 or 2.

Nothing better in NH??????????????

Someone explain it to me.

Glad to see the conversation guys ... feel free to call into the Nick Anastos show from 12 to 2 on Monday as he will reveal the poll to our on-air audience. Surely a lot of talk will be about the upset of Exeter. I agree with the head scratching on Exeter and Pinkerton. I was surprised to see two votes outside of Winn.

WGAM 'The Game' FNL Saturday host and BG PxP voice Sean Sendall just outed himself on twitter as voting Exeter Number 1 in the poll. He stands behind the vote ... although I don't understand his reasoning either.

JAF wrote:I don't get why Winny doesn't get all the 1st place votes. Ah, Hello? Is someone asleep at the switch? Or is someone being a homer and not believing that Exeter lost the other night to Winny!

As one of the two voters who did not put Winnacunnet atop the poll let me offer an explanation to those curious:

I was certainly not "asleep at the switch" nor in any way being a "homer" as I have no ties to Exeter, sans playing against them when in high school. While I give Winnacunnet players and coaching staff (I have now interviewed coach Auffant twice on air, check out the segments at fnlnh.com, and I look forward to doing so again) the utmost respect for their big win and, in-turn, proving to be a top team in Division II, I felt that the top spot in the poll deserved to go to what I believe will be the best team in the state when all is said and done.

I believe, despite the loss, Exeter will prove to be the best team in the state by seasons end. Some people approach the voting for the polls differently, similar to the age old discussion of what the word "Valuable" in MVP really "means" when determining who deserves the award.

Now if Exeter falls again and Winnacunnet goes undefeated I assure the Winnacunnet fans that I will eat each and every one of those words, but until then, I stand by my selection and look forward to a continued phenomenal year of football in the state!

- Sean Sendall, Friday Night Lights Saturday Morning co-host

Sean, you said:

"Exeter will prove to be the best team in the state by seasons end."

The key words are "will prove" ...... That means future. The poll is based on present. I think you are mistaken to base a September vote on what you think "could" happen in November. If every vote was based on what "could" happen in November, then they might as well call this poll the:

Look into the Crystal Ball Poll

So, let's look into the Crystal Ball. If Exeter wins D1 and Winny wins D2 and with Winny beating Exeter..... This would mean you would still vote Exeter #1 in your season ending poll?

If the purpose of the poll is simply to say who had the biggest win, then yes the easy answer would be Winny this week and Exeter the couple weeks prior. I just don't see the poll as a "which team had the best week" voting.

Certainly if you're scenario were come to fruition I would have to re-evaluate my stance and, again, if this was a sign of things to come for Exeter, rather than an aberration, I will re-assess my thoughts. To expand a bit, if Dover beats Winnacunnet Friday I'm not prepared to have them leap-frog everyone simply b/c they beat the number one team. It takes more than a big win one week against a very good team, at least how I see it, to be assessed the top slot. It comes down to proving it consistently and I will have no qualms with moving the Warriors up when they have a chance (as they really haven't yet) to prove dominant against the other DII top-tier teams.

Until then, it looks like we'll have to agree to disagree on the way to vote for poll teams. I'm always up for a good discussion though.

Plus, who doesn't like a little extra high school athletics talk!

Props to Sean for defending his vote - never easy to swim against the tide. Not sure I agree with his argument, but he's the guy with the vote and I'm not.

I see these polls being designed for 2 reasons #1 to attempt to figure out the best team in the state when teams don't play each other and #2 to get people talking about HS football. Up to this point this year, not much talk going on. Perhaps that changes now! So lets ask this, by many accounts BG outplayed PA in week #1 except for the turnovers and scoreboard. So do you have revisionist history and say well BG played better that day - they outgained a team that by most accounts was far superior, thus BG must be the better team, right? Not that I agree with that mind you. Someone else out there in voter land seems to have ignored that Exeter beat PA in Derry. Just because PA has 2 more wins against North and Salem they now get a vote for #1 over Exeter??? Because they're playing better now or because Exeter lost? Keene beat Salem by much more... Bedford beat Keene in Keene... Bedford lost to Winny in a close game, but voters don't seem to place any importance on that keeping Bedford below BG and Central. Central is a team that just lost 49-0 vs. Exeter and barely beat North who got beat handily by Pinkerton. BTW, I agree with the comment that Central is rated too high, but I doubt that will change...

Friday night there was a rivalry game - Winny beat Exeter in a game that both coaches played straight up (unlike Keene and Goffstown the week prior). Unlike many previous years where there was a D2 and D1 team that were both very good - the two teams actually played - there shouldn't be any argument about who is the better team. The players should be given their just due (if only for a week) to recognize that they are in fact the undisputed #1 team in NH. To have a vote for Exeter and Pinkerton as #1 team in NH just doesn't add up when there have been games played on the field that have proved otherwise. It means the voters don't really place importance on the game result; rather they place more importance who they "feel" or "think" is the better team. I can see that argument when teams haven't played, but this isn't the case. Winny has two very big wins so far this year (one on the road). I think they've proven up to this point they should be called the best team in NH - if only for a week. Exeter by far has played the toughest schedule, but they lost to the better team. There were by some accounts 3000 people there to witness it.

Sean, I appreciate and respect your reasoning for your vote. I also disagree with it 100%. I never said the poll was based on the 'biggest victory" by a team that weekend. I think Exeter was the prohibitive #1 team in the state heading into last weekend's games. Winny beat them straight up. I think D2 is deeper and better than D1 this year. Bedford should be ranked higher. I agree with the RedFox and think Central is soft as a marshmallow this season. The Little Green would lose to a few D2 teams this year. Winny might not run the table or even win the D2 title this season, but for the last week of September, they deserve to be the resounding #1 team in the state.

To not vote Winny as the #1 team in NH this week..... Well, I will quote the great philosopher/coach of BG boy's basketball, Jim Migneault. He would say:


"That's just Stoooooopid !!!!"


And it is good to get some high school sports talk going.

A similar controversy would be Ravens vs. Patriots. Sure - in a few weeks Patriots might be ranked higher, but a Power Poll is about what have you done for me lately. I don't think you can rank the Pats over the Ravens at this point in the season. Tough sell.

Would you rank the Seahawks over the Packers, too

What I think impresses me most about the Winny win is that in the 2nd half their big back was playing a bit gimpy (groin), so the defense steps it up a notch or two and stops Exeter's O and historically laborious drives. That offense can take 8-10 minutes to drive 80+ yards, 3-4 yards at a time. Usually once they get a lead and the ball, it's very hard to get it back. Winny's O was able to take that 80 yard trip and score after Exeter went ahead in the 2nd half as well as milking time off the clock in the 4th to limit Exeter's touches.

True Jaf. Ranking the Seahawks over the Packers at this point of the season would be as strange as a Packer intercepting a pass in the end zone on the last play of a Monday night game as one ref signals touchback and the other signals TD.

I mean the above scenario just couldn't happen, correct?

I actually think the Seahawks are a more completely team at this point in the season. Their defense is far superior than Green Bays, and they have a much better running game. Packers are really good at passing the ball.

Power Polls are 100% opinion. So its really just a conversation piece. Here's NFL.com's Week 4 Power Poll - for some reason they bumped Seattle 5 spots but decided not to put them over Green Bay whom they had just beaten. Which is curious. Perhaps the call played in to it. You'll notice the Ravens are several spots over the Pats.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000066108/article/week-4-power-poll-houston-texans-unanimous-no-1?module=HP11_content_stream

In basketball it's called a "blarge" (block - charge)... Baseball it's a "safeout"... It seems as though the two looked at each other briefly too and perhaps even said something, but yet still came up with different calls.

If you consider that perhaps the NFL puts some thought into the crews that they know will have a large audience (MNF & SNF), then one could think these were the two best crews for the weekend, right? Cannot wait to see who they trot out for the Super Bowl. Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, and Joe would be far superior to what we're getting now.

I'm not a betting man, but if I were - I wouldn't be betting NFL right now because the last two nights probably cost millions of dollars for bettors all because of blatantly blown calls.

Power polls are a conversation piece and thanks to Sean's

first place vote..... We are piecing together some good conversation.

I do not bet any more, but you would have to be very ill advised to bet on the NFL these days.

Although the referee talk is off topic because the NH HS officials are doing an excellent job...

I usually post this under the "Union Leader/WGIR/WMUR Power Poll", but the discussion was so lively on this thread I figured I'd join the party! The more the merrier, right? Anyway, here's the "other" Power Poll followed by my ballot.

UNION LEADER/WGIR/WMUR FOOTBALL POWER POLL

Sept. 24, 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 4 of the 2012 NHIAA season (first-place votes/points in parentheses):

THIS WEEK / LAST WEEK

1. Winnacunnet, 4-0 (8/80) / 1. Exeter, 3-0 (8/80)

2. Exeter, 3-1 (71) / 2. Pinkerton, 2-1 (72)

3. Pinkerton, 3-1 (65) / 3. Winnacunnet, 3-0 (59)

4. Bishop Guertin, 3-1 (48) / 4. Keene, 3-0 (58)

5. Bedford, 3-1 (47) / 5. Bishop Guertin, 2-1 (43)

6. Manchester Central, 3-1 (44) / T6. Manchester Central, 2-1 (35)

7. Concord, 3-1 (31) / T6. Nashua South, 2-1 (35)

8. Keene, 3-1 (30) / 8. Bedford, 2-1 (28)

9. Souhegan, 3-1 (11) / 9. Concord, 2-1 (12)

10. Nashua South, 2-2 (5) / 10. Souhegan, 2-1 (

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES (points in parentheses): Plymouth, 4-0 (4), Windham, 4-0 (2), Goffstown, 2-2 (1), Portsmouth, 2-1 (1)





Here's how I voted and why...


1. Winnacunnet…anybody who doesn’t have the Warriors #1 on their ballot after the Exeter win simply isn’t paying good enough attention. Yup, there actually were 2 voters in the “other” poll that didn’t vote them # 1. Come on, man! What else does Winnacunnet need to do to win your love? Now even though they top my ballot this week I’m not gonna make the mistake of saying the Warriors can’t be beat. I said that last week about Exeter and look what happened.


2. Exeter…so they lost by 3 points to a bitter rival in a game that didn’t even count in the standings. True, the Blue Hawks wanted to win, but they got outplayed by a slim margin and it cost them what really amounts to nothing more than seacoast bragging rights. Plus, you know Bill Ball will use it to motivate his squad the rest of the way in games that DO count.



3. Pinkerton…#3, all but forgotten and currently flying under the radar just the way coach Brian O’Reilly likes it. Despite all that, the Astros are as dangerous as any other team in the state. Still, I can’t wait to get on the radio with my co-host Marc Thaler on Saturday morning to discuss how the heck he has the Astros ranked ahead of Exeter on his latest ballot even though the Blue Hawks won at Pinkerton just a couple of weeks ago…and they did it without Colby Swane and Logan Laurent! Should be a fun show.


4. Manchester Central…I may have them a little high, especially considering what they’ve done in the last 2 weeks. 49-0 @ Exeter was pretty bad, but when you follow that up with a 13-10 squeaker against a young Nashua North team, some folks are starting to question...“does Central deserve all the hype?”. I still think the Little Green are Top 4 worthy simply because of their powerful offense that can kill you with both the run and the pass. Teams just won’t be able to keep up with them.


5. Bedford…impressive close win on the road against a tough Keene team last Friday night. The Bulldogs did to the Blackbirds what they couldn’t do in the home loss to Winnacunnet, move the football thru the air with James Caparell and company racking up 331 yards passing. The next big test in Bedford’s inaugural D2 season is at BG on Saturday night.


6. Keene…hey, it was only a 1 point loss for Keene to a very good Bedford team. No reason to move them down any further than I did. That could happen later as the schedule gets even tougher ahead with key games against Winnacunnet(Oct 12th) and @ BG(Oct 27th).



7. BG…they have to be the best team that really doesn’t get much respect. After a closer than it looks 20-3 season opening loss to Pinkerton, the Cards have ripped off 3 wins in a row by a combined score of 88-7. The problem for me is the early “strength of schedule” featuring West, Merrimack and to a lesser degree, Dover.



8. Concord…welcome to my ballot Crimson Tide! I’m impressed how you put the 20-3 smackdown on my alma mater Nashua South, although it was plain old Nashua High when I went there.
9. Nashua South…I really believed the Panthers were that 4th playoff team in Division 1. Looks like that’s out the window now unless Concord slips up to someone they shouldn’t or South can surprise either Exeter, Pinkerton or Central.


10. Plymouth…another good win at Hanover last weekend. They get tested again this Saturday when undefeated Windham comes a calling to the Land of Lenahan. The winner of that game will most likely be in this very spot on my ballot next week.

Pete, it's so YOU to join a party.

Thanks for the confirmation of Winny as the "almost" undisputed #1 team in the Granite State. Winny might not wind up #1 at the end of the season, but right now they richly deserve número UNO.

Pete - why reward the inconsistency that Central has shown? Sure 49-0 is an aberration - Exeter was "playing for" a fallen teammate. Lot to be said about being disciplined *and* united when you play football. But scoring only 13 against North? Pinkerton put 42 on North the week before... Coaches are seeing something in game tape and copying it. Sure they outgained North by a huge margin (I read like 180-10 in the first half), but if their offense is so powerful, then it should have scored more. I believe their inconsistent line play will doom them in the end (both sides of the ball). I believe the "overall" vote is a better reflection of where Central should be "right now". This weekend will prove whether BG belongs to be 4 or 5/6/7 w/ Central/Keene. Unless Concord pulls off an upset, they'll drop back down to 9/10 w/ South. South has 3 huge games to show where they belong... My guess is the winner of Windham/Plymouth will be able to garner enough votes to slide into the 10 spot for the rest of the season as long as they keep winning.