Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com

Five items on the New Hampshire football landscape:

1. Record-breakers.

The following records were broken Saturday in college games that involved New Hampshire teams:

• Dartmouth sophomore Nick Schwieger set a school record for yards rushing in a game by running for 242 yards on 29 carries in Dartmouth's 28-6 triumph over Columbia. The victory ended Dartmouth's 17-game losing streak.
• UNH place-kicker Tom Manning set a school record by making a 54-yard field goal during an 18-10 victory over Hofstra. Dave Taggart set the previous record, a 53-yard field goal, during the 1977 season.
• St. Anselm quarterback Michael Pierce set school records for pass attempts (74), passing yards (390) and total offense (496) in a 31-28 loss to Stonehill.

2. The Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl.

It was announced last week that the 2010 Shrine Game will return to Windsor (Vt.) High School for the second time in as many years. The people in Windsor did a fine job with the game last season, but the game deserves -- and requires -- a bigger facility to accomodate fans, players (the New Hampshire team gathered behind its end zone at halftime of the 2009 game) and media.

If Dartmouth is not going to serve as the permanent host, perhaps the game could rotate between states each year.UNH would certainly like to get its hands on that game.

3. Determining the state's best high school team.

If the NHIAA had an eight-team state tournament that included all divisions, here are the teams New Hampshire Football Report would include in the field and how the teams would be seeded:

1. Bishop Guertin
2. Exeter
3. Salem
4. Pinkerton
5. Nashua North
6. Souhegan
7. Winnacunnet
8. Plymouth

Teams on the bubble that wouldn't get in: Portsmouth and Trinity.

4. The end is near.

This will be the final weekend for regular-season play in Divisions III, IV and V.

Con-Val (Division III), Hanover (Division IV) and Kennett (Division IV) can each play its way into the postseason by posting a victory this weekend.

5. Winnacunnet.

If any team is going to throw a scare into Exeter or Bishop Guertin in the Division II semifinals it'll be Winnacunnet, which played its best game of the season Friday night, when it beat a banged-up Timberlane team 40-14.

The Warriors are among the most physical teams in the state (they could take a lot out of BG or Exeter even in a loss), have one of the top quarterbacks in the state in Steve Cronan, and, because of injuries earlier this year, have developed four good runners in the offensive backfield.

If Winnacunnet can finish the season with victories over Merrimack and Spaulding the Warriors will be the No. 3 seed and face the loser of the Nov. 7 game between Exeter and BG.