Many a prognosticator/scribe has tried to lookd down the road six or seven weeks and tell you who is going to do what in Division I high school football.

And a 100-yard field is littered with their blown predictions and shattered crystal balls. Guilty as charged here. Repeat offender.

And we may be again.

But in the West-North cluster, it may not be that hard to figure. Manchester Central and Bedford are tops in the North, with Concord a possible playoff contender. The best of the West? It’s all right here in the area – Nashua North, South, and Merrimack.

Six teams. Four spots. Will it be two and two? Or three from one (you’d think that would be the North) and one from the other, the West?

North and South had a super weekend, a combined 108-20 wipeout of Manchester Memorial and Keene. It made you wish the two were squaring off this coming Friday instead of in two weeks.

But we do get a beauty on Friday night: South-Merrimack at Stellos. Classic. And up the road a bit, North-Central at Gill Stadium.

The Tomahawks and coach Kip Jackson will tell you they lost to Central 21-8 the other night because of six turnovers. They will be 100 percent correct. Even with all that they had the ball deep in Little Green territory with time to rally.

Good team with a quarterback, James Dowling,who despite mistakes still can make plays.

And now we know Nashua South has the same. We knew about Panther back Jaylan Pacheco. But we didn’t know how good Dante Young would be, and he’s been fantastic the last two weeks, running and throwing, especially to Brendan Frost.

Keene coach Bill Hope has been an up front guy about things, but he might have been a bit mistaken when he told the Keene Sentinel’s Michael A.McMahon after the 60-14 drubbing his team took that “You can’t go out against a team like that, who is no better than us, and just let them hand it to us.”

It’s the “No better” line that we don’t agree with, because the score indicates otherwise. The Blackbirds come to Stellos this Saturday night and they may want to take it all out on Bishop Guertin.

Then there’s the Titans. They have playmakers. Curtis Harris is a threat to score from anywhere on the field. Quarterback Mike Loveless (who sometimes shares that spot with Harris) is strong, and you have to love how he is selfless. Asked about his play the other night all he talked about were his teammates.

What North needs to do – South, too – is beat a contender. Central, with a great college prospect in quarterback Alex Hawkcom, is tough. Real tough.

“Great quarterback, they’v got good skill kids, they’re great up front, they spread the ball around,” Laurendi said. “They’re physical. They’re playing with real confidence.

“Central’s always a physical game and they always really, really improve as the season goes on. It’s going to be a tough game.”

North had one of those already in the opener with Bedford, and Laurendi feels Central throws more than the Bulldogs. Incidentally, Bedford-Central is the same night as North-South.

There’s some great football in the other divisions too. Hollis Brookline, Milford, Alvirne – was that the right move down to Division II for coach Tarek Rothe’s Broncos or what? An unbeaten Division III defending champion in Campbell.

Lots of locals having something to play for. The key for all of them, as we move forward, is depth.

“We’re going to need that as we go,” Laurendi said. “The deeper we go into the season, the higher the mountain gets, the more guys we’re going to need to contribute.”

That mountain top is beckoning somebody, we just don’t know who yet. Stay tuned.

Tom King can be reached at 594-1251,tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or@Telegraph _TomK.

Newsletter