A local assistant fire chief from Mount Clare who also is a paramedic in Anmoore proved to have more than just having medical skills. The man proved to know a bit of football as he was the week 11 winner of the Carder Motors Playoff Payoff Football Pick’em contest.

 

 This week’s runner-up showed she’s the one with the real athletic brains in the family.

 

Stonewood’s John Oldaker, who volunteers, was the undisputed winner of this week’s drawing with a 27-2 mark. Oldaker will now need to contact Hannah Edwards at hannah@connect-bridgeport.com with his contact information and his choice of prize.

 

Oldaker can choose between a $25 gift certificate from Buffalo Wild Wings and a small cheesecake from Almost Heaven Desserts. The prize he does not select will go to Kelly Ayoob, who must also submit her contact information to Edwards. Ayoob, the spouse of former Indians’ hoops standout Brian Ayoob, finished untied in second place with a 26-3 mark.

 

After that, there is a two-way tie for third as Kevin Carbacio and Frank Blake both came in at 25-4. That was followed by an eight-way tie for the fifth spot on the week. Robert Marra, Jason Dodd, Doug Marquette, Jason Hartman, JV Lopez, Jody Hinkle, Patrick Moore and Joey Kenney all finished 24-5.

 

Rounding out the weekly top 25 is a 25-way tie for No. 13. The group of Michael Judy, Craig Kelley, Jason McCall, Timothy Casten, Jerry Joliff, Larry Snider, Dave Stingo, Chris Cleghorn, Frank Cherubino, Michael Andrew, Pat Boyles, Mike Ridgway, Vernon Louk, Carlos A. Davis, Tom Brown, Chad Reppert, Alvin Smith, Hugh Gainer, Grant Burton, Eric Allen, Lenora Montgomery, Louis Aragona, Drew Tate, Bill Montgomery and Jeff Wright all finished 23-6.

 

As for the overall leaders, multi-time champion Kevin Carbacio is making another strong run and is now standing alone in the top spot. Carbacio is currently 232-69, while Louis Aragona is in the number two spot at 230-71.

 

There is a three-way tie at No. 3. Adam Holbert, Michael Andrew and Vernon Louk all come in at 229-72 after 11 weeks. Chris Byrd stands in the sixth spot at 228-73, while Jeff Muller is in at seven with a record of 227-74.

 

That is followed up by a six-way tie at the eighth position. Lenora Montgomery, Kelly Ayoob, Bill Montgomery, Ryan Chandler, Jason Hartman and Bill Tichenor have compiled a record of 226-75.  Hugh Gainer and Frank Blake hold down the No. 14 position with 225-76 records.

 

At No. 16, Mark Trippett and Frank Cherubino are knotted up at 224-77. Two more individuals, Mike Alastanos and Matt Ash, come in at No. 18 thanks to an overall mark of 223-78. The final two-way tie in the top 25 is at No. 20 where David Wagner and Robert Marra see the same 222-79 effort.

 

Rounding out the top 25 is a six-way tie for the No. 22 spot. Curt Burner, Michael Mann, Don Cumming, John Oldaker, Joe Teter and James Burton II are sporting the same record of 221-80.

 

It should be noted that the Fairmont State game was put on the wrong date and was removed from this week's contest.

 

Someone from the field of the hundreds registered will walk away the winner of some serious prizes. The prize packages are still being put together for the year. However, one of the top prizes include a $500 gift certificate from the Meadowbrook Mall. The top three pickers will be awarded prizes at the end of the contest, which goes well into December. The overall winner has their choice of the three prizes, while the second place winner will have their choice then of the final two remaining prizes.

 

What makes the Carder Motors Playoff Payoff competition unique is that once the contest is over you don’t necessarily know who the winner is even though you will see your weekly overall ranking and Connect-Bridgeport will post the weekly and overall top 25 throughout the contest. At the end of the year, everyone that competes has their two worst weeks dropped and then the winner is announced based on the highest winning percentage.

 

For those entering late, you may not win the end-of-the-contest prizes, but you can still win weekly prizes. And it’s easy to do.

 

If you are a registered member of Connect-Bridgeport's Web site, all you have to do is make sure you're signed in and the click the Playoff Payoff icon on the home page that can be found by scrolling down to the left. If you're not registered, go to the top of the home page and register. It takes less than a minute.

 

Another unique aspect of the competition is that you can make changes to your picks leading up to games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Individuals can make their picks for Friday’s games and can change them until 6 p.m. Friday. Games that are listed on Saturday and Sunday can be entered and changed as many times as necessary until 11 a.m. each day of the picks.

 

Unfortunately, there are occasional schedule changes - usually on the prep football side - that staff does not catch; usually games moved to Thursday or a time change bumped up. There are also occasional mistakes with the proper teams playing each other. As has been the case in the past, each person will either be given a win for those games when there are schedule changes we miss or a mistake on our end or a or they will simply not be counted for the weekly and final standings.

 

You must use your actual name to compete. Nicknames or aliases will not be recognized for weekly or overall prizes.