It’s not the first time Louis Aragona has finished at the top of the leader board in the 2018 edition of the Carder Motors Playoff Payoff Football Pick’em. Earlier this year, he finished tied for first place and was fortunate enough to be selected as runner-up in the blind draw.

 

This time, his luck was a bit better. Aragona, the executive director of the Clarksburg-Harrison Regional Housing Authority, won the blind draw of six individuals that finished tied for first place in week seven of the competition. And he won the draw to break the tie.

 

Aragona needs to email Hannah Edwards at hannah@connect-bridgeport.com to provide contact information as well as his choice of prizes. He will let Edwards know if he wants a $25 gift certificate to Buffalo Wild Wings or a certificate for a small cheesecake at Almost Heaven Desserts.

 

The runner-up, like Aragona proves to be skilled and a bit lucky. The son of a Clarksburg Police Department legend and current member of the Harrison County Sheriff's Department, Zachary Kesling, was the second person pulled in the blind draw. Kesling, the son of the late CPD Captain Mike Kesling, needs to email Edwards with his contact information and he will receive the prize not taken by Aragona.

 

Joining Aragona and Kesling at the top of the leaderboard were Matt Ash, James Hayes II, Greg Strogen, and Eric Jefferies. All of those individuals finished the week at 19-7.

 

The remainder of the weekly top 25 was a 22-way tie for seventh place. The group of Jeremy Cook, Jeremy Parker, Al  Stafford, Bill Tichenor, Paul Burnett, Aaron Williams, Michael Wilhelm, Bobby Tenney, Chris  Oliverio, Patrick Coberly, Aaron Mann, Scott Strosnider, Jeff Wright, Jason Dodd, David Wagner, Ryan Chandler, Frank Blake, Jay Garrett, Butch Elliott, Bill Montgomery, Scott Nicewarner and Kelly Ayoob.

 

Aragona not only won the week, but he remains at the top of the overall standings and has increased his lead. He stands at 144-41, while the threesome of Matt Ash, Jeff Muller and Vernon Louk are tied for second at 141-44. Rounding out the top five are Michael Andrew and Jason Dodd who both stand at 140-45.

 

The top 10 ends with a pair of ties. Knotted up at No. 7 are Frank Cherubino and James Burton II at 139-46. Joe Teter and Dan Glover are tied at No. 9 at 138-47. The first big tie in the overall standings comes at the No. 11 spot as Ryan Chandler, Lenora Montgomery, Mike Alastanos, and Bill Tichenor are event at 137-48.

 

The biggest logjam comes at No. 16 where eight individuals are sporting the same mark. Eric Carpenter, David Gillot, Mark Trippett, Delbert Leatherman, Frank Blake, Andrew Banko, Bill Montgomery, and Jay Garrett end week seven at 136-49.

 

Four individuals are tied at No. 24 to round out the overall top 25. Dan McNamee, Curt Burner, Jason Hartman and James Burton are at 135-50.

 

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.