In the fifth week of Blue Dot Service’s Playoff Payoff Football Pick’em competition, there would be no deadlock at the top of the standings that would require a blind draw to determine a winner. This week, one man stands alone.

 

Joe Koreski outdistanced the field with a sparkling 28-2 record to get the win by two games over his nearest competitors.

 

Because of that, Koreski takes home the weekly prize. He walks away with a gift certificate from the Mountaineer Grille, which is situated just off Interstate 79 and below the Meadowbrook Mall as part of the Shops of Benny’s Place. Koreski needs to contact Hannah Cantrell by emailing hannah@connect-bridgeport.com to claim the prize. Cantrell will get in touch with Koreski no later than Monday of next week, but likely prior to that.

 

While Koreski was a one-man show, the rest of the field was down to the wire. In fact, things got tight from the number two spots all the way through. In fact, seven pickers tied for second place with Michael Mann, Pete Curry, Zach Markley, Michael Cross, Jeff Muller, Dan McNamee, and Rick Malfregeot all coming in at 26-4.

 

Incredibly, the rest of the top 25 is made up of 17 individuals that finished the week tied for ninth place. The group of Patsy Sabatelli, Carol Hilton, Tom Brown, Paul Wagner, Frank Blake, Dwight Bullough, Kevin Carbacio, Scott Nicewarner, A.J. DeFazio, Ryan Sprouse, Frank Brown, Rick Johnson, David Gillot, Don Cumming, Mark Trippett, Brent Kimble and Chris Nutter all finished the week 25-5.

 

As for the overall standings, Bridgeport’s Louis Aragona maintains his lead for the second straight week. Aragona is at the top of the mountain with a 114-30 (79.17 percent) mark. He’s followed closely by Michael Cross at 112-32 (77.78 percent) in second place, and Kevin Carbacio and Michael Mann, both at 111-33 (77.08 percent) and in third place.

 

Fifth place sees the first bunching of individuals in the contest. Danny Knight, Dan McNamee, Derrick Bramer, John Pulice, Bill Montgomery and David Gillot and Paul Fulks all stand a 109-35 (75.69 percent). Four more individuals are tied for 12^th place with Chris Nutter, Greg Scalise, Adam Holbert and Casey King standing at 108-36 (75 percent) after five weeks of play.

 

In the 16^th position, six pickers are all even. The group of Jeff Weimer, Doug Marquette, Mark Gray, Scott Schield, A.J. DeFazio and Kelly Ayoob come in with 107-37 (74.31 percent) marks. Rounding out the top 25 is an eight-way tie for 22^nd place. The group of Eric Allen, Joe Barker, Jeff Toquinto, Hugh Gainer, Frank Blake, Jamie Guy, Patsy Sabetelli and James Hayes II all have 106-38 (73.61 percent) records for the year.

 

For those that want to participate, it’s easy. If you are registered on Connect-Bridgeport.com, you can pick immediately by signing in and scrolling down the right side of the home page until you see the “Playoff Payoff” icon. If you are not registered go to the top of the page at www.connect-bridgeport.com and click on the "Sign Up" icon on the top right hand side of the home page. Once registered, you are free to pick.

 

Anyone can still enter and be eligible for the weekly prizes. The grand prize winner will receive a $500 gift certificate to the Meadowbrook Mall. Remember, those picking will have their worst two weeks of the contest eliminated to help determine the winner.

 

As for the contest itself, each week, a story will detail the weekly winners as well as the overall leaders for the prizes. This year, the weekly winner will receive a gift card to either Mountaineer World or Mountaineer Grille (depending on the week). In the event of a tie, the winner will be chosen by a blind draw by a staff member working at the Benedum Civic Center.

 

Unfortunately, there are occasional schedule changes - usually on the prep football side - that staff does not catch; usually games moved to Thursday. 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.