With the final weeks of the 2018 Carder Motors Playoff Payoff pick’em competition in play, a Bridgeport resident and former Bridgeport coach and teaching icon are the top two winners in week 13.

 

Jerry Jolliff is the overall winner. He topped the entire field with a mark of 25-2. The city resident will need to contact Hannah Edwards at hannah@connect-bridgeport.com with his contact information to claim his prize. He has a choice between a $25 gift certificate from Buffalo Wild Wings and a small cheesecake from Almost Heaven Desserts.

 

The runner-up required a little bit of luck. Former Harrison County administrator, teacher and Bridgeport coach Tom Brown won a blind draw with former champion Jason Hartman. Both were 24-3 on the week and now Brown will also need to email Edwards with his contact information. He will receive the prize not chosen by Jolliff.

 

After those three, there was a five-way tie for fourth place this week. Chad Reppert, Kevin Carbacio, JT Hilton, Bill Tichenor and David Marshall all went 23-4. Eight members of the field were tied for ninth. The group of Darren Snyder, Clayce Spurlock, Jeff Yoho, Alvin Smith, Andrew Banko, Delbert Leatherman, Tim McNally, and Stacy Greely all finished 22-5 for the week.

 

The biggest tie came at No. 17 as 22 individuals had the same mark on the week. Craig Kelley, Frank Blake, Jason Dodd, Grant Burton, Jay Garrett, Adam Heaster, Michael Harki, Jimmy Coberly, Rob Stallman, David Gillot, Mark Trippett, Bill Montgomery, Bob Greer, Tim Casten, Kelly Ayoob, Gilbert Kelley, David Stingo, James Hayes II, Steve Alfred, Jeff Alastanos, Marcus Derosa, and WJ Bramer had the same 21-6 mark for the week.

 

In the overall standings, multi-time champion Kevin Carbacio is making a strong run for another as he increased his overall lead. Carbacio is now 284-77 on the year, which is five games ahead of runner-up Michael Andrew at 279-82. Louis Aragona and Jason Hartman are tied at No. 3 with 277-84 marks, while Adam Holbert rounds out the top five with a record of 276-85.

 

Vernon Louk is by himself in sixth place thanks to picking a season record of 275-86. Four individuals are even at No. 7 with Frank Blake, Jeff Muller, Kelly Ayoob and Bill Montgomery standing at 274-87.

 

Another four-way tie is in play at No. 11 with Mark Trippett, Hugh Gainer, Chris Byrd and Frank Cherubino posting identical marks of 272-89. The trio of Mike Alastanos, Ryan Chandler, and Lenora Montgomery are even at No. 15 at 271-90.

 

At No. 18, Michael Mann, Matt Ash, and Curt Burner are even at 269-92. Rounding out the top 25 is a six-way tie for the 21^st spot. Delbert Leatherman, Andrew Banko, David Wagner, John Oldaker, Chris Oliverio, and Clayce Spurlock after 268-93 after 13 weeks.

 

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.

 

This past week, the Kansas City Chiefs game with the Los Angeles Rams was eliminated. The contest was a Monday night game, which are not part of the yearly contest. Several games this week, particularly high school football games that included Bridgeport, were not listed due to playing at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

 

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