For the first time this year, there wasn’t a tie among the winner or runner-up position in the Carder Motors Playofff Payoff Football Pick’em contest. That, it’s probable, is fine with the two individuals sitting at the top of the rankings.

 

This week’s winner knows something about football – he was a former member of Washington Irving’s football team. And he’s currently a member of the Bridgeport City Council.

 

Dustin Vincent separated himself from the pack with an impressive 27-4 record on the week. Michelle Reider was the closest to drawing even with the Council member as she posted a 26-5 mark.

 

Vincent now has the chance to choose his prize for the week. He has his choice of the two prizes – a $25 gift certificate from Buffalo Wild Wings or a free small cheesecake from Almost Heaven Desserts. Reider will received the item not chosen by Vincent.

 

Both individuals need to contact Hannah Edwards via email at hannah@connect-bridgeport.com. She will make arrangements to allow those individuals to pick up their prizes or receive them in another manner. She will get back to those individuals no later than the end of the week after receiving an email. In the event she does not hear from Vincent by Friday, Reider will then be given her choice of the prize.

 

After the top two, four individuals finished tied for the third spot including another Bridgeport elected officials. Bridgeport Mayor Bob Greer, Stephanie Fain, Matt Duez and Henry McDaniel all finished the week 25-6.

 

A big deadlock came in at the No. 7 spot for the week as 15 individuals were all even. The group of Brian Martin, Tom Surock, Jamie Guy, Brent Kimble, Robert Marra, Gary Griffith, Jason Dodd, Jeff Toquinto, Brian Reider, Jordan Nuzum, David Gillot, JV Lopez, Dion Bright, Larry Snider, and Ashley McCall had 24-7 records for the week.

 

An even bigger logjam rounds out the top 25 at the No. 22 spot with 22 individuals all even. Justin Richter, Jason McCall, Derrick Bramer, Craig Trippett, Joseph Elrod, Tamie Arbogast, Michael Mann, Louis Aragona, John Minnocci, Andrew Banko, Matt Ash, Amber Gaines, Hugh Gainer, Dave Stingo, Vernon Louk, Gilbert Kelley, Pete Curry, Duke Ware, Chris Byrd, Ron Sandreth, Michael Andrew and Chris Bowman are all at 23-8.

 

In the overall standing, Jamie Guy is back to the top spot. Guy currently stands at 115-31 (78.77 percent), while Jason Hartman is right behind at 114-32 (78.08 percent). Four individuals – Tamie Arbogast, Patrick Coberly, Brian Reider and Brent Kimble – are even at the No. 3 spot with overall marks of 112-34 (76.71 percent).

 

The group of Andrew Banko, Michael Mann and Aaron Mann are even at the No. 7 spot thanks to having an overall mark of 111-35 (76.03 percent). Five individuals round out the top 10 at No. 10 as Tyrone Lockett, Rob Stallman, Mike Alastanos, Vernon Louk and Gilbert Kelley all stand at 110-36 (75.34 percent).

 

Henry McDaniel, David Gillot, Kevin Carbacio, Louis Aragona, Hugh Gainer, Adam Holbert Patsy Sabatelli and Chris Bowman are even at 109-37 (74.66 percent). That group is tied for the No. 15 position.

 

Rounding out the top 25 is an eight-way tie for No. 23. The group of Michael Andrew, Matt Duez, Dustin Vincent, Gary Griffith, Mark Trippett, Bill Montgomery, Justin Stevens, and Duke Ware are all at 108-38 (73.97 percent).

 

Prizes at the end of the year will go to the top three finishers. Two of the prizes have been finalized.

 

The prizes include a $500 gift certificate from the Meadowbrook Mall and a golf package trip. This year, that is a mid-week package at Oglebay Resort & Conference Center in Wheeling that features one (1) night’s lodging in the newly renovated West Family Wing of Wilson Lodge for up to two people sharing the same room, a breakfast buffet for two, 18 holes of golf with cart on the Robert Trent Jones Course for each and 18 holes of golf with cart on the Arnold Palmer Course for each. The final prize will be announced at a later date.

 

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.

 

As noted in previous stories, at the end of the year the individual with the top record isn’t necessarily the overall winner. What makes the Carder Motors Playoff Payoff competition unique is that once the contest is over everyone that competes has their two worst weeks dropped and then the winner is announced based on the highest winning percentage after that. Each week, however, Connect-Bridgeport will do a story highlighting the weekly top 25 and weekly winner as well as the leader of the overall contest.

 

Individuals that haven’t registered probably can’t win the end-of-the-contest prizes, but can win weekly prizes. 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.