There’s a new weekly winner in week 14 of the Carder Motors Playoff Payoff football pick’em contest. And this week’s winner didn’t need any assistance in going to the winner’s circle.

 

Thanks to a 21-4 record, Joe Meluzio was this week’s winner. Unlike many wins in recent weeks, it didn’t take a blind draw of several individuals having the same record to determine the overall winner.

 

Thanks to the solid prognostication skills, Meluzio takes home the weekly prize, which is a gift certificate from The Mountaineer Grille that is situated just off Interstate 79 and below the Meadowbrook Mall as part of the Shops of Benny’s Place. Meluzio needs to emailing hannah@connect-bridgeport.com to claim the prize. Hannah Cantrell Edwards will then get in touch with Meluzio no later than Monday of next week, but likely prior to that.

 

Meluzio won in a solo position, but did get plenty of individuals that were right on his heels. The trio of Rick Crowley, Tom Brown and Steve Davis all finished the week 20-5 to tie for second place. Six individuals were then knotted up in fifth place as Derrick Bramer, John Strovers, Jeff Miller, JoAnne Brown, Tom Fogg and David Gillot all ended the week at 19-6.

 

The rest of the top 25 was a 25-way finish for No. 11 in the weekly standings. The group of Bridget Furbee, Rich Bailey, Louis Aragona, Michelle Leonard, Perry McAtee, Curt Burner, Don Cumming, Greg Scalise, Jamie Guy, Scott Schield, Dwight Bullough, Stephanie Markley, Jeff Muller, John Pulice, Pete Curry, Jim Gerst, Jason Hartman, Jarrod Hall, Patsy Sabatelli, Dan McNamee, Harold Tate, Janet Hathaway, Chris Bowman, Doug Comer, and John Hart all finished 18-7 for the week.

 

At the top of the leaderboard, there is no change – unless you consider that the leader has taken the biggest lead of the season. Jamie Guy now has a six-game lead with an impressive record of 331-94 (77.88 percent). That number is ahead of the second place marks of 325-100 of Jeff Muller and Jason Hartman and the three-way tie for fourth place between Robert Marra, Aaron Mann and Kevin Carbacio at 324-101 (76.24 percent).

 

Patsy Sabatelli and Scott Price are tied for the No. 7 position thanks to records of 323-102 (76 percent), while Andrew Banko and Louis Aragona are in the hunt at the No. 9 slot with 322-103 (76.76 percent) efforts after 14 weeks.

 

Just outside the top 10 at No. 11 is Michael Mann and Janet Hathaway as both are even at 321-104 (75.53 percent). Among the biggest logjams in the overall standings comes in at No. 13 as Doug Comer, David Gillot, and Hugh Gainer – all at 319-106 (75.53 percent). Adam Holbert is alone at No. 16 thanks to his record of 317-108 (74.59 percent), while A.J. DeFazio, Kelly Ayoob and Jimmy Stutler are part of another three-way tie at the No. 17 spot at 316-109 (74.35 percent).

 

Two more sets of three-way ties round out the top 25. At the No. 20 spot, the trio of Michael Andrew, Dan McNamee and Jeff Wright are in the running with marks of 315-110 (74.12 percent). And closing out the top 25 is the threesome of Perry McAtee, Michael Ferrari and Danny Knight – all with North View roots – coming in at 314-111 (73.88 percent).

 

Those individuals are the frontrunners for the overall prizes for the top three finishers. This year's overall winner will have the choice of an overnight golf package at the Lakeview Resort in Monongalia County. Along with the overnight stay, this prize also includes two rounds of golf with a cart, dinner and breakfast. Other prizes include an assortment of area gift cards, which currently include gift certificates to Mia Margherita and Meagher’s Irish Pub, both located at Charles Pointe. Once again, there will be a $500 gift card from the Meadowbrook Mall up for grabs

 

Even if you haven’t participated, you can still compete for weekly prizes. So how do you get involved? If you are registered on Connect-Bridgeport.com, you can pick immediately just by signing in. 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.

 

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.

 

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. 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, they will simply not be counted for the weekly and final standings. All decisions, once determined by staff involved as relating to a unique circumstance that may arise, are final.