Week eight of the Carder Motors Playoff Payoff Football Pick’em contest not only had a distinct Bridgeport flavor at the top of the standings, but it had a one-two punch taking the shape of former Indians football standouts taking home the weekly prizes.

 

Bridgeport alums and former Tribe football standouts Jason McCall and Eric Carpenter are this week’s winners. And unlike past weeks, there was no need for a blind draw to determine who the winner was.

 

McCall completely dominated the field. In the 30 games, he finished 27-3. That marked was two games ahead of runner-up Eric Carpenter. Carpenter, another standout who like McCall played for Coach Wayne Jamison, went 25-5 on the week.

 

McCall 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. Carpenter will receive the item not chosen by McCall.

 

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 McCall by Friday, Carpenter will then be given her choice of the prize.

 

After those two, there was a huge cluster of individuals tied rounding out the top 25 in the standings. The first group of Mitch Osbourn, Janet Hathaway, James Hayes II, A.J. DeFazio, Kevin Carbacio, Robert Marra, Tyrone Lockett, and Jason Hartman all finished tied for third place with identical 24-6 records.

 

Rounding out the top 25 was a 17-way tie for the No. 11 spot. The group of Tommy Stewart, Chris Nutter, Andrew Banko, Ryan Chandler, Steven Hastings, Andrew Roush, Chris Oliverio, Fred Spicer, Pat Boyles, Greg Strogen, Aaron Mann, Sue Teter, Jay Garrett, Chuck Cain, Gilbert Kelley, Tom Eakle and James Snider all finished 23-7.

 

The two-way tie at the top of the overall standings is now a one-man show. Jason Hartman stands alone with a 183-52 (77.87 percent) mark. Jamie Guy, who has been sharing the mantle, dropped to No. 2 with a 181-54 (77.02 percent). Rounding out the top three is Andrew Banko at 180-55 (76.6 percent).

 

The first tie in the overall standings comes at No. 4 as four individuals are even. Brian Reider, Aaron Mann, Gilbert Kelley, and Tamie Arbogast all stand at 179-56 (76.17 percent). Two individuals – Tyrone Lockett and Kevin Carbacio – are even at No. 8 with 177-58 (75.32 percent) marks. Henry McDaniel rounds out the top 10 at 176-59 (74.89 percent).

 

There is a three-way tie at the No. 11 spot. The past two week’s winners – Bill Montgomery and Steven Hastings – are joined by Patsy Sabatelli with 175-60 (74.47 percent) records.

 

The biggest logjam comes in at No. 14 as nine individuals are all even. The group of Adam Holbert, Brent Kimble, Robert Marra, Gary Griffith, Michael Mann, Duke Ware, Vernon Louk, Jay Garrett, and Mike Alastanos have 174-61 (74.04 percent) records. Rounding out the top 25 at the No. 23 spot is the group of Jordan Nuzum, Louis Aragona, David Gillot, and Hugh Gainer (73.62 percent).

 

Prizes at the end of the year will go to the top three overall 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 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.