One person has been to the weekly winner’s circle already this year. The other has been a champion of the annual Carder Motors Playoff Payoff Football Pick’em competition.

 

Only one, however, earned the lucky draw. The winner of the draw for this week’s competition was Jimmy Stutler who, like Hartman, went 23-5 for the week to get the victory. However, both will earn prizes.

 

Thanks to a strong week of picks and some luck on the draw, Stutler, who you can usually find at Wayne Jamison Field for home games on Friday nights, will have his choice of a gift certificate to Buffalo Wild Wings or a small cheesecake from Almost Heaven Desserts. Stutler will need to email Hannah Edwards at hannah@connect-bridgeport.com with his address, contact information and prize choice.

 

Hartman will receive the prize not taken by Stutler. He will also need to contact Edwards at the email listed above.

 

After the two-way tie at the top, there were two huge ties that rounded out the weekly top 25. The group of Doug Palmer, Janet Hathaway, Steve Alfred, Kevin Carbacio, David Gillot, Steven Hastings, Gary Griffith, Aaron Mann, Jason McCall, Al Stafford and Bill Tichenor all finished tied at the third spot with records of 22-6.

 

The biggest tie came at No. 14 as 28 individuals were all even there. Dan Shrensky, Jeremy Parker, Chris Strogen, Chad Reppert, Dwight Bullough, Amy Foster, Frank Blake, David Wagner, Jared Cleghorn, Chris Nutter, Andrew Banko, Louis Aragona, Dustin Vincent, Jason Jimmie, Lenora Montgomery, James Hayes II, Doug Marquette, Adam Holbert, Matthew Kittle, Chris Oliverio, Michael Andrew, Patrick Coberly, Fred Spicer, John Pulice, Mike Ridgway, Carlos A. Davis, Scott Price, and Brian Cain all finished at 21-7.

 

In the overall standings, Kevin Carbacio maintained his overall double digit lead. Carbacio is comfortably in front with a record of 196-35 (84.85 percent), while defending champion Jason Hartman is making a move toward the top at 182-49 (78.79 percent) to stand alone in second. The rest of the top five includes Bill Montgomery at No. 3 with a 181-50 (78.35 percent) mark, Jason McCall at No. 4 with a showing of 180-151 (77.92 percent) and Jimmy Stutler at No. 5 as he has picked 179-52 (77.49 percent).

 

The first time in the top 10 comes at No. 6 as Mark Trippett and Adam Holbert at both 178-53 (77.06 percent). Jeff Muller and Clayce Spurlock are even at No. 8 as both come in at 177-54 (76.62 percent). Rounding out the top 10 is Frank Blake who has a mark of 176-55 (76.19 percent).

 

Aaron Mann and Steven Hasting are deadlocked at No. 11. The pair have records of 175-56 (75.76 percent). There is a three-way tie at No. 13 with John Pulice, Craig Trippett and Mike Alastanos even at 174-57 (75.32 percent).

 

The biggest logjam in the overall top 25 comes in at No. 16. The group of Gilbert Kelley, Chris Oliverio, Nancy Romano, Chris Nutter, Gary Griffith, Rob Stallman, and Lenora Montgomery are tied at 173-58 (74.89 percent).

 

Five individuals round out the top 25 as they are all locked in at the No. 23 spot. The group of Louis Aragona, Eric Allen, Chris Byrd, Patsy Sabatelli, and James Burton II currently have records of 172-59 (74.46 percent).

 

Those individuals are currently the frontrunners for the grand 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.

 

For those thinking the contest is over because they’ve had a couple of bad weeks, don’t fret. 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.

 

While it would be impossible to win the overall prizes if you’ve not entered, you can still compete and win the 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.

 

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