Unlike the last two weeks, the blind draw was needed to determine the winner and runner up this week. And as it turns out, a pair of individuals with a little bit of football background walked away with the top two prizes.

 

Steven Hastings was one of four individuals to tie for the top spot. He was the only individual to win the first blind draw to determine the overall winner. Hastings, a former Bridgeport Middle School assistant who was also was a standout prep player at Keyser and then in college, finished the week at 27-5.

 

Winning the second blind draw was Gary Griffith. Griffith is also a former high school player who competed at Liberty.

 

Thanks to his win and the draw, Hastings (who played at Keyser High School and was named to their all-century team) can choose between a gift certificate from Buffalo Wild Wings and a small cheesecake from Almost Heaven Desserts. Hastings needs to email his choice to Hannah Edwards at hannah@connect-bridgeport.com who will get back with him on how to collect his prize.

 

Griffith will receive the prize not taken by Hastings. Griffith also needs to contact Edwards who will also work with him on acquiring his weekly prize.

 

Two Bridgeport residents finished tied for first, but didn’t win the draw. Kevin Carbacio, last week’s winner, was joined by Roger Murray with 27-5 marks.

 

This week’s Glenville and Shepherd game was removed as it was posted on the wrong day.

 

There was a seven-way tie for fifth place. Maria Morrison, Bill Montgomery, Nancy Romano, Duke Ware, John Pulice, Jason McCall and Pete Curry all finished 26-6.

 

Rounding out the weekly top 25 was a 25-way tie for the No. 12 spot.  Tommy Stewart, Clayce Spurlock, Joe Teter, Derrick Bramer, Kyleigh Church, Brian Martin, Steve Davis, Steve Alfred, Mike Ridgway, Mitch Osbourn, Stephen Kelley, Chuck Cain, Tom Brown, Adam Holbert, Eric Stoneking, Danny Hamrick, Andrew Banko, Ryan Riley, Ryan Chandler, Delbert Leatherman, Tyrone Lockett, Michael Ferrari, Louis Aragona, Jimmy Stutler, and Scott Nicewarner all finished 25-7.

 

As for the overall standings, Bridgeport’s Kevin Carbacio increased his advantage. He stands with a 97-15 mark (86.61 percent), while Jason McCall is in second at 91-21 (81.25 percent) and Frank Blake is third at 89-23 (79.46 percent).

 

The first tie in the overall top 25 comes at No. 4 where Steven Hastings and Ryan Chandler are both at 88-24 (78.57 percent). That’s followed by a five-way tie at No. 6 as Mark Trippett, Bill Montgomery, Jimmy Stutler, Adam Holbert and Clayce Spurlock all have 87-25 (77.68 percent) records.

 

Another five-way tie is in place at No. 11. Nancy Romano, Chris Byrd, Maria Morrison, Rob Stallman, and Chuck Miller all stand at 86-26 (76.79 percent). Seven individuals are tied at No. 16 with Tyrone Lockett, Michael Ferrarri, Dustin Vincent, Jeff Muller, Pete Curry, Brian Martin and Mark Hoffman all at 85-27 (75.89 percent).

 

Closing out the top 25 is a nine-way tie for 23^rd place. Gilbert Kelley, Jason Hartman, Joe Teter, Duke Ware, John Pulice, Chris Oliverio,  Doug Marquette, Patsy Sabatelli, and Hugh Gainer.

 

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 not in the top 25 among the hundreds registered, you can still make a move even with a couple of bad weeks. 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.

 

That means you can register now and it won’t impact you as those two weeks will be eliminated in the final totals. Even after that, you can still enter and 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.

 

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