Justin Carlucci, known in local radio and podcast circles as “The Voice” has increased his lead to two games in the race for the Bob Ford Memorial Grid Picks Cup. Carlucci picked 13 winners and pulled farther ahead of TJ Engle who finished Week Six tied with Pat Matsinko and Mike Haines with a week worst, 11-3 record.

“I don’t know, if ever, I’ve been in the lead this late,” Carlucci said. “But I do know Bob would be giving me so much crap and ‘friendly’ jabs about it,” he added with a laugh.

Chuck Hixson stood firm in third place at three games behind Carlucci. Falling four games off the pace was Rod Heckman, but jumping up to join him in fourth place is Brad Hurley who unlike Hot Rod, successfully picked Catasauqua to defeat Mahanoy Area. Matsinko, who had gotten out of the gate to take an early lead, has now dropped to five back along with Haines.

Sam Matta and Yours truly, with stellar 13-1 Week Six records, pulled out of the Pundit Pit where Emmett McCall now resides all by his lonely self.

Eight games are unanimous picks for Week Seven so only seven contests will factor into the standings.

Reload and regroup

Area teams are all in action this weekend. Undefeated Northwestern looks to reload their weapons and ground the Blue Mountain Eagles for win number seven. Improving Tamaqua, winners of two in a row after a rough start, are our picks’ favorite to defeat the Palisades Pirates and Pleasant Valley, off to their best start in years at 4-1, has their toughest task yet when the unbeaten and 6-0 Konkrete Kids from Northampton come to Broadheadsville tonight to battle the Bears.

Jim Thorpe plays at Northern Lehigh tonight. The Olympians are having an up and down season while the high scoring Bulldogs could be better than the same 3-3 record. This should be a good one, but the bet here is that JT’s Red Swarm defense won’t be able to stop North’s big play attack so the nod goes to the ‘Dawgs to regroup after a tough loss to Notre Dame last week and get over the .500 mark.

Lehighton hosts Bangor in a contest between two teams trying to get some consistency on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Tribe coach, Tom McCarroll sees improvement each week, but his squad will need to regroup and put it all together and play a complete game against the Slaters, who also have had their own troubles with holding leads late in games. Sam Matta and Yours Truly have tabbed Lehighton in a mild upset in this one.

Bombers streak; Panthers peak

Palmerton continued to rack up the wins with their fourth in a row last week. This week, the unanimous pick is for the Bombers and their 42 point average per game to add Pine Grove to their list of the vanquished. Winless Panther Valley travels to Shenandoah Valley to take on the 1-5 Blue Devils. Our consensus pick here is Rick Jones and his Panthers play their best game yet and PV checks the box into the win column.

Grid Picks Game of the Week

An out of area classic match up pits the Spartans of North Schuylkill against the Notre Dame- Green Pond Crusaders. Both teams are unbeaten and feature big play explosiveness on offense. This game has all the making of a basketball score outcome like 52-49. The Spartans have put up 250 points in six games and Notre Dame has scored 231 in five. The majority pick here is North wins, but if Matta, Carlucci, and Haines get their way and ND triumphs, this game could impact the Cup standings.

The dust and the bust

The half way mark of the Grid Picks Cup race is the time when the front-runners often kick their dust at the rest of the pack. Only five games separate the first five pickers in the standings so the strategy is usually to pick most of the favorite teams each week and slip in an upset in hopes of jumping a place or two.

Carlucci is going strong for the gold this week with his picks against the majority of Panther Valley, Notre Dame and Schuylkill Haven. Engle might jump back in front if Shenandoah and North Schuylkill prevail. Hixson’s picks against the grain are Central Catholic and he likes Wilson to take down Pottsville, which should be a really good game.

The bottom five in the standings are struggling to survive. With his “sink or swim” picks of Lehighton and Jim Thorpe, Sam “The Gambling Man” Matta is just beginning to throw in his big chips to try to stay out of the Pundit Pit once and for all.

Yours Truly looks to leave Bossman McCall in the Pit and move into the safety of the pack. A Lehighton win or loss could decide who drops into the darkness or who will see the light of day.

Week Seven – will it be a picker’s heaven or hell? These 15 games might tell!