Down the stretch we come!

With the finish line in sight, Brad Hurley continues to hold a two-game lead over Rod Heckman and Patrick Matsinko in the race for the 2023 Bob Ford Memorial Grid Picks Cup. There will be a new strategy for Heckman and Matsinko. Having to overcome a two-game lead in one week is a difficult task.

“I will try to pick a few upsets,” said Heckman.

“I’ll need to go into a different direction with some of my picks,” said Matsinko, “and if I have any chance of winning, I’ll need those picks to come through which is easier said than done.”

Hurley has enjoyed sitting on the king’s throne for 11 weeks in a row, but admits he’s squirming just a little bit in the big chair.

“A two-game advantage is certainly not a comfortable lead heading into the last week, so it’s going to be really close,” he said. “There are a lot of games this week that are tossups for sure, but I’ll most likely go with the teams that have been playing their best football down the stretch. I think it matters how you finished the regular season. That will be one of the first things I look at when picking games this week.”

Uncertainty in the pack

After the top three, there’s a pretty big drop off in places four through seven. Yours Truly currently stands alone in fourth place, two games ahead of Emmett McCall and TJ Engle. Sam Matta, whose record is 28-2 over the past two weeks, sits two back of McCall and Engle. The difficulty of this week’s schedule could result in a few bad win-loss records that might seriously jumble the middle of the standings.

Basement battle

Mike Haines is in eighth place, but has a chance to catch Matta. Jeff Moeller looks locked into ninth with a five-game lead over Kyle Magda, who will call the Pundit Pit his home for the second year in a row.

Big challenges for area teams

Unbeaten Northwestern and Palmerton will be tested in this week’s District 11 Class 3A semifinal round. The Tigers host Notre Dame Green Pond. At 8-3, the Crusaders have shown the ability to light up the scoreboard. Northwestern coach Josh Snyder will be hoping for another stalwart defensive effort like his team produced two weeks ago in allowing Southern Lehigh - which averaged 49 points per game - to just two touchdowns.

The Tigers can score heavy, too, so this one could be a shootout.

Palmerton hosts North Schuylkill in a rematch that had the Bombers come away with a 48-24 win just a few weeks ago. Bombers’ coach Chris Walkowiak is going to need his defense to step up and get enough stops on the Spartans to secure their 12th straight victory.

Second-seeded Marian plays top seed Minersville at Blue Mountain High School for the District 11 1A championship. Both teams are coming off close wins, with the Battlin’ Miners defeating Nativity in overtime, and the Colts upending Tri-Valley by a score of 14-6. The two teams met on Sept. 1, with Minersville winning, 41-39. This game is truely a coin flip.

Out of area Game of the Week

This could be any one of 12 games, as the playoff pick games have been expanded into several out of our circulation areas. I have chosen Mount Carmel (9-2) at Southern Columbia (10-1).

The two teams met earlier this season, with the Mount Carmel Red Tornadoes giving the Tigers their only loss, 42-30. Mount Carmel is led by quarterback Cole Spears, who has passed for 1,738 yards and 22 touchdowns this year.

The Tigers feature running back Garrett Garcia, who has gained 1,145 yards on the ground and scored 18 TDs. My pick is Southern Columbia for no other reason than it’s difficult to beat a good team twice in one season.

All or nothing

Undoubtedly, Week 12 is the most challenging for picks. The games match up the best teams that have advanced into the semifinal or championship rounds. Only four on the docket are unanimous selections, which guarantees some movement in the standings.

In the three-man race for the Cup, Heckman and Matsinko have made bold choices in their last effort to overcome a two-game deficit and steal the Cup from Hurley, who has led since Week One.

Defending champion Heckman has four picks different than Hurley - North Schuylkill over Palmerton, Mount Carmel to beat Southern Columbia, Jersey Shore to upend Selinsgrove and Riverside to come out on top of Dunmore. He needs three of these picks to tie Hurley and all four to win outright.

Matsinsko has five different than Hurley, meaning he can’t tie Hurley. Four correct picks of these will pass him - Marian gets by Minersville, Southern Lehigh takes down Whitehall, Jersey Shore knocks off Selinsgrove. Mount Carmel tops Southern Columbia, and Riverside defeats Dunmore.

Nevertheless, there will be some serious game-checking on Friday night by all of them.

It’s all or nothing, do or die in Week 12. Hurley can almost taste the champagne in the Cup, Heckman dreams of a dynasty and Matsinko envisions the letters of his name engraved on the gold plate of coveted prize.

Tune in next week to see how it all plays out!