After a tough Week Nine of picks and the dust in the race for the Bob Ford Memorial trophy settled, Jeff Moeller finished with a best 13-2 mark and Rod Heckman and Brad Hurley share the king’s throne and are tied in first place. TJ Engle remains in contention after an 11-4 record, but the rest of us are running out of gas and with three weeks to go, we could be limping to the finish line.

After Engle, who sits three games back, the drop off is profound. Sam Matta and Justin Carlucci are tied for fourth place chasing six games, followed by Pat Matsinko — seven out of first place — and Moeller eight back.

Yours Truly, with an 8-7 record is nine behind. Emmett McCall’s 6-9 record dropped him into an all-too-familiar place, now tied with Mike Haines in the Pundit Pit.

Rough week for the locals

Week Nine wasn’t so kind for five of our nine area teams. Northwestern, Marian, Palmerton, Northern Lehigh and Jim Thorpe were defeated. Pleasant Valley, Panther Valley, Lehighton and Tamaqua won their games.

That said, our local teams have an excellent combined won-lost record of 49-32. Seven of our nine teams are sporting winning records, but they all will likely earn post-season play.

This week that ends the regular season. Two games — Jim Thorpe at Palmerton, and Northern Lehigh at Lehighton — pit local teams against each other. Northwestern, which had its 40 consecutive regular season win streak ended by Southern Lehigh, hosts Catasauqua. Pleasant Valley can win the Monroe Division of the Eastern Penn Conference with a win over Stroudsburg.

Marian travels to Schuylkill Haven, Tamaqua is at Pine Grove and Panther Valley visits North Schuylkill to take on the Spartans.

If Panther Valley and Marian win their games, all nine local teams will finish their regular seasons with .500 records or better, a gridiron feat that has not happened in recent years.

Out of Area Game of the Week

I’m picking this one, not because of their won-lost records, but of their notable rivalry. Freedom and Liberty high schools are three miles apart and will play each other in the 60th year of the Battle of Bethlehem. Liberty leads the all-time series, 35-24. Last year, Liberty ended Freedom’s six straight series wins with a 42-14 victory and took down the Patriots again, 26-14, a week later in the playoffs.

Freedom (6-3) will try to start a new streak against Liberty led by senior quarterback Michael Stofanak. The signal-caller has thrown for 1,465 yards this season and 15 touchdowns. He is complemented by running back Lashawn Johnson, who has gained 822 yards on the ground, and wide receiver Davyan Moore, who averages 23 yards a catch and has crossed the goal line six times.

The Hurricanes have struggled this season at 2-7, but they’ll put it all on the field on every play in this rivalry. Quarterback Alsaiah Gross likes to throw the ball to a trio of receivers that have collectively caught the ball for 664 yards and five TDs.

Perhaps I just love when two schools with great names that have the same meaning compete against each other.

Speaking of great names in Pennsylvania high school football matchups, last week, Roman Catholic played Father Judge. No matter the score, faith always wins.

My favorite is Moon vs. Mars. They have met several times in past years to settle which team is the god of the galaxy!

Key matchups

As we come down the stretch of the high school football season, Week 10 may impact the standings. Six unanimous picks come off the ledger. For the three front runners, Hurley and Heckman differ on just two games. Hurley likes Pleasant Valley and Mount Carmel. Heckman chose Stroudsburg to beat the Bears and the Indians (8-1) to defeat the (9-0) Tornadoes. The staff is split down the middle with this game.

Engle also likes the Tornadoes to beat Shamokin and Stroudsburg to beat the Bears. He might gain a game on Heckman and Hurley or he might fall more than three games back which will make it much harder for him to overcome the favorites in the race.

The pack sack

For the seven of us jammed into the pack, we hope to at least stay closer to the top than we are to the bottom where we would fall into the Pundit Pit with Haines and McCall. Haines has picked five winners against the majority. He could breathe the fresh air or be buried into the Depths of Darkness until next year.

A perfect picks week is what we need or we’ll get sacked, leaving us choking on the dust of the leaders and closing out the last two weeks as race busts.

With just 30 more game to pick after this week, the excitement is building on the leaderboard. Will Heckman or Hurley win the trophy again? Will Engle stay close after Week Ten? Will the rest of us be listed as “also rans”? We’ll see next week where we all will stand.