Gridiron Challenge analysis: The pack stays tight with two weeks left
With two weeks left in the regular season, Matt Goul is still clinging to his lead in the Gridiron Challenge standings -- amongst our pickers, anyway. (About 20 of our readers have out-predicted Matt throughout the course of the season.)
On mobile? Slideshow: Red Lion stuns Central YorkMatt followed his perfect 14-0 record in Week 7 with his worst performance of the season (9-5 in Week 8) to take a 99-27 overall record. Meanwhile, Tom Sixeas has kept plugging away and managed to gain a couple of points on Matt. Tom is within striking distance at 98-28 with two weeks left.
Lyzz Jones saw a similar fate to Matt. She also correctly predicted all 14 games in Week 7 but followed that up with a dismal 8-6 showing to slip two games behind third-place Steve Navaroli.
Week 8 was a little weird, though, with three games that flummoxed all six of our pickers: Red Lion's win against Central York, York Suburban's win vs. Dover and Northeastern's defeat of Spring Grove.
If you ignore those three across-the-board losses, both Tom and Brandon Stoneburg got every other game correct. They were the only two to correctly predict Biglerville's win against Littlestown -- the only other game that Steve got wrong as he held onto his third-place position.
On mobile? Slideshow: York Suburban beats Dover
That was helpful for Brandon, who had vaulted past Mike two weeks ago for a fourth-place tie with Lyzz entering Week 7 but dropped a couple of lone-wolf picks to go 9-5 and slide back into last place with Mike RUbin. Brandon's 11-3 effort in Week 8 moved him back up into fifth place with a two-point lead on Mike.
Lyzz and Mike lost a point on their pick of Fairfield, and Matt's final loss was his incorrect lone wolf prediction that Conrad Weiser would beat Gettysburg, which won on a last-second field goal.
That brings us to Week 9.
On mobile? Slideshow: Biglerville edges LittlestownMike's motto might be "Go big or go home." In a week when three -- HALF -- of our pickers have made identical predictions, Mike is playing the contrarian in FIVE matchups. If all five pan out -- Central York over Dallastown, Dover over West York, Kennard-Dale over Susquehannock, Spring Grove over Red Lion, and York County Tech over Delone Catholic -- he could vault past Lyzz and Brandon into fourth place.
Matt, Lyzz and Tom all picked identically, so their margin of separation will remain the same.
Steve's picks of York Suburban over Gettysburg and York Tech over Delone could send him back into a second-place tie with Tom, just a point behind the leader Matt.
Brandon also picked his alma mater Central York to beat Dallastown, which could gain him a point on Lyzz but wouldn't create any additional separation from Mike.
Now it's your turn: Make your Gridiron Challenges before kickoff of the Week 9 games for a shot at the weekly prize of a highly sought-after GameTimePA.com T-shirt.
Need some help with your picks? Check out our Week 9 preview, as the YAIAA divisional races reach a crossroads. And watch this week's GameTimePA 717 episode below: