With the finish line in sight, Rod Heckman holds a two-game lead in his quest to win the 2022 Bob Ford Memorial Grid Picks Cup.

Despite a faltering Week 10 with a 9-6 record, Heckman, the preseason choice to win the race, was 13-2 last week and has kept his lead for several weeks now. He’s looking to close out Brad Hurley, who sits two games back going into Week 12, our final picks week this year.

Hurley has a difficult task in making up the two games on Heckman, as will Pat Matsinko, and Sam Matta, who need to gain three games in Week 12 to tie for the lead. As predicted, Week 11 returned the best overall records, with six pickers at 13-2. Even the worst mark was still a respectable 11-4 record.

This - the final week - will bring the leaders some new challenges. Northwestern, Northern Lehigh, and Palmerton are the three local teams still playing for district championships. Fifteen of the 30 teams that are on our game list have never been placed in our Cup race this season. Week 12 also provides matchups that look to be more difficult to decide the winners as the district tournaments wind down toward their title games.

The Norths have it again

Just like last week, we like Northern Lehigh, Northwestern, and North Schuylkill to win this week. Joe Tout’s NL Bulldogs face the Tri-Valley Bulldogs at Lehighton after a convincing win over Mahanoy Area last week. The ‘Dawgs are the unanimous choice to take down the Bulldogs. One thing is for certain: The D-11 1A title is going to go to the dogs.

Northwestern hosts Notre Dame Green Pond. This could go down to the final possession. The Tigers play smash mouth football, and eat up lots of yardage on customary long drives. The Crusaders can score lightning quick with big pass plays. The thought across the board here is that Josh Snyder’s Tigers advance to the championship game, where we think they will play the North Schuylkill Spartans.

No matter how Palmerton fares against Schuylkill, Bombers’ junior quarterback Matt Machalik and company have had another terrific season. Expect Big Blue to score against the Spartans, but the challenge for the Bombers defense will be to get stops on North’s no huddle offense.

Can the Trojans pull another upset?

My pick for the Out of Area Game of the Week is Parkland at Northampton. Last week, the sixth-seeded Trojans in the 6A bracket stunned third-seeded Nazareth, 42-14 with a heavy dose of running back Trey Tremba. The junior carried 27 times for 216 yards and three touchdowns. This week, Parkland gets undefeated and second-seeded Northampton, who just got by Stroudsburg 14-7 in the quarterfinals. Can the Trojans knock down another favorite? Why not? They’re my consensus pick to get to the finals.

Crossing the finish line

So here we go! Twelve weeks of picking high school football game winners has come down to a final charge to the finish line. Can Hurley catch Heckman? How about Matsinko and Matta? Can they finish the race with enough surge to catch the front-runners at the wire?

The exciting finish has Hurley, Matsinko, and Matta rolling the dice with several upsets in a climactic effort to unseat Heckman from the king’s throne. Hurley can gain on Heckman if Palmerton upsets North Schuylkill, Freedom defeats Emmaus, Dallas drops Valley View, Muncy takes down Canton Area, and Berwick beats Crestwood. A five-game sweep would give Hurley the Cup.

Matsinko picked Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic, Troy, and Berwick against Heckman’s winners. Matta wants Troy over Southern Columbia, Berwick to beat Crestwood, Catasauqua to defeat Executive Education Academy and Southern Lehigh to upend Whitehall in his attempt to steal the Cup from the odds-on favorite.

With most games being played tonight due to inclement weather predicted for Friday, we might know who will hoist the gold and claim the 2022 Bob Ford Memorial Grid Picks Cup before the weekend begins.

One thing is for certain: We’ll all be checking the final scores later tonight!