The great thing about high school football games is the unpredictability of the outcomes.

The results of the 15 contests played last week left our pickers stumbling out of the gate in the race for the Bob Ford Memorial Grid Picks Cup.

Into the lead

When the name on the leader board still lost four games, that tells you how far off the mark our predictions were last week.

Patrick Matsinko, at 6-1 odds to get his name engraved on the trophy in November, takes a one-game lead with a respectable 11-4 record. Five pickers are bunched together after 10-win weeks including defending champion, Brad Hurley, and another favorite, Rod Heckman. TJ Engle, Emmett McCall and Your Truly also trail Matsinko by just one game.

Playing Catch up

Last week, we all fumbled the ball on Panther Valley’s loss to Salisbury, and nine of us fell out of bounds with East Stroudsburg South’s win over Abington Heights, with only Jeff Moeller picking the Cavaliers.

Falling behind the leaders of the race this early in the season can put pickers in a predicament, and catching up becomes a difficult challenge. You have to hope the leaders have a bad week, or you have to pick upsets where underdogs beat the selected favorites to stay in contention.

Mike Haines and Jeff Moeller sit at only two games off the pace. Sam Matta, at 8-7, is still comfortably ahead of Kyle Magda whose cracked crystal ball left him with a mountain to climb at 5-10. Back of the pack is an all-too-familiar territory for Magda, and another bad week of predictions might drop him so far down the Pundit Pit he won’t be able to climb out until next season.

How he does it!

This is a new feature to this Grid Picks column. Each week, a different picker will share his strategy for selecting winners.

This week, it’s Matsinko, who sits on the king’s throne in first place after Week One.

“It’s really tough early in the season,” he said. “I like to look at last year’s results and at least glance at a few season previews. If it seems too close to call, I’ll go with the home team, but there isn’t much rhyme or reason to it. This also might be the only time I’ll be in first place, so I probably should enjoy it.”

Locals look to stay unbeaten

In Week Two, three of our area teams hope to get off to a fast 2-0 start tonight. Last Friday, Jim Thorpe — on the arm and legs of QB Cole Lazorick — gave Palmerton its first regular-season loss since Oct. 28, 2022. It’s a majority decision this week that the Olympians take down the Pottsville Crimson Tide with another big game coming from Lazorick and his arsenal of offensive weapons.

Marian, with sophomore phenom Rory Dixon — who rushed for 191 yards in the Colts’ shutout win last week, is a favorite to defeat Tri-Valley, but Tamaqua is a big underdog against North Schuylkill. A Raider win would make a huge statement that QB Luke Kane and his diversified offensive attack are primed to have a very special season. We like Palmerton to regain its winning ways against Pen Argyl, but Pleasant Valley and Panther Valley will have tougher tasks to get their first Ws.

Out of Area Game of the Week

There are several good choices, but I’m going with Bethlehem Catholic against Emmaus. Becahi opened its season a week ago with a 28-14 win over East Pennsboro. Quarterback Cayden Vassa threw for 140 yards and three TDs, and Jeziah Gregory rushed for 100 yards on 11 carries. Emmaus lost to Neshaminy in overtime, but Hornets QB Jerek Cooper had a productive game throwing for 106 yards and rushing for another 94. This should be a game that gets decided in the fourth quarter, and the staff consensus is that BC will get their second straight win of the season.

Shuffle the standings

With Matsinko are Heckman and McCall making the exact same picks this week, so only Hurley, Haines and Yours Truly could move up or move down from the Week One front runners. Pivotal games are Marian at Tri-Valley, along with the BC-Emmaus contest.

The biggest change in the standings might come from the pack in the back. Sam “The Man” Matta, after a difficult 8-7 start, has picked against the grain with Pottsville, Pen Argyl, Blue Mountain, Freedom and Stroudsburg to win. Matta will either jump up near the top or bounce farther back toward the dreaded Pundit Pit. Jeff Moeller, at 9-6 and listed as 30-1 preseason odds to win the Cup, likes Panther Valley, Blue Mountain, Tamaqua and Palisades with bold predictions in his attempt to jump up with the leaders.

Speaking of the Pit, Kyle Magda turned on his flashlight from inside the Den of Darkness to select Tri-Valley, Pleasant Valley and Mahanoy Area in hopes he can improve upon his 5-10 start.

Unless there are several upsets from the consensus picks this week, the front runners should stay steady, but those running behind just might find themselves choking on so much dust, they’ll have a large hill to climb to be in the mix in November to win the Cup. It’s only Week Two, but the race track can get very heavy for pickers who fall five games or more off the pace.

Let’s see what happens. Will Matsinko stay on the king’s throne, or will someone emerge from the pack to grab the lead?