Twenty-eight wins in two weeks. That’s downright impressive.

Mike Haines had his second consecutive week of making 14 out of 15 correct picks. He was a sniff away from the Pundit Pit after Week 1, and now he stands in first place, two games ahead of Sam Matta in the race for the Bob Ford Memorial Grid Picks Cup. From 17-13 two weeks ago, Haines is now 45-15.

Yours Truly finished with the second-best record from last week at 12-3, giving me third place, three games off the pace. Defending title holder, Brad Hurley, appears poised to make his move to the front as he sits four back of Haines.

How he does it …

This week, I reveal the secrets of my “temporary” success for picking winners of high school football games.

I look for winning and losing streaks and at the scores of games. Of course, picking the winner in a game between two unbeaten or two winless teams becomes a coin flip, but their points scored and points allowed are factors in my selections because I can see trends in offensive and defensive strengths.

All that said, being wrong happens often. What makes high school football so captivating are the upsets that can move a grid picker in or out of contention in just a few weeks.

The rise and the fall

There a few notable trends in the middle-of-the-pack standings. Emmett McCall has been creeping up on the frontrunners and now Week 5 may determine if he’s a contender or a pretender.

The fall of two preseason favorites, Pat Matsinko and Rod Heckman is front page news. Matsinko has dropped from first place to five back, and Heckman is seven games behind. Moving into contention as we arrive at the halfway mark of the regular season will be quite a task for both.

Jeff Moeller, TJ Engle, and Kyle Magda lag too far behind and will need near perfect records in the next few weeks to be noteworthy at all. It certainly can be done as proven by Matta and Haines, so we may have any one of these back packers leap frog into a higher place in the standings.

Tigers growl, Dawgs howl and Raiders run

Northwestern continues to be the All-Area team so far this season, The unbeaten Tigers have outscored their four opponents, 189-22. Quarterback Shane Leh leads an explosive scoring machine, with running back Eli Zimmerman averaging nearly 12 yards a carry. Leh and Zimmerman have a combined 12 TDs this year.

An improved Lehighton Indians team comes to New Tripoli tonight to try to pull off the upset, but it will be a huge task for the Tribe’s defense to slow down the Tigers’ predictable marches to paydirt.

Northern Lehigh is the unanimous choice to go 4-1 with a win over struggling Palmerton. Undefeated Tamaqua will be tested by a solid Salisbury defense that has posted two shutouts in its three wins. Marian is the unanimous pick to beat winless Mahanoy Area. Pleasant Valley, Panther Valley and Jim Thorpe did not get the staff nod in their contests this week.

Out of Area Game of the Week

I like the Easton at Emmaus matchup of two 3-1 teams.

Dorian Thomas leads the Easton Rovers’ attack with five yards a carry, while the Hornets have averaged 33 points a game and routed previously unbeaten Stroudsburg last week.

The Rovers have won three straight, outscoring their opponents by a margin of 128-21. Emmaus has also won three straight, with a 111-35 advantage over their opponents.

This game is a roll of the dice, and our staff slightly favors Emmaus. For no other reason, I’m going with the home team, the Emmaus Hornets.

At the halfway mark

With a solid Week 5, Matta and Hurley can oust Haines out of the king’s throne. But as Haines goes, so do I for we made exactly the same picks.

Sam “The Gambling Man” has a few bold predictions that could send him back into first place, or drop him back to the pack. His picks of Bethlehem Catholic, Shenandoah Valley, Tri-Valley and Executive Education differ from Haines’ picks so something has to give there. Hurley needs Nazareth to beat Parkland to get a game up on the leaders.

There are five unanimous picks on the board that cancels out any shift from those games. The battle of the Catholics: Allentown vs Bethlehem could change the order. The Easton-Emmaus contest will factor into the pack standings. McCall. Heckman and Matsinko can all gain a game if the Rovers defeat the Hornets.

If Haines stays hot, he’ll defy his 15-1 odds to win it all come November. Matta, at 25-1, is still a long shot to grab the gold, but he and Haines are making great runs after five weeks. Look out for McCall, who appears poised to gallop out of the pack and join the front runners.

As the race for the Cup takes a turn into Week 6, the leaders threaten to pull away from the pack and leave them looking for new crystal balls for next year.

Is Haines the real deal? Can gambling man Matta pull off another great week? Will Hurley make his move to join the frontrunners? It’s Friday night. The stadium lights are bright. The scoreboard numbers flash. Who will rise and who will crash?