He’s known as a wrestling guru by the Times News sports staff, but Pat “The Mat” Matsinko has a proven track record of picking winners of high school football games, too.

His Week One record of 10-3 puts him on the king’s throne and in first place all by himself in the race for the 2021 Bob Ford Memorial Grid Picks Cup.

Justin “The Voice” Carlucci, Chuck “Good luck” Hixson, and TJ “Carolina” Engle are all tied for second and one game back of the lead. “Bad” Brad Hurley and defending champ, “Hot” Rod Heckman are at 8-5 and two games off the pace. Yours Truly, Sam “The Man” Matta, and Mike “Quick Pick” Haines are three games behind with 7-6 records.

Vowing to make a comeback this season, Emmett “Bossman” McCall’s 6-7 Week One record is so far proving he can’t walk the talk. He dropped into the Pundit Pit where he sits alone. Already four games back of the lead, he’d better kick it into high gear for Week Two or the Boss might be having another season choking on the dust from the stampede of the pickers running ahead of him. Yours Truly believes he’ll make a run in the next few weeks and get back in the pack for contention. Then again, just look at my record and you can’t have much faith in any prediction I make.

Catch up with matchups

In the chase to unseat Matsinko in Week Two, three games between local teams will be factors in separating the contenders from the also-rans. The Tigers of Northwestern visit the Bulldogs of Northern Lehigh in a matchup of teams who both won on opening night. Northwestern’s acclaimed quarterback and 2020 TN Player of the Year, Justin Holmes, ran for two scores and passed for another in last week’s drubbing of Tamaqua. Look for Holmes and company to send the canines into the doghouse and go 2-0 in this early season.

Bombers fly to Olympian Stadium

Palmerton travels to Jim Thorpe on Friday night in an interesting game between Red and White Division teams of the newly formed Colonial- Schuylkill League. The Bombers had a big opening night win by routing Lehighton, as QB Matt Machalik ran for four touchdowns in spearheading an offense that rolled up 407 yards. JT stumbled against Blue Mountain, but sophomore Sal Capria had a big game toting the rock and could very well be the next featured running back in a long history of great ones for Thorpe. The staff consensus says Machalik and his offensive weapons will be tough to stop for the Red Storm and the Bombers will win their second in a row.

Turning point?

Sometimes, the second game of the season sets a team’s mindset going forward. After opening night losses, Tamaqua and Lehighton meet with a dreaded 0-2 record labeled upon the team that loses. Coach Tom McCarroll is demanding his Tribe brings more physicality against Sam Bonner’s Raiders. Both offenses have struggled, but keeping the opponent out of the end zone was the teams’ biggest problems last week. Look for Tamaqua to win the battle in the trenches, along with the time of possession and the game with a late second-half score.

Bears beginning

Pleasant Valley opens this week against East Stroudsburg North, who lost 57-0 to Nazareth last week. For the past two seasons, Coach Blaec Saeger’s Bears have played exactly four games up to this date due to COVID issues. They have not won an opening game since 2016. It’s time the Valley wins another one. Go Bears big over ESN.

Early season battle of giants

From out of the area, an early season game matches two perennial powerhouses, Parkland against Easton. Coach Tim Moncman’s Trojans will play their first game, while Jeff Braido’s Easton Rovers opened last week with a crushing 76-6 win over Pocono Mountain East on their brand-new turf field. Picking against Parkland means picking an upset, but so be it. I’m going with the minority vote here and picking Easton to go 2-0 in their new stadium.

Keeping up with the pace

Week Two looms as a pivotal early season mark in the race for the Cup. From the bottom on up, McCall needs to shovel his way out of the Pundit Pit and get back in the pack. Matta, Haines, and Yours Truly are a disastrous picks week record away from sliding past the boss and into the big dark hole.

It’s way too early to say that Matsinko will stay seated on the king’s throne, but he is the only one to pick Freedom to defeat Emmaus, and that might get him the edge to stay on top.

We all covet the unbeaten picks week where the biggest move up is made, and just like football teams that dread the 0-2 early season record that could balloon into a losing season, we worry that a bad Week Two could push us too far off the pace.

Let’s see whose face will be at the far left and in first place next week, and whose will be at the far right, staring up from the darkness and shouting, “I gotta get outta here!”