After 11 weeks of picking high school football team winners in 165 games, the race for the Bob Ford Memorial Grid Picks Cup will be decided between two long shots, the reigning champion and a perennial front runner.

Current Cup holder Brad Hurley had a 12-3 week, which left him tied for first place with Yours Truly. I must say I was not a preseason favorite.

Underdog Sam Matta and frontrunner Pat Matsinko are both two games behind the leaders, and have an outside chance to tie or steal the victory if either can finish Week 12 with records that are two games or better than those of the leaders.

And then there were two

A couple of local teams have moved on in the district playoffs games.

Undefeated Northwestern plays North Schuylkill in a rematch from the Tigers 49-7 win over the Spartans in late September. Coach Josh Snyder’s team has defeated every challenger this season, and the staff believes they will be hoisting another District 11 title trophy after the final horn goes off in this one.

After a stunning win over Blue Mountain last week, Lehighton battles Bethlehem Catholic in a semifinal game between two teams that have 5-6 records. The Tribe appears to be playing their best football right now, but can they take down the Hawks? Momentum is a big factor in high school football, and the Tribe has the big win over Blue Mountain to carry them forward this week.

Out of Area Game of the Week

There are many to choose from, but the Southern Columbia-Troy High School game figures to be a really good one.

Since 1988, the Tigers from SC have played in 22 of 34 state final games, winning 14 — including seven in a row from 2017-2023. The Tigers held the regular season winning streak record of 93 wins in a row that was recently broken. This season, quarterback Ayden Hockenbroch leads the 7-4 Tigers, along with running back Brayden Andrews.

Troy — at 11-0 — is led by dual threat quarterback Evan Woodward, who averages a total of 158 yards passing and running in each game. In 10 of their 11 wins, the Trojans have scored more than 50 points per contest. Some of our staff believe Southern Columbia’s tradition of winning big games will continue, but the rest of us like the unbeaten Trojans to remain that way.

And down the stretch we come!

Many scenarios will determine the winner of the Cup, but the out of area games will determine who wins the gold and gets to sit on the King’s Throne until next year.

Let’s start at the very top. Hurley and Yours Truly differ on three of our picks. He needs Delaware Valley, Valley View and Southern Columbia to win, while I need their opponents to prevail. That means we cannot tie for first place.

Matsinko also has three different picks than I do, and five of his picks go against Hurley’s. He likes Lehighton to beat Bethlehem Catholic and although I picked the Hawks, this is a game I would not mind losing. Lehighton has a chance to win a district title that not many thought they could do. Go Tribe!

Sam Matta, our riverboat gambler, often likes to favor the underdog. He has four different game winners than me, and six go against Hurley’s. There is a strong possibility that any of the four can win the Cup — or end up in fourth place or even lower in the standings.

In memoriam

Although it appears there may be only one title winner, no one comes out of the race a loser because of the name on the trophy.

Bob Ford was an award-winning photographer for the Times News for many years before he passed away during the pandemic. I had the good fortune of working alongside Bob, who lugged his cameras everywhere from sporting events to important news and feature locations. He had a unique talent to not only take pictures, but also to capture a baseball come off the bat, or to freeze a wondrous moment of Nature’s landscape so that we may enjoy that sudden moment forever.

We used to kid each other about how Bob Ford the photographer would defeat us sportswriters when he never studied the trends and statistics of the teams. He also had proven to me the integrity of his character. A few years ago, Ford was one game behind Hurley for the title going into the final week. He found out that by chance, he had picked the same winners as Hurley which then meant he had no chance to win.

He said to me, “That’s ok. My picks are my picks, and I’m not going to change anything just to try to win.”

That’s exactly how I feel now. I picked my winners early, not knowing what winners were selected by Hurley, Matta and Matsinko. It’s been a close race throughout the season, and now the winner will be known by Sunday morning.

Let the games play on and their outcomes decide who will be the winner of the 2024 Bob Ford Memorial Grid Picks Cup!