WEEKLY PICKS (Oct. 19-20): Professor, Ron Held pick up first 10-0 week

Mr. Held Over needs to stop thinking about Newcastle and start thinking more about predicting right. Soccer Freak just needs to stop going "against the spread."

How'd everyone else do? I went 9-1, upping my yearly total to 52-18. Prep Guru turned in another 7-3 week to get to 30-10 for the year. And CG, apparently a big Hahnville fan, only picked one game, but picked it right. He had Hahnville over East Ascension.

Mark forgot to get his picks in, and Christopher Mire obviously has retired since going 9-1 in the first week. We've not seen him since.

The Big Picture:
Super Gold level (60 or more picks)
Me (52-18, 74.3%)

Gold level (50-59 picks)
Ron Held (40-10, 80%)

Silver level (20-49 picks)
Professor (25-5, 83.4%)
Prep Guru (30-10, 75%)
Soccer Freak (26-14, 65%)
Mr. Held Over (22-18, 55%)

Mauve level (0-19 picks)
CG (1-0, 100%)
Christopher Mire (9-1, 90%)
Mark (17-2, 89.5%)
SuperWebGirl (8-2, 80%)

We've got three weeks left in the regular season. Plenty of time for movement in and out of the lovely levels above. Just think SuperWebGirl, you too can be a silver picker by November.

Get your guessing hats on early this week. It's a big one. There are some tough picks out there to come. Several Game O' the Week type games. And please, make sure you pick the Game O' the Week. It's part of the contest sweeping America.

Tell all your friends to pick. Make it an office pool. Make a game of it. But please, just pick. Email your picks to bhandwerger@wwltv.com or leave them in the comment section below. They're much appreciated.

Week 8
(Home team in bold unless at a neutral field, i.e. Gormley, Yenni, Memtsas, Behrman or Bertolino)

Destrehan 24, East St. John 21
Hahnville 34, Dutchtown 14
Mandeville 28, Hammond 10
Fontainebleau 17, Slidell 14
Belle Chasse 21, Ellender 14
St. Augustine 20, Chalmette 10
Jesuit 24, Brother Martin 17 (@ Gormley)
Newman 28, Riverside 21
McDonogh35 8, O.P. Walker 7 (@ Behrman)

Game O' the Week
Shaw at Vandebilt Catholic, Friday 7 p.m.

This could be a good one. It should be a good one. Shaw (7-0, 2-0 District 8-4A) isn't invincible right now thanks to having to play two young quarterbacks in place of Ramaad Robinson, who is out for the season with a torn ACL. Shaw's Steffon Gray is as good a running back as there is in the area, but Vandebilt Catholic knows a little bit about running the football. The defense goes against possibly the area's top run game every day in practice.

Friday's game hinges one thing: How will Shaw's defense hold up against Vandebilt's offense? Shaw head coach Scott Bairnsfather said the other day that Vandebilt is the msot complete team his Eagles will face thus far. Vandebilt had a scare a week ago against Helen Cox, winning 45-42 on a last-second field goal. The Terriers (7-0, 2-0) will be focused and ready for this.

And being that a lot of folks still think Vandebilt should be an underdog at home, the Terriers have a chip on their shoulder. Add to that that Vandebilt will be looking for revenge for a 56-7 pasting by Shaw a year ago and they're going to come out fired up.

Vandebilt will have the most physically punishing running game Shaw has seen yet. The Terriers rolled up 411 rushing yards at Belle Chasse two weeks ago. The offense scored 45 points against Cox last week. Vandebilt can play offense.

If Vandebilt can run the ball with Curtis Welch, Dexter Smith and Evan Mistich, and keep Shaw's offense off the field, it could spell trouble for the Eagles, who haven't lost a regular season game in three years.

UPSET SPECIAL: Vandebilt 24, Shaw 17