Ryan McLaughlin grabbed a share of the lead during the fourth week of the season, then never relinquished it the rest of the way. His reward is the staff championship in the 51st edition of the Bangor Daily News Football Forecast.
McLaughlin celebrated his return to the journalistic sports realm by claiming his second staff crown. He previously won in 2013.
McLaughlin closed out the season with a 17-3 record during Week 10, pushing his season mark to an impressive 168-32, an .840 winning percentage . It was among the top staff performances in the history of our annual competition.
BDN Staff members and our season-long guest, “The Drive” show from 92.9 The Ticket, matched wits with BDN readers for 10 weeks covering 200 games involving Maine high school and college football teams.
McLaughlin emerged with a full, five-game victory over runner-up and defending champion Ernie Clark (163-37), who has annexed seven BDN staff titles. Joe McLaughlin finished third at 160-40.
The rest of the staff standings went like this: Larry Mahoney (159-41), Pete Warner (154-46), “The Drive” (153-47) and John Holyoke (141-59).
Chris Lessner of Bangor earned the championship among weekly guests, going 18-2 in Week 3. His effort overcame determined challenges by Jon Alba of ABC 7/FOX 22 and Husson University student Matt Cunha, each of whom had 17-3 weeks.
The other weekly guest efforts included: Matt Taylor (16-4), Bob Cimbollek (16-4), Mark Paulette (15-5), Todd McLeod (14-6), Rene Cloukey (13-7), Greg Hirsch (13-7) and Mike DeVito (11-9).