And then there were two.

Karns City and Union/A-C Valley are the final pair of Butler County area football teams standing in the early days of November.

Crazy.

Usually we have a handful of teams still alive at this point.

But it's been a tough year.

For prognosticating bird mascots, too.

I went 4-1 (not bad) last week to run my record to 80-28 (not particularly good).

My loss total has doubled from last season to this one, so needless to say, my feathers are ruffled.

I have two chances this week for redemption.

Karns City takes on Ridgway at 1 p.m. Saturday at DuBois.

Union/A-C Valley takes on Redbank Valley at 7 p.m. Friday at Clarion University.

Both games should be good ones.

I only hope I can return next week to extend my — and our teams' — postseason runs.

On to the picks.

These two teams battled back on Oct. 11 with the Gremlins falling 19-13.Ridgway is 9-1, hasn't lost since August and hasn't given up more than 14 points in a game since Week 1.That's what Karns City is up against.The Gremlins, however, gave the Elkers their closest game since that Aug. 30 loss to Kane.Ridgway is a balanced offensive team with quarterback Paul Gresco throwing for 1,500 yards this season and the running game producing another 2,300.That kind of balance could give Karns City some trouble, as it did in the meeting a month ago.Karns City is very capable of pulling off the mild upset (the Gremlins are the 5th seed in District 9 2A while Ridgway is the top seed), but the Elkers will come out on top.Ridgway 21-15.

The battle of the valleys.The Union/A-C Valley bandwagon has been at full capacity this season. For good reason. The Falcon Knights have been one of the better stories this season and are a formidable team on both offense and defense.U/A-C beat Redbank Valley 28-7 on Oct. 18.The Bulldogs also have lost starting quarterback Gunner Mangiantini for the season.Freshman Cam Wagner has filled in admirably, but he’s a freshman and the Falcon Knights are undoubtably licking their chops to get a crack at him again.Wagner was 10-of-22 passing for 87 yards against Union/A-C Valley in the meeting a few weeks ago.This doesn’t add up well for Redbank Valley.Union/A-C will come away with a win and a spot in the District 9 Class A title game. Falcon Knights 23-13.Scoop is in the running for the Pittsburgh Pirates managerial job.