Eastern Conference Championship

Projects prevail over Homes

Mobile turned the field position game around on Manhattan, and although from the statistics the Homes had no business being in the game with the Projects, they tied it in the third quarter and took the lead half way through the fourth. The Homes thus made a thriller out of what could've been another lopsided Manhattan win, and built up the suspense of a reversal of the 2015 Eastern Championship, where the upstart Projects beat defending league champ Mobile, preventing their repeat and home Hyperbowl and their chance for a third Hyperbowl win overall. Late in this game it looked like Mobile really would return the favor and derail Manhattan's repeat bid.

And then came the knockout punch. Manhattan's two aces, RB Anthony Kistmi and WR Jason Skurtz, announced themselves in those 2015 playoffs, and they have been the core of the Project success ever since. Famous for their ability to rally especially in the fourth, or simply to take over games, it happened even more spectacularly here, especially with Skurtz. After Mobile took the lead 20-17 with just over eight minutes to go, Manhattan started on their own 20 after a touch back. Kistmi ran nine yards. Then QB Oliver Klozov through to Skurtz for 17 yards. Then again for 23 yards. Then for 20 yards to the Mobile 11. Then Skurtz ran it in from there. Manhattan took the lead 24-20.

Mobile made a decent bid at a drive, then stalled, punted, and Skurtz actually fumbled on the return, but recovered at the Manhattan 46. WR Orlando Difri ran 25 yards on a reverse, Kistmi ran 13 to the Mobile 8, and RB Avery Nastibooy took it in from there. The two blitz drives made it look like the lion had been toying with the mouse.

Klozov passed for 216 yards and three touchdowns, though he was intercepted twice, while Mobile and All-East QB Jethro Ittaway threw for only 133 yards, a TD, and was intercepted twice. Ittaway did have a 44-yard TD run. But Kistmi had 114 yards rushing, while the Mobile backfield had 38 yards between them. From the statistics and final score, it looked like a typical dominant Manhattan win, but the sequence events made it much more exciting.

Shades of Mahattan's previous game came early. After trading punts, the Projects picked off Ittaway at midfield, but their short field drive was stopped at the Mobile six, and Manhattan took the 23-yard Cappy Collarneck field goal. But then they forced a three and out and took it in with a 14-yard run by Kistmi, a 28-yard run by Klozov, a 19-yard pass to Skurtz to the Mobile one, and the TD pass to Difri the next play for a 10-0 lead.

The Homes held tough in the second, until the field position curse turned around on Manhattan. After Mobile punted for a touchback, they sacked Klozov on third down, a freak play on a botched Manhattan punt set up Mobile on the Manhattan 18. Ittaway scrambled to the three and threw to TE Jorge Girl for the TD. Manhattan led only 10-7 at half.

The Projects began the second half with a lightning punch to take control again. After a touchback for the half-opening kickoff, Klozov went to Skurtz for 12 yards, then Kistmi sliced through a hole and broke clear, zig-zagging against the secondary to the Mobile 19, a 49-yard run. Klozov covered the rest of it on pass to TE Yudong Hang.

Manhattan forced another three and out, then went on a long drive as it looked they had complete control. But at the Mobile three, Kistmi caught a pass, but then fumbled the ball into the end zone as he was hit before crossing the goal line. Mobile recovered for a touchback. They went on a drive of their own to reverse the field position, moving to the Manhattan 44, but then the game took a huge turn. Ittaway caught the whold Project defense downfield and scored from there. Suddenly it wasn't just about Mobile survival.

The Homes intercepted Klozov on the next play and got a 37-yard Robert Ducky field goal to tie the game. After Manhattan missed a field goal in the fourth, Mobile drove to a 24-yard Ducky field goal to take the lead, with the big play on the drive a 23-yard pass from Ittaway to WR Jeff Uckendick. And that's when the Projects took over again.

Manhattan now gets the home Hyperbowl, playing on their home field after winning the host rights last year. They're going for the first repeat league championship since Las Vegas in 2005, and for their third in six years.

Western Conference Championship

Potatoheads rise higher above Stars

Whatever gains Little Rock made this season -- kicking their offense into a higher gear, leading the league in passing yardage, an All-West selection for WR Eton Bayer Wolff, hopes that QB Harlan Daggers would take them the next step to the Hyperbowl, the only team not to suffer a lopsided loss -- were worthing nothing in this Western Conference Championship game against the Potatoheads. Idaho's fate is woven with the Manhattan Projects. Even losing RB Ruud van Nastibooy for most of the season couldn't put them off the path to a division title, and with him back, their domination over the West is all the more astonishing because of how they dominated the Stars.

Van Nastibooy and West MVP TE Hans auf der Butt were unstoppable again, even for the Stars and their supposedly complete team play. Auf der Butt had nine catches for 157 yards. Idaho QB Dan Smother-Falker reaped the numbers to not only upstage but embarras Dagger: 324 yards and 2 TDs passing (to 157 and no TDs for Daggers). Smother-Falker also ran for 52 yars. While Idaho's WRs were held down as expected, the Potatoheads held Bayer-Wolff to two catches for 29 yards.

The Stars looked plenty capable on their opening drive, controling possesion for ten plays, bringing players off the bench right off as part of their tactic of spreading the offense even further than the starting lineup. But after RB Buster Rass lost a yard to the Idaho four on third down, the settled for a 21-yard Moe Greenjeans field goal.

Idaho came right back to strike the first blow across the goal line, taking eight plays to go 68 yards, with the big play a 34-yard pass from Smother-Falker to Van Nasitbooy himself. RB Roy Dreige finished it from there on a six-yard scoring run. The teams knuckled down for a defensive scrap in the second quarter, with Idaho only getting back the field goal difference on a 32-yarder from kicker Amir Aidiya. Veteran kicker Charlatan Heston did not come out for the attempt, apparently injured when he missed a 36-yard attempt on Idaho's previous drive, or some time before.

The Stars looked to step it up when they scored in three plays after a 14-yard punt return for their first touch in the third quarter. Daggers threw to TE Barry Spritzer for 30 yards, then took it in from there, 11 yards for the TD. The game was tied at 10.

Idaho answered immediately, scoring in six plays, with Van Nastibooy running for 19, and Auf der Butt covering 35 on a pass play to start the drive. Dreige capped it with a four-yard TD reception from Smother-Falker.

And it snowballed from there, Idaho scoring on their next three possessions, shutting down the Stars each time. Smother-Falker ran 44-yards to start the next drive and finished it with a six-yard pass to WR Howie Wonder-Warr for a 24-10 lead. They stopped a long Little Rock drive on their own 29, forcing a turnover on downs as the Stars got desperate for a TD, then converted a fourth down of their own to revive a drive that began with three incomplete passes, but finished with no third downs on six straight plays to a three-yard scoring run by Van Nastibooy. Then they recovered a Rass fumble to drive to a 40-yard Aidiya field goal for the final score.

For Little Rock, the Potatoheads are now the huge stone in their path to the Hyperbowl, and particularly for Daggers, whose charge is to take them there. But for Idaho, that stone is the Manhattan Projects, their opponent in all their Hyperbowl appearances. Manhattan beat Idaho in the 2015 Hyperbowl and again last year, and now Idaho must face them again in Manhattan, and to become champions, stop Manhattan from the first repeat since 2005 and from a third championship overall.