Hyperbowl 32

Four Jacks

Fuse Named MVP

The Monterey Jacks were the first team to win a second Hyperbowl, doing it in the first four years of the league. Now, they are the first to win four, though it wasn't certain until after the time of a full game. The Macon Waves took Monterey to sudden death overtime, so the bid to go 4-0 in the Hyperbowl was also one of the most exciting, or at least one of the most suspenseful.

It didn't much ovetime, though. On Monterey's first drive, after they forced Macon to punt on the extra time opening drive, wide receiver Ira Fuse caught a 21-yard pass to the Macon 9-yard line. The Jacks thought it more reliable to throw to him again than try a field goal, even after the next pass was incomplete. Fuse caught the 9-yarder for the score that ended the game. His 9-yard touchdown reception put Monterey ahead for the first time in the second quarter. Fuse had 9 catches for 110 yards and the 2 TDs, including the game-winner, and was named the Hyperbowl's most valuable player, the first wide receiver to win the honor since Las Vegas's Jason Rainbows in 1999. This was despite teammate Buster Hymen's 115 yards and 1 touchdown rushing, exactly the sort of performance the Jacks wanted from Hymen to dominate the Waves.

Macon did not play the game as a footnote to Monterey. The Waves rolled into the Hyperbowl, including over Connecticut in the last game on the way, the team many thought the best in the East before the Waves' rise. They continued rolling in this game, scoring on the first possession, 69-yard drive capped by a 14-yard pass from quarterback Boyd Bwane to tight end Dean Bat. When Monterey appeared to have stalled the drive to force a field goal, their penalty set up Macon on the 14 for the TD on the next play.

Hymen broke a 37-yard run on Monterey's next play from scrimmage, and answered for the Jacks 3 plays later on an 8-yard TD run.

The Waves took the lead again in the 2nd quarter on a 22-yard field goal by kicker Oolong Gater. Monterey answered on the following drive with a 40-yard Orson Beanbag field goal. On the next possession Monterey forced Macon to punt. Fuse returned the punt 36 yards to start the go-ahead drive he would finish.

Both teams had long drives stalled in the 3rd quarter, then Macon began the 4th, after an interception of Monterey quarterback Heller Highwater at their own 1-yard line returned to the 7, with a 15-play march the length of the field. They took up half the final quarter doing so. Bat had catches on the drive of 12, 19 and 13 yards. Running back Moe Lester had 6- and 8-yard runs. Wide receiver Waylon Wall had a 19-yard run on a reverse, and he caught the 3-yard pass for the TD which, after the extra point, knotted the game at 17.

Monterey's Beanbag missed a field goal attempt from 46-yards on the next possession. Hymen had a run of 24 yards on the drive. The teams trade punts, and then regulation time ended a Macon drive, having just completed a 22-yard pass play from Bwayne to WR Cliff Hazard.

On the winning drive in overtime, Highwater was completed 5 of 7 passes, including a 22-yarder to WR Jacques Tactic on the 2nd play, as well as the two to Fuse. Highwater was 17/37 for 213 yards and 2 TDs, with 2 interceptions.

Monterey allowed Bwane and the Waves just 182 yards passing and 2 TDs, minimizing star WR Wall, despite giving up a considerable performance by Bat. More impressive was the way the Jacks contained the Macon rushing game of the running back duo of Hugh Bastard and Moe Lester, a factor that had been instrumental in their becoming the Eastern Conference's top seed. Bastard rushed for 50 yards, but Lester was held to just 17.