Hyperbowl 33

Cliffs Settle Bunch

Toutierse and Mittens Finally Wear Crown

For the marquis match-ups Iowa was supposed to have foiled, one-loss Monterey against either one-loss Mongtomery or the New Jersies, they more than filled the bill and proved their own worthiness by contributing to the most exciting offensive Hyperbowl since 1993 when Flint beat Spokane 34-31. Iowa wide receiver Hollis Assaway, who'd been far and away the MVP of all three Iowa playoff games in the West, did not disappoint, his electrifying 20-yard TD run tying the game just before halftime, and shifting the momentum as it would continue for Iowa after the break. The Bunch took the second half's opening kick-off to another TD for the lead, 21-14.

The Montgomery Cliffs, however, would not be stopped. Boris Toutierse was irrepressible in his big chance, the one he finally got and that many suspect may be his final one. All-everything wide receiver Noah Mittens would not be upstaged by upstart Assaway. Mittens had 114 yards of his own on 9 receptions. Running back Ira Pent, considered a big boost to Montgomery's fortunes since he came in, rushed for 87 yards and a TD and caught 3 passes for 29 yards, and tight end Rob Beef, the latest piece of the puzzle of the Eastern Conference and now league championships, had 2 TD catches.

Montgomery even used offense as their best defense. After Toutierse spurred a priceless drive spanning the third and fourth quarters, and that proved to be the winning one, he led a long drive in the middle of the last quarter that consumed nearly half of it, and kept the ball away from the dangerous Assaway and Bunch, one reason Assaway had only 5 catches for the game.

Montgomery responded in kind to Iowa's lead-grabbing TD in the third quarter, just as Iowa had answered each Montgomery score in the first half. On that drive, Toutierse turned to Mittens and Pent: they had receptions of 25 and 13 yards respectively to start it off. Mittens also had a 19-yard catch on third down, and Pent capped it with the 12-yard burst to the endzone.

The winning drive, if it hadn't quite cinched the game, certainly did Tourtierse's MVP award and was the cherry on top of his illustrious career. After the Cliffs forced Iowa to punt on their second series of downs, they took over at their own 21-yard line. With the Bunch now blanketing Mittens, Toutierse cooly found wide receiver Reed Moore for 12 yards, then on a fourth down, Beef, also for 12 yards. As big as that play was, very gutsy from their own 37 still in the third quarter, the next play found the Bunch still reeling. Toutierse took off for 38 yards to the Iowa 13. After an interception and a short toss underneath to Mittens to the 9, Toutierse again burned the Bunch coverage himself, and scored the winning TD.

At the time, it wasn't certain the back and forth was over. On Iowa's next possession, the Cliffs showed the surge in their momentum with a sack of Iowa quarterback Tab Lloyd for 12 yards on third down back to Iowa's 11. But Mittens fumbled the punt return and suddenly Iowa was set up at their 42. Iowa converted a fourth-down play of their own, running back Orson DeWater just getting the 4 yards needed. But then the Cliffs forced three straight incompletions and Iowa conceded possession.

That's when Montgomery decided to keep the ball. The defensive offensive performance was mostly rushes, including an instrumental 2-yard dash by Toutierse that converted on third down. Pent had a 13-yard run and another third-down converting 7-yarder. Even Mittens helped chip away with a 1-yard rush. Toutierse only threw 4 times on the 15-play drive, but the two completions, of 9 and 4 yards to Mittens, were for first downs.

Iowa's Lloyd had only 191 yards passing, and Montgomery subdued the rushing game that had been a big part of the Iowa campaign to the Hyperbowl. Veteran running back Nick Romancer was the rushing leader for Iowa, something of a surprise considering DeWater was the spark plug this season. It was Romancer on a 16-yard run at the beginning of the second quarter who capped the scoring drive to answer Montgomery's first. He also had 3 catches for 30 yards.

Lloyd, Romancer and Assaway, all three Demetrius Award winners in college, will have to wait longer in the pros, at least for the ultimate fruit. This was the time for Montgomery, which had weathered seven conference championship losses including four in a row from 1993, and perhaps especially for Toutierse and Mittens, who even without a league crown to their names have been the most prolific quarterback reciever tandem in LAF history.