Horrors break through, heap more mashing on Potatoheads

Hugo Gurl adds pro championship honors to his career

The two teams rolled through their playoff opponents, as they did pretty much their division opponents. Something would have to give, but there was hope that these two ferocious offenses would produce a shootout thriller. With both out of the shadow of the Manhattan Projects, there was suspense about which one would really have the advantage, and at least the eyeball test for the full season favored the Western champs making their third straight Hyperbowl. It seemed the next step for the Idaho Potatoheads.

But it all went the Amityville Horrors' way. They got the same combination of opportunistic play on defense and special teams, and killer instinct for striking, and somehow managed to shut down Idaho unlike anyone has in perhaps three or four years, including the Projects. In their record 19th playoff appearance, with two Hyperbowl losses before 1989, but especially disappointment over the last decade, Amityville simply took their place as the Eastern champs dominating the Potatoheads, who have now lost a record four Hyperbowls, three straight.

The run of play like the Horrors' games with Maryland and Orlando took up quickly. Idaho received the opening kickoff, and after West MVP TE Hans auf der Butt ran for 13 yards on a reverse for a first down, Amityville held for a three and out, forcing two incompletions after a four-yard run by RB Roy Dreige. The punt was returned by Amityville WR "Dangerous" Lee Azens 42 yards to the Idaho 26-yard line. Azens had picked up in the Eastern semi game where star WR Hugo Gurl left off and even got a 90-yard kickoff return for a TD. Not only is he considered one of the best #2 WRs in the league, but he's shown this threat on returns recently, and this also to recover from missing part of the season with injury.

Two plays later, veteran RB O.J. Didit, who rushed for 124 yards in Amityville's opening playoff game against Peoria, busted for 19 yards to the six, and Horror QB Houghton Holler threw to Azens for the TD from there. Just like that, Amityville was up 7-0, after the extra point kick.

The breaks seemed to change for Idaho on the next series. Again they got one first down, on an eight-yard run by QB Dan Smother-Falker, but missed on two more pass attempts and even got a penalty to set them back. But on the punt this time, Azens fumbled, Idaho recovered and was set up at the Horror 28. They even got a penalty on Amityville to move them to the 14, but still failed to punch into the end zone and then, incredibly, missed a 24-yard field goal attempt.

The two teams traded punts, and then Amityville put together a drive from their own 20. They took 12 plays and moved into the second quarter as well, with Holler getting the first down chunks on passes to Azens (10 yards) and TE Ivan Tukacherdikov (11, 15). Then after a one-yard loss by RB Lyle Little that seemed to stall the Horrors on the Idaho 25, Holler found Tukacherdikov for the distance. Amityville opened up a two-score lead, 14-0.

At this point it seemed Amityville was shoring up for the inevitable onslaught of the Idaho offense. But after three more punts between the teams, the Horrors then got a short field, starting from the Idaho 47, and Holler blitzed them in four plays, including three straight passes to Tukacherdikov, of 12, 7 and 11 yards. The TD pass was to Gurl for 17 yards. While Idaho's Auf der Butt is perhaps the most dominating player in the league, and tied the record for receptions in a season this year with 134, Holler was making hay with their own TE Tukacherdikov because of the Potatoheads trying to cover Gurl and Azens.

Idaho then put on a blitz of their own, finally flexing their offensive muscle. In five plays they zipped from their own 27 to the Amityville 17. RB Ruud Van Nasitbooy had an 18-yard run and Smother-Falker one of 25. But the clock killed the drive this time, and Amityville had a 21-0 halftime lead.

In the third quarter, the teams traded punts again, then Amityville made another impressive 80-yard drive, this time needing only eight plays. Holler hit Azens and Gurl on back-to-back passes of 21 and 23 yards, there were seven passes of the eight plays and six of them complete, five of them to Gurl, including the TD of seven yards.

After trading punts again, the Potatoheads finally put on their own scoring drive, nine plays, 70 yards with Van Nastibooy getting the big one, a 22-yard run, and Smother-Falker capping it off with a 19-yard run, and then adding the three-yard run for a two-point conversion. But this carried into the fourth quarter, and despite showing spark, then forcing an Amityville punt on the next series, the Idaho offense did not catch fire. The Horrors continued their amazing stifle of the powerful Potatohead offense and finished them off.

Amityville held Smother-Falker and Idaho to just 81 yards passing. Auf der Butt, typically a nightmare for defenses, had just six catches for 49 yards. Tukacherdikov for Amityville had six catches for 81 yards and a TD. Smother-Falker rushed for 52 yards and a TD, but with the dramatic failure of the aerial attack, this was poor compensation. Nobody quite expected that Amityville, which some Idaho supporters had called "Manhattan junior," would get such a shutdown of Idaho, the most impressive in years as well as in the Hyperbowls.

For veterans like Gurl, Didit and Holler, this was payoff for nearly a decade of effort and frustration, playing in often the toughest division in the league. They lived through two different cycles of Manhattan domination, the New Jerseys, Columbus, and this year even getting leapfrogged by the Washington Machine. When they weren't getting pushed out of a playoff spot by their division foes, they were getting knocked off by them in the playoffs.

For Holler, it may be sweetest of all. The 17-year veteran from Moonshine St. has endured the most criticism and even became the scapegoat for Amityville's playoff curse. Holler was known for his scrappy playmaking style even in college, but tended to cause as many mistakes as big plays earlier in his career. The composure he's gained in recent years has shown in statistics, and even Amityville's losses couldn't be chalked up to just him. Now he will be known to Amityville fans and others as a Hyperbowl winner. He even set Hyperbowl records with four touchdown passes and a pass composite of 72.5.