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With Monday's first round of The Star-Olympia Fields McDonald's Video Football Tournament kicking off, one thing became evident early: Strategy is virtually as important as talent.
Both strategy and talent propelled Hillcrest's team of Kordero Hunter, Steve McHerron, Jarrod Renfroe and Kris Bryant past TF South's squad of Joe Rizzi, Armando Urbina, Kevin Wright and Deniz Sidkey by the convincing score of 73-37, advancing the Hawks to the second round.
Hillcrest entered the matchup with a game plan of utilizing Bryant (their best player) in the fourth quarter (each player took turns competing in a quarter), but after TF South (behind the Philadelphia Eagles) took a 16-7 lead after the first period, Bryant opted to step in early.
Masterfully controlling Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, Bryant completely overmatched Rizzi in the second period, outscoring the Rebels' star quarterback by a 38-14 count in the quarter, sending Hillcrest into halftime with a 45-30 advantage.
From that point, the Hawks never looked back.
"I decided to play in the second quarter because I didn't want us to fall too far behind," Bryant said. "I figured I would score a lot of points, and my defense isn't too bad. If we keep playing like this, we might be able to go all the way."
While Hillcrest was certainly ecstatic about moving on in the tournament, the players, undoubtedly, were also pleased to avoid whatever punishment awaited them had they tasted defeat.
"I told them that they were going to have to do 250 up-downs if they lost and they'd have to walk back to Hillcrest," said Hillcrest assistant coach Charles Dockery, who offered vocal support on various occasions, giving the game an almost playoff-type feel.
The loss was disappointing not only to the Rebels' players, but also to their legion of teammates who provided a slew of boisterous support.
"This was a good idea," Rizzi said of the inaugural Madden video game using the Xbox system. "It was a lot of fun. We got to meet and talk with the other team and we had a bunch of our teammates here to support us. This football team is like one big family. It was great to have their support here."
In the second round, the Hawks will square off with Rich East, who throttled Bloom Township 62-27.
The Rockets' foursome of Drew Yarborough, Jermaine Love-Roberts, Koree Blackful and Cordell Chavers (controlling the Jacksonville Jaguars) used a strong fourth quarter to pull away from the Blazing Trojans' team of J.T. Coleman, Tommy Kargas, Ken Sutton and Ryan Tobicoe (Indianapolis Colts).
Heading into the fourth, Rich East only led 34-27, but Chavers outscored Tobicoe 28-0 to seal the triumph for the Rockets.
The convincing win not only gave the Rich East players plenty to cheer about (the Rockets brought with them several placards that read "INT," "TD," "NO," etc. and displayed them proudly at the proper moments), but it also instilled quite a bit of confidence in at least one Rich East competitor.
"We're going to go all the way," Yarborough said.
First, they have to go through Hillcrest.
"We'll be ready," Blackful said. "All we have to do is come back and get the controllers and we'll be ready."
