And the winner of the IRON Conference Championship is . . . ZIP EM UP!  The game was a battle between VAPOR, who nearly went undefeated in the regular season, and ZIP EM UP, who handed VAPOR their only loss and posted a solid 7-3 regular season record.  The two teams faced off in an extremely close game that would not only determine the champion of the IRON Conference but the team that would advance to the league championship game.

Much like the STEEL Conference Championship, the IRON Conference championship was exactly the kind of football game fans want to see.  It may not have been as high-scoring as football fans typically appreciate, but it was nonetheless a competitive nail-biter.

Although I would have gone the other way, Swain accurately predicted the winner of this matchup.  He picked ZIP EM UP to upset VAPOR 25-19 in OT.  Now although the game did not go into overtime and wasn’t even close to a high-scoring matchup, ZIP EM UP did beat VAPOR 12-6 to become the IRON Conference Champions.

Here’s a recap of the IRON matchup:

The first half was low-scoring, much like the whole game, and featured great play by the defenses of both teams.  Despite quick passing their way down the field on their opening drive, VAPOR failed to put the ball in the endzone, after QB Cornell Mack’s fourth down pass was broken up by Kenny Ashmore.  On ZIP EM UP’s turn with the ball, QB Jeff Bollinger worked his team up the field on several quick passes.  Bollinger capped off the eight-play drive with a pass to Bruce Thornton in the middle of the endzone for a touchdown.  

Both teams would make impressive defensive stops on the next two offensive possessions and the score at halftime read 6-0 in favor of ZIP EM UP.  Now in their previous matchup during the regular season, ZIP EM UP held VAPOR to 6 points in the second half.  They would do the same in the second half of this one and a single touchdown would be all VAPOR would score all game.

Both teams would fail to score on their first possessions of the second half, with the defenses shining on big plays yet again.  However, on VAPOR’s second possession, they would finally get on the board.  Cornell Mack led his team down the field, completing multiple passes to Ed Tozzi and Bryan Maldonado along the way.  He would cap the drive off to Maldonado in the middle of the endzone for a touchdown.  The extra point was no good and the score was all tied up at 6 apiece.

It was ZIP EM UP’s turn with the ball and they were ready to take the lead, which is exactly what they did.  After completing passes to Ashmore and Thornton, Bollinger found Jason Scott in the endzone for the go-ahead touchdown.  VAPOR got the ball back with a chance to tie or take the lead, but pressure by C.J. Baker caused Mack to overthrow on the last play of the game.  The championship game would end with a final score of 12-6 in favor of ZIP EM UP.

The game was low-scoring, something that I wouldn’t have expected from these talented and high-powered offenses.  So it all came down to defense and that is where ZIP EM UP overtook VAPOR.  ZIP EM UP held VAPOR to zero points in the first half, something that hadn’t been down all season.  VAPOR’s inability to score was due to in part to the performance of Cornell Mack, who completed just 54.2% of his passes, and great defense by the trio of C.J. Baker, Bruce Thornton, and Kenny Ashmore.

ZIP EM UP outplayed VAPOR plain and simple and their solid performance earned them the victory.  With that being said, congratulations to both teams on great seasons and especially to ZIP EM UP on their IRON Championship title.