Las Vegas, Nevada -- After a grueling campaign that had all kinds of unexpected results, the Evansville Fightin' Squirrels and Los Angeles Predators made their way to Las Vegas to play for the OIFLCup Championship.

After numerous close encounters with glory, Evansville let long-time head coach Tony Dungy go after the 2008 season, and replaced him with the OIFL's most decorated coach, former Gargoyle boss Eric Geno.

Before the game, Geno noted his history in the league: "I've been a few places and we've had a lot of success. You must look back on what you know, but you can't dwell on it."

Geno installed his famed Third Coast Offense with the Squirrels, and they didn't look back, compiling a 14-2 record and winning the East with the #1 seed.

Los Angeles, on the other hand, wasn't expected to make much noise. The former Georgia Rhinos franchise had a career 0-4 record in the playoffs coming into this year, and even though they earned the #2 seed, not much was expected from them.

Predators head coach Marc Bonar (who coached Dodge City to the OIFLCup Game in 2008) noted this in his pregame presser: "The team needed a bit of stability and just one last spark. We got that with Tommy (QB Maddox). He wants this thing more than anyone I know."

1) Rocky Mountain

2) Tucson

3) Texas

4) New England

5) Evansville

6) Kansas City

7) Long Island

8) Tampa Bay

9) San Antonio

10) Vancouver Island

11) Houston

12) St. Louis

13) Los Angeles

14) Spokane

15) Venice

16) Buffalo

17) Cincinnati

18) Fort Dodge

19) DC

20) Portland

21) Detroit

22) Cedar Valley

23) San Fransico

24) Washington

25) San Diego

What does OIFLCup experience mean? From Los Angeles RB/LB Bill Long (who has been to numerous OIFLCup Games), "This is a wild atmosphere. It's as big as any event in this country. You have to be level-headed, and you have to make good on your potential." Long, the starting RB/LB for the 2002 OIFLCup Champion Miami Maulers and OIFLCup V runners-up Cleveland Thunderbolts, has been to the promised land. "It's just awesome. The team's not there, the players aren't there, but we did it. We all remember it. We will always remember it. Winning the OIFLCup stays with you forever. And I want another one.".

Squirrels QB Riley Pennington, brother of the league's most prolific passer, knows how important a ring is to not only him and Evansville, but his family.

After a grueling West Final in San Antonio, the banged up Predators look to forget all of the pain in OIFLCup IX. "It hurts, but winning's a good hurt," said Maddox. "It doesn't matter how much it hurts; we've got months to rest and heal up. I hear that ring is magical - you forget about the pain when you've got it."

"Brice has all the records and all the accolades, but I want to be able to show him my left index finger with a big ring on it. He can have numbers. I want a championship."

Riley's Squirrels had to beat Brice's Long Island Mean Machine to get to this point, and they did so by way of a potentially questionable illegal defense call. "Doesn't matter. Water under the bridge," he said.

"I'm sure Mean Machine fans feel they got screwed. I wish I cared. Every game has bad calls, and we overcame ours."

Can the Squirrels overcome one more tough opponent? If they do, they will be the first Eastern Conference Champion to win the OIFLCup Game since Geno's original team, Detroit, won two.

"It's not a conference thing, I don't get into that nonsense," said Geno, "but it is pretty unreal that we won the first four (OIFLCup II would have been won by an East team if the league had conferences) and haven't had one since. I'd like to fix that, but not because I care about the conferences."

The OIFLCup Game will be played quarter by quarter throughout the week, with the Fourth Quarter (and overtime, if necessary), played out play by play on the last OIFL weekly chat of the ninth OIFL campaign. Don't miss it!

It's said Eric Geno has been the most successful coach in OIFL history. However, he could also be noted as the coach with the most failure in league history, too. Geno leads the league all-time with three home playoff losses, and each one stings. "We were the better team all three times, and my coaching helped blow it each time. I don't want to repeat that." Geno hopes to avoid failure in his fourth trip to the OIFLCup Game, where he is 2-1 as a head coach (won OIFLCup III, IV, lost OIFLCup VII).