JPFF SemiIfnals 2011-12-18

In JPFF semi-final action at Yokohama Stadium, the Eastern Conference finalists were determined.

The Urawa Ulowers (!) won the first game, handily defeating the Davey Jones 25-0.

But the second game was much more interesting. As the sun set over the rim of the stadium, the Brandings kicked a FG as time expired to defeat the Setagaya Southland Raiders 10-7.


The Brandings led 7-0 at halftime, before a blocked punt was scooped up and run back for a TD by the Raiders.

The Raiders seemed in control for much of the second half, yet their offense was unable to put the ball in the end zone. Still, when Tataki intercepted an Ooshiro pass at midfield with just over 5 minutes remaining, they seemed ready for the victory. The Raiders drove into scoring position, but missed their FG attempt, giving the ball back to the Brandings for their final drive.

The Brandings were stopped at the Raiders 12 yard line in the final minute and lined up for a short FG. which was blocked. But the officials ruled that the Raiders had made illegal contact with the center, giving the Brandings a first down at the 6. A couple of runs failed to scored, so they lined up for a FG. The kick finally went through, and the Brandings moved on to the Eastern Championship game in Kawasaki on January 16th.

X-League Semi-Finals 2011-12-04 Yokohama Stadium

The Obic Seagulls will return to the Tokyo Dome once again to defend their X-Bowl title against the Fujtsu Frontiers, as they manhandled the Kajima Deers 45-20 in semi-final action on Sunday, while Fujitsu blasted the Nojima Rise 38-3.

The Seagull lines were dominant on both sides of the ball. OT Frank Fernandez said they took much of their game plan from watching Nojima in their victory a couple of weeks ago on the same field. "They like to stunt and blitz a lot, so we were able to run Power and get the running game rolling."

Obic scored on their opening drive, and went up 17-3 on a 42 yard pass from Sugawara to Furatani to on the final play of the first quarter. Sugawara was 16-26-1 for 203 yards; meanwhile Katoh and Ozaki went 16-39 and 4 interceptions, including three in the final quarter, dooming any real chance Kajima might have had at staging a comeback.

Vice-captain Kevin Jackson said, "We were disguising our coverages a bit and I think that confised them", said Jackson.

At one point, Kajima threatened to get back in the game. A 2nd quarter TD and a 3-and-out defensive stop, the Deers took over trailing 17-10. Jackson tipped a pass, and Mitsunori Kihara intercepted the ball at the Kajima 20. Two plays later, Sugawara scored on a 15-yard run, and Obic never needed look over its shoulder again.


The Seagulls outgained the Deers 193 to 156 yards on the ground. Furutani picked up 110 on 18 carries.


The second half didn't go much better for the Deers- they were able to manage one touchdown, Satoh going over from the 1 late in the 3rd quarter. But in the final period, they were stopped on downs once, and their final three drives ended with interceptions.

"Our defense is well-suited to what they do. early in the year we faced a lot of running teams, but today we were able to use our pass rush well", said Jackson.


In the second game, the Fujitsu Frontiers turned in a dominating performance to return to the X-Bowl for the second time in three years, defeating the Nojima Rise 38-3.

Despite a noticable size advantage, it was the Fujitsu Frontiers that outgained Nojima Rise 257 to 123 on the ground, and added 158 yards in the air.


Nojima actually struck first, taking the opening kickoff and marching down to the Fujitsu on 12 plays, setting for a 42-yard Idezawa field goal, what turned out to be the only points of the day for the Rise.

But Fujitu responded with a 65-yard drive in 7 plays, as Motoki Yoshida hit Brad Brennan in the corner of the end zone on a 22 yard scoring strike to make it 7-3. Nojima fumbled three plays later, Kosuke Kamiyama took it in from 7 yards out, and it remained 14-3 at halftime.

On the opening drive of the 2nd half, Fujitsu followed up a good return with a drive, Kon scored from a yard out on 4th and goal to make it 21-3. Kamiyama scored again on their next drive, as they went 79 yards in 5 plays, and the rout was on. Kamiyama finished with 117 and 2 TDs on 22 carries.

The Frontiers only need to throw 15 times in the game, completing 10 of them, as snaps were shared by Yoshida (4-6), Izuhara (5-8), and Hiramoto. Nojima's Kinoshita finished only 10-22 with 1 interception.

Brennan said, "alot of the credit goes to the defense- they've been playing really well".


Fujitsu has made it to the X-Bowl twice, in 2007 aND 2009 and lost both times. e Frontiers faced the Seagulls in the X-League championship game in 2002, a game won by the Seagulls 14-7.

Urban Football League 2011-11-27

In what tunred oout to be a tight game, the Battlehawks missed a 42-yard FG as time expired, and the Roebucks were able to hold on for a 14-13 victory. The Battlehawks had driven from their own 5-yard line with less than two minutes remaining.


The Battlehawks scored twice in the 4th Quarter, Qb Akira Yasushi throwing for one TD to Shinichiro Matsuo and running for another with three and a half minutes remaining. But the Battlehawks missed the extra point.

The Roebucks had scored twice in the 2nd quarter on a pair of turnovers- an interception by Kenta Watanabe returned for a touchdown to make it 7-0.

Then the Battlehawks recovered a fumble at midfield and scored late in the half to make it 14-0 at the half.

A long kick return by Yuichi Yamazaki was wasted when another Roebucks drive stalled, and the FG attempt from close range was wide.

X-League - November 2011

The four teams for the X-League playoffs have apparently been set, all of them based in Tokyo. It was a busy day in X-League action on Sunday, as the Panasonic Impulse and Kajima Deers suffered their first losses of the season. In action down in Kansai, the Obic Seagulls scored on an 18 yard pass from Sugawara to Kikuchi with 24 seconds remaining to defeat Asahi Soft Drinks 20-13 in a come from behind victory. In the second game there, after trailing 10-3 at halftime, Fujitsu scored three TDs in the second half to defeat the Panasonic Impulse, 24-10.

Meanwhile at Yokohama Stadium, the Nojima Sagamihara Rise continues their winning ways in their first year in the top division, defeating Kajima in overtime, 27-20.


Both teams moved the ball, but had trouble scoring for most of the contest. Each had problems hat prevented scores- Kajima in the red zone; and Nojima with 4 turnovers. Kajima hit their first FG, missed the next, and then had one blocked. On their next trip to the red zone, they decided to go for it on 4th down, but failed. The Rise led 13-3 at the half on a couple of FGs sandwiching a Sugihara TD. He finished with 104 yards on 19 carries in regulation. Nojima finished with 202 yards on the ground and 194 in the air as Kinoshita was 12-20 with three interceptions, and added another 52 yards on ten carries.



Meanwhile Katoh was 20-30 and Kojima went 6-11 for Kajima, combing for 287 yards, and they picked up 170 yards on the ground on 34 carries, Satoh with 12 of them for 76 yards.Kajima didn't find the end zone till 10:34 remained in the 4th quarter, scoring on a 49 yard pass from Katoh to Nakagawa. Nojima answered with a 5 minute drive and a TD of their own, Miyako scoring from the 1. But Kajima rallied once again, scoring on a 5 yard pass from Katoh to Nakagawa with 3:43 remaining and then recovering the onside kick. They drove into the red zone once again, as Nojima let the clock wind down, and Kajima kicked a 20-yard FG with 11 seconds remaining.

Nojima had the ball first in overtime, and scored when Sugihara took a screen pass in from 8 yards out. Then on first down Kajima threw incomplete. An ill-advised sack on second down was followed by a penalty, making it 3rd and 25 from the 40. Katoh tried to throw long, but it was intercepted by Kitamura near the goal line to seal the victory for the Rise.

Based on a complicated tie-breaking system that takes "strength of schedule" into account, Kajima will still get into the playoffs in spite of the loss. Nojima, formerly the Onward Skylarks, lost its sponsorship after the 2008 season and re-formed as the Sagamihara Rise, but was demoted to the third division and spent the 2009 and 2010 seasons moving up. They lost to Obic in the season opener 24-19, but have since reeled off six in a row.

November 12th

A glorious Indian Summer day at Kawasaki, with some of the "other" teams in X1 meeting in a
doubleheader of teams without wins. It would be the last game of the regular season. (Stage 2)
for the losers of each game.

Bullseyes Tokyo 17 Unisys Bulls 14
After a slow start, the Bullseyes scored 10 points in the 4th quarter to defeat the Bulls.
It was 4th quarter scrambling by Bullseye's QB Atsushi Ozawa that made the difference. Ozawa
picked up 41 yards on 9 runs, in addition to going 19-31-2 and 1 TD through the air for 206
yards. Machinori Fujisawa finished 12-22 with no INTs and 98 yards passing for Unisys.
The Bullseyes went three and out until Ozawa hit on Shota Katoh with a 23 yard TD pass for
the only score until late in the 3rd quarter. That's when Keita Saruwatari went in from 3 yards
out, capping a 9 play, 65 yard drive to tie the score at 7-7. Keita Saruwatari picked up 89 yards
and 1 TD rushing on 15 carries for the Bulls.
An 11 play drive earlier in the quarter resulted in a missed FG by Fumitaka Iseri for the Bulls that
would come back to haunt them.
Yuki Itano missed a 24-yarder on the Bullseyes' next possesion, which was followed by Ozawa's
2nd interception in 4 drives.
But then the Bullseyes scored on their next couple of six-play drives. Ozawa scored on a QB
draw with less than 3 minutes remaining to make it 17-7.
Unisys was able to drive and score quickly on a pass from Machinori Fujisawa to Yuichi Kondo to
make it 17-14 and generated some excitement when they recovered the ensuing kickoff; but
the ball did not travel the 10 yards necessary so the Bullseyes took over and ran out the clock.

All Tokyo Gas Creaters 41, Fuji-Xerox Minerva 28
In the second game, All Tokyo Gas came out(!) and dominated the first half, never punted,
scored on the first three drives of each half, and cruised easily to defeat Fuji-Xerox 41-28.
The Creators amassed 519 yards on offense (compared to 350 for Fuji-Xerox), outgaing them
on the ground (217 to 138) and in the air (299 to 212). QB Ryo Murata went 15-21 and 199
yards and was relieved by Atsushi Shibata (5-5) and Misasmitsu Den (2-6). Between them, they
completed passes to eight different receivers, and there were no interceptions. Toshihiro
Katusmi started for Fuji-Xerox and went only 4-12. Naoya Ichikawa was more effective in relief,
especially effective throwing to (#14) Tomohiro Hoshino who caught 10 passes for 126 yards,
and scored the final touchdown of the game.
Masashi Sakurai picked up 57 yards on the ground on three carries, and Shinsuke Jumonji
picked up 49 on seven carries for Tokyo Gas; Shinichi Maekawa led all rushers with 113 on 18
carries for the Minerva.
Tokyo Gas took the opening kickoff and scored on a six-play drive, then a couple of ten-play
drives resulting in a FG and another TD, and finally adding a FG with 4 seconds remaining in the
first half to make it 20-0. Another attempt earlier in the 2nd quarter bounced off the left upright,
wasting a 70 yard punt return by Fumitaka Obana, who was tackled short of the goal line.
(#21) Komori was impressive at CB for Fuji-Xerox, breaking up several passes.
In the second half, while they never really threatened the lead, Fuji-Xerox did open up a bit and
got on the board, scoring one in the 3rd quarter, then three TDs in the final frame to make the
score look respectable.
For their part Tokyo Gas did not take their proverbial foot off the proverbial- well, gas- as they
added three TDs of their own in the second half, and another FG attempt was blocked. The two
FG miscues and one fumble lost were the only black marks on an otherwise succesful day for
the Creaters.
The two winners of today's games will meet at Kawasaki next Saturday.