Obic wins 35th Pearl Bowl

The Obic Seagulls once again continued their recent mastery over the Fujitsu Frontiers, pulling away in the 4th quarter to win the 35th Pearl Bowl 31-10.

Obic started the scoring on a TD pass, an 18 yard end zone fade to Kentarou Mori from Shun Sugawara to make it 7-0 with 6:14 left in the first quarter. Each team kicked a field goal in the 2nd Quarter to make it 10-3 at halftime.
Fujitsu seemed to have momentum for most of the 2nd and 3rd quarters, moving the ball somewhat effectively on offense- mostly on the ground; and shutting down Obic nearly every time they tried to run wide. The Frontiers came out stronger in the 3rd quarter, as they returned the kickoff to the Obic 40 and drove to the 15, before missing a 32 yard FG.

The Seagulls went backwards on their next possession, and Fujitsu took over at the Obic 47. It took them four plays to get to the end zone, with Yuusuke Shinshi carrying the ball in from the 7 to tie the score. Obic responded on their next drive with a good return and a 12 play drive, but it stalled and ended with a missed FG.

But Fujitsu was not able to continue its success as a combination of bad breaks, and big plays by Furutani and Kinoshita put Obic back on top. Kinoshita took an end around 61 yards on an electrifying run as they scored with 2:33 left in the quarter to make it 17-10, and WR Shimizu hit Furutani on 40 yard pass on the first play of the 4th quarter put them up 24-10.



Nakanishi scored from 8 yards out to finish the scoring, making it 31-10 with 3:14 remaining.



Fujitsu was plagued by a couple of interceptions and numerous dropped passes as they went 12-30 and picked up only 87 yards in the air. They also suffered from atrocious punting, as Gotoh uncharacteristically shanked several punts that gave Obic a field position advantage throughout much of the game, including his first punt of only 11 yards, and the last which went but 15.

QBs Sugawara went 6-10 and Yoshida was 12-18 passing for the Seagulls, each throwing a TD pass. Obic enjoyed a 13 minute advantage in T.O.P., which is not surprising given the Frontiers' no-huddle offensive attack introduced last year. But Obic seemed less affected by it this year, the Seagulls head coach Makoto Ohashi admitting that Obic has been practicing specifically for Fujitsu all spring long, as they will have to go through them in the autumn to repeat- actually "three-peat"-  as X-League champions.

While they have enjoyed success in the X-Bowl over the last two years, the Seagulls won the Pearl Bowl for the first time since 2005. Kinoshita was named game MVP. In addition to his TD run, he had 5 catches for 40 yards and kick returns of 20 and 22 yards.

6/25 2012 Pearl Bowl

Arch-rivals Obic Seagulls and Fujitsu Frontiers meet once again on Monday night (June 25th) in the 2012 Pearl Bowl at Tokyo Dome. Kickoff is at 7 PM. In the semi-finals Fujitsu dominated the Nojima Rise 31-6. Obic defeated the Kajima Deers in a shootout 47-31.

The Pearl Bowl crowns the X-League's Kanto area division I champion for the spring season (the Impulse took the Green Bowl for the Kansai title).  

Tickets are 1,500 yen in advance and 2,000 yen at the door. Seating is non-reserved and children up to high school age are admitted free. The doors will open at 5 PM.

JPFF playoffs 2012-1-14

The Urawa Ulowers(!) will meet the Brandings in the Eastern Championship game on January 29th.

Urawa was able to hold off the Kawasaki Grizzlies in the first game, winning 19-14 on a late interception.

In the second game. The Tachikawa Falcons scored first, and The Brandings trailed at half-time 7-6, but came back with a big second half to defeat the Falcons 32-7.

The winner of the Eastern championship game will meet the western champion in February. The JPFF championship game is the latest of all leagues in Japan.

Rice Bowl LXV

January 3rd (Tuesday)
Kansai Gakuin vs. Obic Seagulls
14:00 Kickoff at The Big Egg (Tokyo)

2011 Japan X-Bowl

2011-12-19 Japan X-Bowl


Three quick, deadly strikes by Noriaki Kinosita in five plays struck mortal blows to the championship hopes of the Fujitsu Frontiers, and were the difference in another nerve-wracking tight X-Bowl battle between the Obic Segulls and the the Frontiers. Despite being out-performed and out-gained most of the night, the Seagulls prevailed 24-17.

Fujitsu seemed in command for most of the ball game, leading at halftime 7-3, and when a 31-yard Fujitsu FG put them up 10-3 with 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, it looked like that might be all they need.

But Kinoshita took the kickoff, split the coverage and went 98 yards for a touchdown. The extra point attempt missed to the left. Yusuke Kaneoya had also missed his first FG attempt,, before hitting a 21 yarder on their next and last possession of the first half.

After Kinoshita's electrifying return the Obic fans regained their excitement. The two teams traded 3-and-outs. Then Obic struck deep several times, going 87 yards in just 4 plays- the last 10 on a WR screen to Kinoshita, They followed that up with a trick play 2-point conversion on a fake dive pass from TB Takuya Furutani to TE Akimitsu Mori to take a 17-10 lead with 10:30 remaining.
On the first play of their next possession, Sugawara struck again on a 66-yard bomb to Kinoshita, sending the Fujitsu fans into shock and dismay.

Early in the game, both teams moved the ball on runs up the middle and several scrambles. Karl Noa admitted they did not have a man accounting for the QB.

Fujtsu led the game in almost every statistic, out-gaining Obic 365 to 337 and leading in time of possession by 7-1/2 minutes in spite of their no huddle offense.

"Their no huddle seemed to throw us out of our rhythm" said Noa. "We couldn't substitute, and it definitely had an affect on us", said Jackson. "But we got some hits on their QB, and that made a difference in the end".


All three foreign Seagulls expressed sympathy for Brad Brennan, who once again came close, but failed to make it to the Rice Bowl. "Brad played an awesome game," they all agreed.


Obic seemed intent on stopping the Fronteir's Takeshi Akiyama, and Brad capitalized. Brennan had 9 catches for 128 yards- big catches several on third and long, whether over the middle, on the sideline or on WR screens. Brennan had three catches on the final drive, as Fujitsu drove down to the Obic 11 ib the final minute. Three straight incompletions brought up 4th down. Brennan was able to work himself open in the end zone, but Izuhara's pass was off the mark. Izuhara finished 19-34 with 1 interception.

Kinoshita barely topped Brennan with 129 yards on 5 catches (the last two for TDs), while Ryoma Hagiyama had 8 catches for 91 yards for Obic.

The Fronteirs did a good job of containing Sugawara and the Seagulls- Sugawra picked up only 10 yards on the ground, while Furutani finished with 13 carries for 50 yards. But after a mediocre first three quarters, Sugawara's last four passes went for 43, 24, 10, and 66 (the last for TDs) so he finished 18-23 with no interceptions.

"They were doing a lot of different things," said Obic LG Frank fernandea, "but they always do" "We saw that they were trying to cover the best receiver in the league 1-on-1, so we decided to take advantage of that," added Fernandez.

While no surprise, the Fronteir's no-huddle attack gave the Seagulls some problems.
"we couldn't make substitutions like we wanted," Noa said. Both Noa and Jackson felt that some of the hits they put on the QB took their toll.

Jackson added that he will look forward to playing KG, as their offensive coordinator "is the same guy who brought me to Japan" when he was coaching for the Saeagulls.


When asked what he thought was the biggest factor in the game, Jackson said, "you know, momentum is such big factor in this league." Obic seemed to make it count the most.