2014 Japan X Bowl

The monkey is finally off their back With the Seagulls no longer in their way, the Fujitsu Frontiers finally sailed to the 28th X League championship, the top level of American Football in Japan.

Before a crowd of over 25,000 at the Big Egg. the Frontiers overwhelmed the IBM Big Blue 44-10.  They will meet K.G.- the top collegiate team- in  the Rice Bowl on January 3rd.

The Frontiers had lost all five of their appearances in the final going back to 2002, including four appearances in the previous eight.   This year snapped the Obic Seagull's four year reign at the top of the X-Leage.

Harvard alum Gino Gordon (Harvard) ran for four TDs for Fujitu and was named the game's MVP.

American QBs (Colby Cameron and Kevin Craft) started for both teams, in a game that featured a good deal of short passing and crisp tackling, until the defenses began to tire.

Craft (SDSU/UCLA) opened for the Big Blue by throwing and connecting on his first four passes.  But then a pass in the flat was intercepted by Shinya Miki and returned 45 yards for a Pick-6, and Fujitsu never trailed.  Craft would do on to throw two more interceptions in the first half.  A fake FG attempt by IBM in the second half was also intercepted.

Craft said he was showing the effects from several injuries, and felt that he couldn't move and avoid the rush the way he wanted, but gave most of the credit to Fujitsu.  "There was always someone in my face. They're real good, and they have a lot of depth. Of course they have great palyers and resources."

Fujitsu added a FG at the end of their first offensive drive.  Another interception on IBM's subsequent  play from scrimmage gave the Frontiers the ball at the Big Blue 12 yard line. Gordon scored the first of his four touchdowns on the next play, and it was quickly 16-0 halfway through the 1st quarter after James Brooks blocked the extra point conversion.

IBM was able to sustain an 80 yard drive early in the 2nd quarter, scoring on a 5 yard pass from Craft to John Stanton (St. John's) to make it 16-7.  It looked like the tide had turned when the Big Blue were able to make a 4th down stop on the Frontier's next series, but another interception was followed another short drive and a TD run by Gordon, and it was 23-7 at the half. Gordon finished with 17 carries for 112 yards.

Most IBM drives were repeatedly  stalled by sacks and mistakes, due in no small part to relentless pressure from Fujitsu. Craft went 23-40, 235 yards and one TD, but it was the three interceptions that really made the difference.  John Stanton had 8 catches for 47 yards.

 Satoshi Tagawa finished the game for IBM throwing 9-10, but their final drive ended just short of the goal line as the clock ran out.

Colby Cameron was 13-21 for 115 yards and no interceptions, and Keiya Hiramoto finished 6-9 for 106 yards for the  Frontiers.

After the game:

Craft:

"We thought we could throw the ball...and they were gassed, they were calling timeouts on defense.  But [we made] too many turnovers and mistakes."

"They did some things we hadn't seen on film" playing Cover, 2 etc.

Gino Gordon:

Who has relatives in Japan, says he hopes to be able to stay at least  one more year, "but that's gonna depend on my girlfriend."

Fujitsu has had difficulty finishing strong in big games in the past, and carried that unfortunate reputation.  That seems to have finally been corrected.
"It was great to finish.  That has been a point of emphasis this year- shorter practices, but more intense, American style."

X-Bowl 2013

One again, the Fujitsu Frontiers were  unable to take the top prize in football in Japan, and the Obic Seagulls return to the Rice Bowl as X League champions.

A highly entertaining- though often sloppy- 27th Japan X-Bowl thrilled the 22,488 who looked on.  At key moments the crowd was as loud as any I can remember in the Big Egg.

Fujitsu won the toss, but their luck soon turned bad. #12 QB Keiya Hiramoto was injured on a flying sack, and the Frontiers turned the ball  three of the first five times they had the ball. #18 Akihiro Izuhara took over for the injured Hiramoto, and on their second possession a strip sack gave Obic the ball on the Fujitsu 34 yard line. Four plays later #6 Shun Sugawara hit #18 Noriaki Kinoshita on well-timed 14 yard slant for a TD, though missed the extra point was missed.

A couple of drives later Obic marched 82 yards in 11 plays, scoring on a HB Option Pass from #20 Takuya Furutani to #89 Akimitsu Mori.  The replay clearly showed that Mori juggled the ball and did not gain possession until after his knee had struck out of bounds, but Japan does not allow for instant replay to overturn calls, so the TD stood. The Seagulls successfully went for two to make it 14-0 at 12:55 in the 2nd quarter, and #1 Yusuke Kaneoya added a field goal later in the half to cap another 11 play drive, and so it was 17-0 at half time.

It should have been a much worse for Fujitsu, Izuhara seemed rattled, threw an interception to #25 Keizaburo Ichikawa, who returned it 56 yards to the Frontier six yard line; later a fumble by RB #20 Keita Takanohashi  at their 22.  But Obic failed to capitalize in both cases, Sugawara throwing an interception of his own from the three yard line on second down; and again from the three after the fumble, as #40 Al-Rilwan Adeyami stripped Sugawara of the ball into the end zone.  Adeyami tried to run it out, but officials gave them a touchback.  Here again the officials seemed to miss the call- the replay seemed to show Sugawara's knee was down just short of the goal line before the ball came out.

Throughout the half, Fujitsu had tried unsuccessfully to run wide, and Izuhara seemed uncomfortable doing anything other than throw to the flat and the corner.  #11 Kevin Jackson was an especially disruptive force coming off the edge hampering the Frontier running game and with the pass rush.

Obic Head Coach Makoto Ohashi said he  told his defense before the game and  at half-time to be patient and have confidence in themselves and in the game plan, which for the most part, seemed to work well.





The second half didn't start much better for the Frontiers- Obic crossed midfield before punting.  Hiramoto returned to QB for Fujitsu, only to be tipped and intercepted by DL Byron  Beatty at the 32 and returned all the way to the Fujitsu four. 

On the next play, Sugawara found #85 Ryoma Hagiyama in the end zone to amke it 24-0 midway throught the third quarter. 


Izuhara and the Frontiers seemed to get some confidence back, mixing inside runs and passes, and were finally able to get on the board with  a 37 yard Hidetetsu Nishimura field goal to make it 24-3 with 5:37 left in the third quarter.

Adeyami made a nice interception of Sugawara early in the fourth quarter, and Izuhara marched the Frontiers 61 yards down to a score, throwing to TE #48 Eiji Shjiraki from four yards out, to make it 24-9.  Inexplicably, Fujitsu went for two here and failed.

[Had the first score been a TD rather than a FG, a two point conversion might have been understandable- 3x8=24, thereby meaning only two more "scores" would be required, though expecting to convert two-point conversions three times is something of a long shot.  24-10 Fujitsu would have meant Fujitsu could try for two later; or just go into overtime, as if they were that fortunate to tie it  up with two 7 point scores in the fourth quarter, Obic's defense would likely be rather tired, giving Fujitsu pretty good odds in overtime.]

Obic went three and out, and Fujitsu took over with 6:38 left took eight plays (and two timeouts) to go 55 yards, with Izuhara keeping the ball on fourth and goal to score and kicked to make it 24-16 with 2:23 remaining. 

The onside kick failed, Obic took over near midfield and ran the ball three times, and then Fujitsu called their final time out with 44 seconds remaining.  Kaneoya's punt was partially blocked, no Frontier dared handle it, and the ball dropped and continued spinning at the  Fujitsu 31 yard line, surrounded by Seagulls disciplined enough not to touch it.  17 seconds had expired before the official finally blew the play dead. 

Working without timeouts, Izuhara was able to move the Frontiers across midfield, suddenly unafraid to use middle crossing routes, eventually hitting #22 Junpei Yoshimoto who reached the Seagull 36 with for a first down with 3 seconds remaining.  Fujitsu was able to line up and spike the ball, giving them one second on the clock.

Ohashi inserted Kinoshita and other athletes for the anticipated Hail Mary, which the Seagull defenders were able to knock down, and once again come away with the victory.  He said they had practiced that, figuring that the game was very likely to come down to such a play.



[The half time show was...some short J-pop idol which is something I hardly know anything about.  I am pretty sure she would say the same about American Football.]


Foreign players featured prominently in the game. Besides Byron Beatty's  big interception and return for the Seagulls, Kevin Jackson was chosen MVP, and Al-Rilwan Adeyami of Fujitsu was awarded MIP. 






Obic will face Kwansei Gakuin in the Rice Bowl on January 3rd.  KG defeated Nihon University 23-9 on Sunday in the Koshien Bowl.

2013 X-League Pearl Bowl

After spotting the Fujitsu Frontiers a 10-0 lead at halftime, the Kajima Deers took control in the second half and prevailed 17-10, in Japan's 36th Pearl Bowl.

The Frontiers went up and had opportunities to go out to a big lead in the first half, but squandered too many opportunities.  Fujitsu bested Kajima 18-14 in first downs; 275-207 in passing; and 361-308 in total yards, but could not hold on to their early lead, nor rally at the end, once again falling short.

Fujitsu won the toss, and elected to receive (most Japanese teams choose not to defer).  They started their opening drive with three straight swing passes, and continued to work the edges and flats. Keiya Hiramoto then hit Shimpei Yoshimoto up the seam for 25 yards, and Fujitsu was in business, and they began to move the ball on the ground. 5 minutes in they had scored, Yusuke Shinshi running it in from 7 yards out.
Kajima used their superior size to move into Fujitsu territory , but Daisuke Aoki's 47 yard FG attempt was blocked by Paul Yasui rushing up the middle.


Fujitsu quickly drove and threatened to score again, but a short 22-yard FG attempt missed.

A Frontiers blitz put the Deers in poor field position, and the punt was returned to the Kajima 40.  Fujitsu drove down, and the next FG attempt was successful, making it 10-0 early in the 2nd quarter.

The Frontiers began to wear down the Deers defense, as Kajima began to miss tackles, trying to make arm tackles from out of position.   Another Fujitsu drive got them close, but a sack resulted in another kick wide by Daichi Gotoh, so the score remained 10-0 at halftime.

Kajima went to work quickly in the second half, moving the ball through the air on a brisk drive, (#10) Takuya Yamashiro hitting (#11) Naoki Maeda going straight up the sideline for a 29 yard TD to make it 10-7. 
The next time they had the ball, from midfield (#81) Yasuhiro Miyamoto caught a shallow cross and outran most of the Fujitsu defense, finally knocked out of bounds at the 5. On 3rd down, (#25) Yujiro Iwai caught the ball on a double slant near the end-line, appearing to step out, but it was ruled a TD, to give Kajima the lead 14-10.  Fujitsu was suddenly on its heels, after dominating the first half.

Kajima LB #37 Kenjiro Ohodate finished with a game-high 11 tackles.

Both teams used the shallow cross and check-downs frequently in the second half, until Kajima had the lead late, when they hit a couple of corner routes to move the ball into field goal position, where ## converted to make it 17-10 with 2:35 remaining.

Fujitsu would not down easily, however.  Starting from their own 23 after the kickoff, they  moved the ball past midfield, helped out by a face mask penalty.  But after moving into Kajima territory and looking like they had a good chance to possibly tie the game and take it into overtime, Hiramoto, who had such strong first half, suddenly began to feel the pressure.  On second down, instead of throwing the ball away, he attempted to scramble and was sacked for a loss of 15.  They were able to make up half of the distance on 3rd down, but his 4th down pass sailed over the head of his receiver on a short throw, and Kajima took over on downs to run out the clock.


The crowd was officially announced as 19,250.

X-League 2013 Pearl Bowl preview

The Kajima Deers will take on the Fujitsu Frontiers in the 36th Pearl Bowl title game on Monday, 6/24 at Tokyo Dome (aka The Big Egg).

Each team had to overcome big rivals on the way to game, the spring season championship for the top teams in X-League Kanto action.

Fujitsu defeated arch-nemesis Obic 31-13 in a mistake filled game, on May 25th.  The Frontiers held the Seagulls to -21 yards rushing on 37 carries, while former Nihon University QB Keiya Hiramoto has come on this spring to lead the Frontiers.  The win broke Obic's 37 game winning streak, going back to 2010.

The next day, Kajima scored early, then pulled away late, as the Deers beat the Rise 27-12. The Rise bested the Deers both on the ground and in the air, but they settled for a rushing  touchdown and three field goals, while Takuya Yamashiro made their drives count more, connecting for three TD passes.

Both teams hope to use the spring season to propel them to an X-League championship and Rice Bowl berth in the fall.  The Deers defeated the Frontiers twice last year, once in regular season and again in the playoffs at Yokohama Stadium, by a 24-14 score. Kajima then suffered a painful 27-24 loss to Obic in the Japan X Bowl.

Fujitsu last won the Pearl Bowl in 2010, while Kajima took their 9th title in 2009.

Tickets are 1,500円 in advance; 2000円 the day of the game. 
http://www.xleague.com/ticket/


Cheerleaders?

There will be cheerleaders.  Possibly wet ones.

Kickoff will be at 7 PM. 

Japan loses to Canada (again) in IFAF U-19 semi-final

In a game where the Japanese team bested Canada in yardage and time of possession, Canada still found a way to defeat Japan in the IFAF Under-19 championship semifinal, held this year in Austin Texxas, by a 33-24 score.  A last minute touchdown won the game for Canada in the semifinal match in 2009- that game ended 38-35.


Japan recieved the opening kickoff and scored first, but Canada cam back and tied the score on the kickoff return for a TD.  A pick-6 put Japan up 14-7.

Japan trailed 23-14 at halftime, as Japan was plagued by 4 interceptions in the first half.

Strangely, Japan also recieved the 2nd half kickoff, and its initial drive ended with a 31-yad Ariwa FG to pull within a touchdown.

Ikuma Mitsuwa came up with an interception on Canada's next drive.  But Japan returned the favor. 

Japan was able to bring it to within 2 when Kishimura scored on a keeper.  But a 97 yard drive by Canada and a TD on a QB keepers by Hugo Richard put Canada back up
33-24.

Japan was able to cross midfield in the last two minutes, but the drive stalled there, and Canada ran out the clock.

Canada moves on to the Gold medal game saturday to face the winner of the USA-Austria matchup; Japan will be in the Bronze medal game to face the loser.