The Hokkaido champion Otaru Tomahawks tied KCFA A Block champion Hosei at 7-all on a 45 yard return by Takumi Sekine of a blocked punt midway through the first quarter. But then the Hosei offense went to work, scoring touchdowns on their next five possessions, and led 41-10 at halftime.
On the day they ran the ball 48 times for 419 yards, including 117 yards on 17 carries from Kentaro Katoh (including the first and last TDs of the game), and 98 yards on 11 carries from freshman Tetsuo Ikeda. QB's Yamaguchi and Takajima went 10-12 passing at one point, and combined for 159 yards and 3 TDs. They controlled the ball on a couple of five minute drives in the 4th quarter, and Otaru had little chance.Otaru's impressive standout was their TE and kicker Tadashi Iwasaki (#81 junior), who boomed kickoffs to the endzone (even after a 5-yard penalty), and kicked a 47-yard field goal at the end of the first half, and then kicked a 52-yarder early in the 3rd. That is unofficially a Clash Bowl record. The junior TE also caught 3 passes for 47 yards.
Not to be outdone, Waseda's Tomokazu Suehiro (RB #30) scored three TD's in the first half, and led 41-6 at half-time as the KCFA B Block surprise champion Big Bears defeated the Tohoku champion Sendai Silver Falcons 59-12. Suehiro finished with 119 yards on 10 carries. Waseda QBs Haga and Hirono only completed 3 passes (on 9 attempts), but finished with 353 yards total offense, double the output of the Silver Falcons offense.
The Big Bears defense was dominant, led by Ryo Takada's 4 tackles and Scott Duffy (#99 jr, from Huntington Beach, CA) at NG, his very conspicuous in his pink tape-wrapped shoes ("they ran out of black", he explained). The second half was fielded mostly by 2nd and 3rd teamers for Waseda.The standout- literally- for Sendai was their tall (198cm) TE/WR/P/DL (#86) Kohei Okajima. Sendai had some success getting the junior open deep against much shorter defenders, though for some reason, the Silver Falcons kept trying to throw him a lot of Outs. He ended up with 4 catches for 60 yards, in addition to 5 punts for 157 yards (31.4 average). RB Hironobu Marui (#22 sr) impressed the Big Bears, with 66 yards on 10 carries. Junior QB Sasuga Yoshida was 10-20 passing for 96 yards.
The score should have been closer, but the Silver Falcons self-destructed several times in the red zone- giving up penalties and sacks and mistakes after driving to first and goal.
While the teams from the north were obviously not yet prepared for the speed and strength of the Kanto teams, everyone seems agreed that this game and new format is a positive first step to creating more nation-wide interest in football in Japan.
