Eirball.ie – Irish Gridiron Football

Recap

Rice Bowl 75 – 3 January 2022

With no scoring in the first quarter the second was a blaze of scoring as first Panasonic’s Shintaro Seiki kicked a 34 yard Field Goal to give the Impulse the lead, making up for a 31 yard miss on the opening drive. Fujitsu Frontiers responded with a 56 yard Bomb from Quarterback Tsubasa Takagi to Wide Receiver Rimi Matsui to the 3 yard line.

Takagi ran it into the endzone himself on the next play to put Frontiers 7-0 up. A combination of another long pass from Takagi to Matsui and a Treyshawn Nixon run brought Fujitsu to the 11 yard line, where Takagi made a successful 11 yard Touchdown pass up the center to Matsui.  

Not wanting to go further behind in the first half Panasonic replied with a 46 yard pass from Anthony Lawrence to Leonsha Fields putting them in good field position. A pass to Running Back Mitchell Victor Jamo put the Impulse on the 7 yard line whereby Lawrence found an unmarked Fields for a Touchdown. Fields added a two-point conversion to make the score 11-14 at the half to Fujitsu.

The third quarter the teams cancelled each other out defensively, until Lawrence made it to the 6 yard line where he pump action faked before a reversal touchdown pass to an unmarked Takado Kido in the center of the endzone. The score was now 18-14 Panasonic

The fourth Quarter, however, belonged to Fujitsu. On a drive that began in the third quarter, Takagi marched to the three yard line with a pass to WR Kyohei Okaji before plunging over the line himself for his second touchdown of the day making it 21-18 to Frontiers. 

Panasonic, not to be beat marched straight down the other end with good passes from Lawrence to Kido and Brennan (an Irish name [25][26]). However, Mitchell fumbled the ball on the goalline and Fujitsu’s Defensive Back Atsushita Fujita recovered in the endzone. 

With the ball turned over the momentum was now with Frontiers and RB Nixon, from his own 24 yard line ran 50 yards, a series which culminated with a 29 yard Fujitsu Field Goal to stretch the lead to 24-18. 

With one last chance to win the game but on 4th and 1 Lawrence’s pass to Brennan for the first down failed and Frontiers were triumphant, winning their sixth Rice Bowl, and fifth in 6 years.

WR Matsui who caught 5 passes for 124 yards and 1 touchdown was named MVP (Most Valuable Player)

Official Match Report: Reference: [24] Video Footage: [23]

Scoring

1st Quarter

No Scoring

2nd Quarter

PI – Shintaro Seiki 34yd FG [3-0]

FF – Tsubasa Takagi 2yd Run (PAT Kick Good) [3-7]

FF – Rimi Matsui 11yd Pass from Tsubasa Takagi (PAT Kick Good) [3-14]

PI – Leonsha Fields 7yd Pass from Anthony Lawrence (Fields 2xp) [11-14]

3rd Quarter

PI – Takato Kido 6yd Pass from Anthony Lawrence (:PAT Kick Good) [18-14]

4th Quarter

FF – Tsubasa Takagi 3yd Run (PAT Kick Good) [18-21]

FF – 29yd FG [18-24]

REFERENCES

IMAGES

[1] X-League (2020) logo_xleague [Internet] Available from: https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/xleague/images/logo_xleague.jpg [Accessed 7 March 2021]

STANDINGS

[2] X-League (2021) Standings [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/standing [Accessed 30 November 2021] [3] X-League (2021) Score [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/score [Accessed 4 August 2021]   [7] X-League (2021) Fujitsu Frontiers [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/team/fujitsu [Accessed 4 August 2021] [8] X-League (2021) Obic Seagulls Profile [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/team/obic [Accessed 4 August 2021] [9] X-League (2021) Panasonic Impulse [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/team/impulse [Accessed 4 August 2021] [10] X-League (2021) Elecom Kobe Finies [Internet] Available from:https://xleague.jp/team/elecom [Accessed 4 August 2021] [11] X-League (2021) IBM Big Blue [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/team/ibm [Accessed 4 August 2021] [12] X-League (2021) Tokyo Gas Creators [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/team/tokyogas  [Accessed 4 August 2021] [13] X-League (2021) All-Mitsubishi Lions [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/team/hel-lions [Accessed 4 August 2021] [14] X-League (2021) Nojima Sagamihara Rise [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/team/rise [Accessed 4 August 2021] [14] UC Davis Aggies (2013) Jimmy Laughrea [Internet] Available from: https://ucdavisaggies.com/sports/football/roster/jimmy-laughrea/1198 [Accessed 7 March 2021] [15] UC Davis Aggies (2018) Jimmy Laughrea-9150487 [Internet] Available from: https://ucdavisaggies.com/images/2018/5/18/9150487.jpeg?width=300 [Accessed 7 March 2021] [16] Japan Times, Hiroshi Ikezawa (2020) New Obic Seagulls Quarterback Jimmy Laughrea adjusts to fatherhood and preparing for unique season [Internet] Available from: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2020/06/07/more-sports/football/new-obic-quarterback-jimmy-laughrea-adjusts-fatherhood-preparing-unique-season/ [Accessed 7 March 2021] [21] X-League (2021) Official Score [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/standing#001 [Accessed 14 November 2021]

[22] X-League (2022) Fujitsu wins 6th Rice Bowl in 2 Years [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/news/27801 [Accessed 4 January 2022]

[23] Mike Tackett’s You Tube Channel (2022) Rice Bowl 75: Fujitsu Frontiers vs Panasonic Impulse (2022) watch?v=AihsYDoKDUg [Accessed 4 January 2022][Actual Reference at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AihsYDoKDUg ][Accessed 4 January 2022]

[24] X-League (2022) Fujitsu wins Japan’s newest rice bowl for the first time in two years after defeating Panasonic [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/news/27812 [Accessed 4 January 2022]

[25] Geo Geneology Blogspot (2021) Surname Map of Ireland [Internet] Available from: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_113fxT1SuFI/TBWY-7CEqSI/AAAAAAAAAFk/p52N4tTBoXs/s1600/irish_large.jpg [Accessed 4 January 2022]

[26] Library Ireland (2022) O’Braonain  [Internet] Available from: https://www.libraryireland.com/names/ob/o-braonain.php [Accessed 4 January 2022]  

ICON REFERENCES

[17] X-League (2021) fujitsu [Internet] Available from: https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/xleague/images/team/icon/fujitsu.png [Accessed 4 August 2021] [18] X-League (2021) obic [Internet] Available from: https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/xleague/images/team/icon/obic.png [Accessed 4 August 2021] [19] X-League (2021) impulse [Internet] Available from: https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/xleague/images/team/icon/impulse.png [Accessed 4 August 2021] [20] X-League (2021) elecom [Internet] Available from: https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/xleague/images/team/icon/elecom.png [Accessed 4 August 2021] [21] X-League (2021) ibm [Internet] Available from: https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/xleague/images/team/icon/ibm.png [Accessed 4 August 2021] [22] X-League (2021) tokyogas [Internet] Available from: https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/xleague/images/team/icon/tokyogas.png [Accessed 4 August 2021] [23] X-League (2021) hel-lions [Internet] Available from: https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/xleague/images/team/icon/hel-lions.png  [Accessed 4 August 2021] [24] X-League (2021) rise [Internet] Available from: https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/xleague/images/team/icon/rise.png [Accessed 4 August 2021]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to John Gunning (Japan Times and American Football international).

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive Last Updated: 13 December 2021 (c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2021 You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved.The Logos and Photos used in this article remain the property of the organisations and individuals which own the copyright and are used here for educational and information purposes only.