Behind the passing of quarterback Kurt Palandech, the Nojima Sagamihara Rise broke open a tight football game at Fujitsu Stadium Kawasaki against the Pleiades Fukuoka Suns with four second half touchdowns to cruise to a 42-21 win.
Palandech threw for 343 yards and five touchdowns, three to Tay Cunningham, while also running one in himself in the victory. Cunningham caught six passes in total for 207 yards in a dominating performance.
Still it was Pleiades Fukuoka that struck first as quarterback Atsuya Handa connected with wide receiver Takato Ito in the corner of the end zone from 11 yards out to give the Suns a 7-0 lead with just under seven minutes left in the opening period.
The Rise answered as Palandech marched his team down to the Pleiades one yard line and then called his own number to score and tie the game at 7-7 with a minute left in the quarter.
Then the Suns defense rose up as cornerback Ren Shinozaki picked off Palandech at the Rise 40 yard line and returned it all the way to the four. Handa hit receiver Yuki Iwanaga in the back of the end zone to regain the lead for Pleiades, 14-7.
However, Nojima Sagamihara tied the game up just before the half. With just over a minute left, Palandech first found a gap and raced from the Suns 38 down to the eight. Then he connected with receiver Sorato Ohtani in the right corner of the end zone for the tying touchdown.
The second half was almost all Nojima.
On the first play of the third quarter, Palandech threw a 61-yard touchdown pass to Cunningham. Two minutes later, he found running back Sho Yoshizawa for a 28 yard gain down to the Suns 11 yard line. Then on a third and eight from the eight he hit Cunningham again to extend the lead to 28-14.
Pleiades did narrow the gap early in the fourth as backup quarterback Kazuki Irisa hit a wide open Jiei Joshiro for a 23 yard touchdown.
Palandech responded on the next possession finding Junpei Gimoto for a 10 yard score to make it 35-21 with five minutes to go.
A last gasp pass from Irisa was picked off by Rise defensive back Koichiro Yamaguchi on the goal line with under a minute remaining. Then, from his own 19 yard line and with 30 seconds on the clock, Palandech found Cunningham in behind the Suns secondary and lofted a perfect pass to the speedy receiver who ran untouched to the end zone.
With the win, Nojima Sagamihara improves to 3-1-1 and sit in fourth place while PLEIADES Fukuoka remains winless and in last place in the standings.
