Behind a dominant ground game, the Sekisui Challengers defeated the Tokyo Gas Creators 21-0 this past weekend at Yanmar Stadium Nagai in Osaka, Japan to advance to the X1 Super Rice Bowl Tournament (RBT) semifinals.

The Challengers racked up 182 yards and two touchdowns rushing with running back Shu Endo leading the way with 16 carries for 69 yards and a touchdown. Teammate Rikuto Yamada rushed for 66 yards and quarterback Garrett Saffron 42 yards and another score. Saffron also threw for 172 yards and a touchdown. Sekisui’s defense did its job limiting Tokyo to -5 yards rushing and 106 yards passing. Tokyo quarterback Jerod Evans (former Fehervar Enthroners QB) was sacked multiple times and managed just 79 yards passing.

Sekisui set the tone on their very first possession with Saffron marching his team on an 82 yard drive which ate up nine minutes, finally handing off to Endo who punched the ball in from two yards out to give the Challengers a 7-0 lead.

The Creators were held scoreless on the next possession with Sekisui taking over early in the second stanza. Saffron moved his team from midfield down to the Tokyo seven yard line and then called his own number, sneaking into the end zone to boost the lead to 14-0 at the 7:34 mark of the second quarter.

Challengers RB Endo Shu (right) receiving a handoff from QB Garrett Saffron Photo: @xleague

With the Challengers front seven dominating the line and the rest of the defense keeping the Tokyo offense bottled up, Sekisui got the ball back with just over three minutes left in the first half. Saffron used almost the entire clock to march his team down to the 16 yard line. Then on a scramble he found Takuro Abe on the goal line with 30 seconds to go and the young receiver made no mistake, curling into the end zone to up the lead to 21-0.

Tokyo Gas Creators QB Jerod Evans scrambling Photo: ©xleague

The second half saw both defenses rise up between the 20 yard lines. Neither team could mount sustained drives penetrating the red zones. Tokyo Gas reached the Sekisui 24 yard line midway through the final period but a trick play with the snap going to the punter failed.

With the win, Sekisui moves on to the semifinals on December 15 where they will face the Fujitsu Frontiers who overwhelmed IBM Big Blue 49-14. In the other quarterfinals, the Obic Seagulls defeated the Nojima Sagamihara Rise 20-14 while the Panasonic Impulse downed Elecom Kobe 24-0 setting up a semifinal showdown with Obic on December 14.

Source: X-League