Things learned in USFJ-AFL Week 14.0, Torii Bowl edition

Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer wishes Yokota and Foster didn't host separate Pacific-wide bodybuilding competitions on the same day:

-- Somewhere, quarterback Ventrus Boyd, running backs J.J. Harris and Aaron "Scat" Christopher and hard-hitting linebacker Marcus Tilley, among others, have to be smiling. Coaches Jerome Gray, Chris Bell, Jake Dowdell and Herb Fletcher must be cheering.

-- For their successors, the Yokota Warriors of 2010, finally brought home what they'd not since 1994 -- a U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League Torii Bowl championship, with their 26-23 comeback win over South Division champion Joint Task Force on Saturday at Yokota High School's Bonk Field.

-- "It was for them," Warriors coach Selwyn Jones said of the Yokota football "family" of which he's been a part, as a player, assistant coach and head coach, since that 1994 championship. "I praise those guys. And I praise these young men. They worked hard. I'm so proud and thankful."

-- At an end now is Yokota's streak of Torii Bowl futility. The Warriors lost at Yokosuka in 2000, Misawa in 2005 and Foster last Aug. 29. The fourth time as the charm came the first time Yokota hosted the Torii Bowl. Home teams continue their 11-year Torii Bowl winning streak. And 10 of those 11 times, a North Division team won the title (to be fair, there was no South Division nor Okinawa-based teams in the league between 2004 and 2008).

-- How did Yokota finally regain its foothold atop the interservice football mountain? A return to the roots that long ago labeled the North as the "black-and-blue division" -- smashmouth football, on both sides of the ball, punishing defense that forced two turnovers and three sacks and held the Wolfpack to just 46 yards, and a methodical ground game that piled up 246 of Yokota's 349 offensive yards.

-- Kevin "K.B." Fortin led the way with 139 yards on 14 carries, including the game-winning 5-yard touchdown run with 10:37 left. Willie Brown (16-68) and Chris Ekstrom (7-59) each scored touchdowns much the same grind-it-out way. Only Yokota's first touchdown, a 72-yard pass from Fredrick Guild to Tyson Huff, came out of character.

-- So, what kept the game so close when JTF appeared so badly outgunned offensively? Especially since they were without two inside linebackers, game-changing receiver Joseph Huewitt and lost quarterback Mike Geddie to a fractured left filbula in the second quarter?

-- Look no further than No. 6. Former Kansas State football and track sprinter Kent Onuoha returned an interception 91 yards for a touchdown and his second kickoff in as many weeks 92 yards for a score. 213 yards on just three touches. Imagine what could happen if he played offense.

-- But losing Geddie was perhaps the killing blow for the Wolfpack, coach Darell Keith said. Backup Frank Jordan, athletic and talented, simply wasn't versed enough in the offense, Keith said; the statistics bore him out, 0-for-10 with two interceptions. Fault only lay with the fact that Jordan, who'd only recently returned to the team after missing the first two months of the season, knew just five plays. Give Jordan two more weeks and plenty of reps with the first offense in practice and it's likely a different story.

-- Take your hat off to the Wolfpack, though, for getting 41 players to Yokota and especially for finishing 6-3 after going 0-5 in last year's regular season.

-- Tip your hat to the weatherman, too, for knowning just when to tell the rain -- and thunder and lightning -- to hold off and let the game be played. Two hours prior to the Torii Bowl, the heavens opened up with a long, hard downpour and natural pyrotechnics worthy of the fireworks show that occured to Yokota's southeast in the fourth quarter.

-- No doubt, a few people gave a bit of a start when the loud bass peal of the start of the fireworks show occured. Worried, naturally, that the bad weather was returning.

-- To the folks on the East Side of Yokota: We're all with you as you struggle to return to a normal life with healthy, functioning power transformers.

-- Eatery of the week: Coach Glenn Shimabukuro's concession stand at the south end of Yokota's Bonk Field. Still the finest rice dishes and tastiest cakes you'll ever find, and the burgers and franks are top shelf.

-- Enjoyable travel moment of the week: Kanto Lodge service stands out. Wicked-fast broadband Internet in the room, and nothing is too good for one's comfort. In need of light bulbs because the ones in each of the room lamps had burned out, a quick visit to housekeeping -- and a minute later, replacements were in place.

-- Aggravating travel moment of the week: A note to 374th Force Support Squadron: PLEASE ... bring back the Outback! (I know, too late, but had to get that off me chest).

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