Yokota Panthers receiver Roosevelt Neely watches the ball into his hands ahead of American School In Japan Mustangs defensive back Joey Ferrero during Friday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools football game at Mustang Valley, American School In Japan's Chofu campus, Tokyo. ASIJ handed DODDS Japan and Kanto Plain champion Yokota its first loss this season, 34-14. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Yokota Panthers receiver Roosevelt Neely watches the ball into his hands ahead of American School In Japan Mustangs defensive back Joey Ferrero during Friday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools football game at Mustang Valley, American School In Japan's Chofu campus, Tokyo. ASIJ handed DODDS Japan and Kanto Plain champion Yokota its first loss this season, 34-14. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
American School In Japan Mustangs running back Ken Yajima gets hauled down by Yokota Panthers defender Jaden Hecker during Friday's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools football game at Mustang Valley, American School In Japan's Chofu campus, Tokyo. ASIJ handed DODDS Japan and Kanto Plain champion Yokota its first loss this season, 34-14. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
TOKYO – They’d barely had the minimum 10 practices needed the last time they faced Yokota’s Panthers in a 46-7 loss on Sept. 3 at Yokota High School. Fast forward 50 days and the American School In Japan Mustangs more than made amends for that defeat.
Nathan Kwon ran for two touchdowns Friday and Hayden Jardine – days after the passing of his grandfather – tossed two TD passes as the Mustangs stunned unbeaten Yokota 34-14, ending the DODDS Japan and Kanto Plain champion Panthers’ eight-game winning streak.
ASIJ hadn’t gotten the season started “as early as we’d have liked to,” coach John Seevers said. “We weren’t ready. But (Friday) the kids played well. This has been a great group. There were a lot of outstanding plays from a lot of kids.”
The win was the third for ASIJ in four games with Yokota dating back two seasons. The 2009 Kanto champion Mustangs (5-2) have won five of their last six this season. Yokota had won seven straight to open the season, but now enters the Far East Division I playoffs with a regular-season finale loss.
“I think we have a lot of work to do to get ready for our trip to Okinawa,” coach Tim Pujol said.
Jardine went 5-for-7 for 102 yards, tossing TD passes of 36 yards to Cody Hadden and 11 yards to Sam Hopkins. Kwon finished with 102 yards on 18 carries, including touchdown runs of 3 and 2 yards. Andrew Stern had ASIJ’s other score, a 3-yard touchdown run.
ASIJ won despite being outgained 296-243 by the Panthers, who ran 63 plays to the Mustangs’ 47. But Yokota hurt itself with:
¬¬-- A secondary mixup that resulted in Hadden’s 47-yard reception that set up Stern’s touchdown.
¬¬-- A bad punt snap that gave ASIJ a short field and a personal-foul penalty that led to Kwon’s first touchdown.
¬¬-- Ten penalties for 82 yards, four of them major penalties.
“Some costly things,” Pujol said. “We had a few breakdowns (on defense), the penalties definitely hurt and the miscue on the punt snap gave them … a score that was really painful.”
Aside from ASIJ’s lack of preparation for the game in September, “when that was finished, you could easily say that we controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and we were the harder-hitting team. Tonight was a different story.”
The Mustangs raced to a 21-0 third-quarter lead before Yokota finally answered on Roosevelt Neely’s 4-yard scoring run; he would add a 3-yarder to account for the Panthers’ only trips to the end zone.
Neely finished with 129 all-purpose yards and recovered a fumble. Devin Day had 104 yards on 22 carries for the Panthers.
