YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — With their first two quarterbacks hurt, the Daegu American Warriors held a quarterback tryout last Monday.
Five days later, behind the play of third-string QB Antoine Feagin, the Warriors scored the biggest upset in team history, stunning five-time DODDS-Korea Football League champion Seoul American 14-8 on Saturday at Falcon Field.
"I feel this validates everything we’re doing with the team," coach Ken Walter said.
Daegu hadn’t beaten the Falcons (3-1) in 21 games since Seoul American combined in 2002 its split squads — a holdover from the Youth Activities League that used to sponsor senior ball in Korea — into one unit.
The Warriors (2-3) haven’t beaten a Yongsan Garrison-based team since edging the Yongsan Dragons 30-24 on Nov. 14, 1999.
To hold a quarterback audition five days before going to Seoul, "then to come all the way here and play them as tough as we did, it’s unbelievable," Walter said.
Feagin ran five times for 47 yards, including a 5-yard TD run at first half’s end. He completed a 2-point conversion pass to Larry Dixon, and went 6-for-9 for 55 yards. "He made good reads," Walter said of Feagin.
Thomas Smith also played quarterback, running three times for 55 yards and catching three Feagin passes for 40 yards. "They did great," Walter said of Feagin and Smith.
Seoul American rallied on its first second-half possession to tie it on Trinadai Stansel’s TD run and 2-pointer. Stansel ran 13 times for 173 yards.
The score stayed tied until the Falcons drove into Warriors territory, only to suffer the third of four turnovers. Daegu’s Chris Ford picked up a fumble and ran 66 yards for the game-winning TD. Marcus Lee’s interception squelched a last-ditch Falcons drive.
"They threw everything at us," Walter said of Seoul. "We focused on not making mistakes, not giving up the ball in our end of the field."
Daegu protected the football, but the Falcons kept making mistakes "at the worst possible time," coach Julian Harden said.
"We moved the ball well, but every time we’d get into scoring position, Murphy’s Law would get us," he said. "Daegu plays inspired football. They’re small but quick, and they have a lot of heart."
The victory came at high cost to Daegu, which, in addition to missing quarterbacks Trey Griffin and David Martinez, lost interior senior Phillip Cox to a knee injury.
Osan American 7, Singapore All-Stars 0: At Osan Air Base, South Korea, Jesse Crockett broke up a scoreless tie with a 12-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run in what Cougars coach Duke Allen termed a slugfest.
"It was smash-mouth on both sides," Allen said of the game against Singapore’s youth activities Falcons All-Stars. "They were big, physical, bigger than us. They kept pounding away at us. But we pounded it right back."
Will Rapoza paced the Cougars with 63 yards on nine carries. Osan’s backs gained 168 yards on 20 carries, 8.4 yards an attempt, in a game that ended in just more than 90 minutes because of few penalties and both sides using almost all running plays.
Guam High 22, Southern 12: At Naval Station, Guam, Aaron Cosey tossed touchdown passes of 20 yards to D’Andre Weaver and 6 to Travis Smith and sneaked 1 yard for a score to make homecoming a happy one for the Panthers (3-3) on Friday.
Cosey went 5-for-16 for 69 yards as Guam won its second game in a row before the regular-season finale against George Washington. James White picked off two passes and R.J. Bryant and Jacob Wright each recorded five tackles for Panthers.