ASIJ rallies past Humphreys in return to DODEA football

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — For a baseball pitcher, Ray Takizawa showed on Friday he’s pretty fair at throwing game-winning touchdown passes.

American School In Japan’s quarterback hit fellow senior receiver Shou Murakami-Moses for a 22-yard last-minute TD, capping the Mustangs’ rally from 16-6 down at halftime for a 26-23 win Friday over Humphreys at Blackhawks Field.

“Shou rolled to the left, caught the pass on the sideline, toe tap and just made it inbounds,” Mustangs coach John Stanton said. “Ray threw it to the corner and Shou made a great catch.”

Takizawa actually accounted for all four ASIJ touchdowns. He ran for two, plus threw an 8-yard TD pass to Jackson Bomoncag in the fourth quarter to set the stage for the Mustangs’ game-winning score.

The victory marked the Mustangs’ return to DODEA-Pacific Division I football after a season away. ASIJ has two Far East football titles to its credit, the D-I title in 2016 and Division II three years ago.

The Blackhawks fell to 1-1 on the season after securing a 10-point lead at halftime. They led 23-6 in the third quarter before the Mustangs scored 20 unanswered points.

Broderick Carmody and Dallas Hunter ran for touchdowns of 25 and 10 yards for Humphreys. Brian Taylor returned a kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown, and the Blackhawks scored a safety on a bad snap by the Mustangs into the end zone.

“We just have to go back to the drawing board and get ready to play some football,” Blackhawks coach Tyrone Powers said. “We played some good team ball. Just didn’t pull it off.”

The Blackhawks next visit Kubasaki on Sept. 19 for a first-ever Dragons home game at Camp Hansen in northern Okinawa. ASIJ hosts Nile C. Kinnick at 4 p.m. Sept. 12, the first of a home-and-home between the teams; the Mustangs travel to Kinnick on Sept. 18.