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CAMP HANSEN, Okinawa – Big plays ruled the day as Camp Hansen, last year’s runner-up, opened the U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League season with a shutout of the newest league member, Ryukyu University.

Jean Louis Hansen returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown, Kamren Moore returned a pick-six 50 yards and Aaron Ingram connected with Jared Heath-Reeves on a 95-yard TD pass as the Outlaws downed the Stingray 32-0 on Saturday at the Hansen parade ground.

Hansen coach Dean McCown said he’d hoped to establish the ground game early, but that didn’t materialize until the third quarter, by which time the Outlaws led 20-0.

“We knew going into the game that we had a bigger team than the Stingray,” McCown said, “but I continued to tell my guys that the Stingray have heart and that they would never quit until the clock said zero, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Ryukyu’s defense did a solid job of closing gaps before the Hansen running backs could get completely open, helping keep the first quarter scoreless.

Hansen would have had two punt-return touchdowns, but one early in the second quarter was called back on a clipping penalty. Hansen made good on his second try following the next possession. Hansen later intercepted a pass at the Outlaws 5-yard line that preceded Ingram’s TD pass.

Ingram later scored on a 5-yard run, then Tim Rupnicki finished off the scoring with a 20-yard run.

The Stingray, featuring Japanese university students, are no stranger to interservice football on Okinawa, having played in 2004 and 2005 in the now-defunct Okinawa Football League sponsored by Marine Corps Community Services.

They also played against Kubasaki's and Kadena's split-squad teams in the 1990s and early 2000s, before the inception of the DODEA-Pacific Far East football playoffs in 2005.

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