RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany - Ramstein coach Carlos Ampomin was left pondering the bottom line of a neighbourhood showdown.

“It doesn’t matter what’s been happening or who’s done what,” he said by telephone Saturday after his Royals defeated Kaiserslautern, 21-7. “Every time you leave a rivalry game like this, you feel you’ve been in a 10-round fight.”

Ramstein (3-1) opened the fight well, taking the opening kickoff and launching a 17-play, 8½-minute drive capped by Jon Groteleuschen’s two-yard scoring run. The Royals made it 14-0 in the second period, when the team’s leading rusher, Nick Nixon, plunged in from the 1 for his first touchdown of the season. Nixon carried 19 times for 72 yards Saturday.

Kaiserslautern cut that gap in half in the third, converting a turnover that handed them the ball on the Ramstein 15 into a touchdown on Josh Frye’s six-yard scoring run, and was bidding to go in for the tying score in the final 12 minutes when Drew Groteleushen picked Frye off on his own 15.

“They were heading in,” Amponin said.

Ramstein then iced the game on Jon Groteleuschen’s four-yard TD run as the clock ran down.

Zach West led the Kaiserslaautern defense with 12 tackles, but the Red Raiders couldn’t do much offensively. They managed just 59 yards rushing and 87 passing.