Marvies open season with win

Suita Marvies 27 AsOne Black Eagles 7
By Ken Marantz
Hiroyuki Anzai connected with Kentaro Takahashi on a pair of short touchdown passes and the Suita Marvies topped the AsOne Black Eagles 27-7 in the X-League West Division opener for both teams on Saturday.
Anzai completed eight of 16 passes for 88 yards and two touchdowns with one interception for the Marvies, who last season placed third in the West to advance to the upper tier of the second stage.
Hiroshi Yamagami had a 36-yard touchdown run and Shinji Kageyama kicked a pair of field goals, including a 31-yarder on the final play of the first half that gave Suita a 17-0 halftime lead.
A comedy of errors marked the opening of the game at Osaka's Expo Flash Field--after As One running back Toshiaki Morikawa fumbled on the first play from scrimmage, Anzai gave the ball back with an interception by Sohsuke Itagaki, only to have Suita's Torahiro Nakamura pick off a pass by Black Eagles QB Makoto Okuno.
But things settled down and Anzai led Suita on a 80-yard drive, capped by his 9-yard TD pass to Takahashi 7:54 into the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, a short punt gave the Marvies the ball on the As One 36, from which Yamagami sped down the left sideline on the first play to make it 14-0.
As One cut the gap to 17-7 when Tatehide Kitazawa scored on scored on a 24-yard run 8:14 into the third quarter. But a long return on the ensuing kickoff set up the Marvies for another scoring drive, capped when Anzai hooked up with Takahashi on a 5-yard TD toss.
Kageyama's 27-yard field goal in the fourth quarter completed the scoring.
"We picked up a new kicker and punter and that made things easier for us today," Suita head coach Shinichi Takeda said. "This unit is going to be our strongpoint."

Ken Marantz is a sportwriter for The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo.