Game Preview: Seagulls face 1st big test in revamped Rise

After an opening-game blowout, the Obic Seagulls get their first major test of the season Sunday when they face the Nojima Sagamihara Rise, another team to follow the trend and add an American quarterback this season.

Or as Seagulls defensive end B.J. Beatty might put it, it’s time to have some fun.

“They’re always a tough team,” Beatty said. “They play very physical. That was always their style of football. They have two great running backs. Adding a QB who’s big and mobile, that just makes a bigger threat.

“And a more fun game. There’s going to be a lot more elements we have to focus on with him being there, and I’m just looking forward to it.”

The “him” is Ben Anderson, a running quarterback out of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and one of three new Americans on the Rise roster, along with linebacker Art Laurel and defensive back Manu Ngatikaura.

“He’s a great athlete,” Beatty said of Anderson. “I’m expecting a great match. I know it’s going to be a lot of stress on us on defense to stop him and that offense.”

For Nojima, the concern going into the East Division showdown will be how much Anderson has progressed since joining the team in late July. Anderson has just one week to prepare for Obic coming off the Rise’s season-opening 28-7 win over the All Mitsubishi Lions, but said he has been busy prepping for a defense that features Beatty and perennial All-League selection Kevin Jackson on the other end.

“I’ve been watching a lot of films, looking at the defensive ends, K.J. and B.J.,” Anderson said. “Paying attention to the defensive backs, their favorite coverages, tendencies on first, second and third downs. Just a lot of individual work by myself.”

Beatty figures to do a bit of extra running trying to chase down Anderson, not that he minds.

“I prefer guys who like to run, moreso that like a pure passer,” said Beatty, who played on the U.S. team that won the world championship this summer. “Because a guy who can pure pass is getting things in and out. Our pass rush has no meaning at some points. A guy who can make plays on his feet, I mean it’s hard, but for the most part, we can make plays chasing him.”

The 190-centimeter, 91-kilogram Anderson sputtered at times against the Lions, throwing two interceptions and completing 6 of 11 passes for 78 yards (he also ran 10 times for 97 yards). He was replaced at one point by backup Yuichiro Araki as the Rise went into halftime tied 7-7. Anderson returned and helped the Rise pull away in the second half, running 13 yards for one of three touchdowns.

“It was my first time playing in a year,” Anderson said. “I hadn’t done anything in spring ball. Just getting back in the groove and things. We did scrimmages, but scrimmages are not live, so it’s a little different….But in the second half, we adjusted. We talked about some things at halftime and me and the coaches got on the same page.”

Anderson said that the transition to Japanese football has made easier by the fact that the Rise use English for their plays, and run mostly out of a spread offense, the same type he ran in high school and college.  “The only thing I had to learn was a little Japanese, I had to learn numbers,” he said. “Once I learned the numbers, I was able to communicate with the team a little better.”

Obic, whose record four-year reign as champion was ended last season by the Fujitsu Frontiers, kicked off the season by thumping the newly promoted Metropolitan Police Dept. Eagles 59-3. The Seagulls used all four of their quarterbacks, who combined to complete 27 of 29 passes for 335 yards and four touchdowns. Starter Shun Sugawara was a perfect 13 for 13 for 152 yards and a score.

The Seagulls and Rise met in the second stage last season, with Obic rolling to a 44-21 victory in which Sugawara threw for five touchdowns, all to different receivers.

Beatty said the sting of last year’s playoff semifinal loss to Fujitsu was still lingering, and saw the extra effort made by his teammates against the Eagles as a sign of their determination to regain the crown.

“I think a lot of guys are using that as motivation,” Beatty said after the game. “From what I saw in the defense, there was a lot of great pursuit, up until the end of the game. We have to clean up some things. But the effort was what I was really happy with today, seeing guys fly; the play’s over and you see seven, eight guys around the ball. As a defense, that’s what you always want to see.”

—Ken Marantz for the X-League