Both Kohei Satomi and Nobutaka Horie returned kickoffs for touchdowns as the Recruit Club Seagulls defeated their archrival Kajima Deers in a 35-28 shootout Monday at the Tokyo Dome in X League Central Division action.
With the win, Recruit clinched the division with a 5-0 record and captured the first seed in the six-team playoffs. Kajima, which would have earned the division title and a playoff berth with the victory, finished the regular season with a 3-2 record and ranked third in the division. Nissan Prince Tokyo, which was also 3-2 in the Central Division but beat Kajima during the season, reached the playoffs because of X League tiebreaking rules.
The Deers seemed to take the control of the game when they scored in the first two possessions and their defense forced the Seagulls into three-and-out in the first four offensive series. But Recruit's Satomi returned a kickoff 72 yards for a score with 8:42 to go in the second quarter and Takuya Furutani scored on a 51-yard rush 2:30 later to tie the game.