Quarterback Daisuke Nakazawa rushed 1 yard for the score-tying touchdown with 0:03 left in the game and Tatsuru Hase succeeded in kicking the conversion, giving the Fujitsu Frontiers a 14-13 victory over the Obic Seagulls in the Pearl Bowl final Monday.
Before 18,000 spectators at Tokyo Dome, the Frontiers avenged a 14-7 defeat to the Seagulls in the X League championship game last December and captured their first Pearl Bowl title.
The Seagulls took a 13-7 lead on 31-yard field goal with 0:36 remaining in the final quarter.
The Frontiers' Yukihiro Kojima, however, returned the kickoff 62 yards to the Seagulls' 22-yard line. With no timeouts left, Nakazawa quickly threw a 21-yard pass to receiver Takao Mizuguchi, who went out of bounds after the catch and stopped the clock. In the next play, Nakazawa dived to score.
The Seagulls dominated almost the whole game by controlling the ball for more than 38 minutes and holding the Frontiers to only 29 yards on the ground.
Mizuguchi, who caught a team-high four passes for 71 yards for the Frontiers, was named the game's MVP.