Fourteen seconds into the Mustangs’ final game, senior linebacker John Doll intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. It was the start of a 47-0 shutout of a combined team from Higashi Katsushika, Yokohama Tateno, and the King Fishers on October 24 in the Mustang Valley.
The Mustangs led 27-0 after the first quarter, and every starter had been subbed off by halftime. Akira Kanematsu, a senior starting wide receiver, scored twice in the first half, and the win evened the record at 3-3.
“We owe ourselves one clean game,” Ray Takizawa said in the week before the finale. “That’s all we’re asking for.”
“It was an easy game, but a great way to end the season,” said senior receiver Shou Murakami-Moses, who also starts on the defensive line.
The early lead handed the second half to the bench. After the Kinnick loss in September, head coach John Stanton had said the injuries gave underclassmen a chance “to get more game experience and develop as contributing members of our varsity team.” The finale gave the reserves two full quarters of exactly that.
The win closes out an up-and-down season. The Mustangs opened with a 26-23 win over Humphreys in their first season back in Division 1, after stepping out of the league for a developmental year in 2025.
Then came Kinnick on September 12. In the days before the game, the Mustangs lost starting linebackers Alex Moores and Lincoln Nguyen-Moreira and starting quarterback Takizawa to injury. Kinnick, one of the strongest programs in the league, won 62-27, helped by Mustang penalties that Stanton said “greatly hurt us.”
“Losing three starters in one week could have been the end of our season,” said Doll, who also starts at running back. “Instead, the younger guys stepped in, the older guys took the lead, and that’s the reason we were still in the race the next week.”
The Mustangs answered with a 30-20 win over Kubasaki that moved them into second place in the league standings.
The next two losses came down to a combined three points. Against Kadena, two-way linemen Kei Hinoki and Lysandre Stone-Bourgeois missed the game for overlapping SAT dates. Two years after a 49-0 loss to Kadena, the Mustangs led 14-7 for most of the game before Kadena scored a last-minute touchdown and converted the two-point try to win 15-14.
“Kadena is the one that’s going to stick with us,” said Murakami-Moses.
Against Waseda, Takizawa ran for both Mustang touchdowns. The extra-point kick after one went wide, and the two-point try after the other ended with Doll stopped at the 1-yard line. Waseda won 14-12.
“Nobody on this team is pointing at the kickers,” said senior receiver Jackson Bomongcag, who also starts at safety. “We had drives on offense that would have made those two points not matter, but we didn’t finish them.”
Over six games, the Mustangs outscored their opponents 156-134.
All season, Stanton kept bringing the conversation back to practice. “The games are what everyone likes to talk about, but practice is the key to it all,” he said.
The players wanted this article to say something the scoreboard never does. The coaching staff is not just Head Coach Stanton, but also Coach Butz, Coach Patterson, Coach Timms, Coach Keyes, Coach Todd, Coach Kanematsu, and Coach McLaughlin. Every one of them has put in countless hours on and off the field, reviewing game footage and working with players in person. The team can confidently say that without these coaches, this year’s success would not have been possible.
“They put in the same hours we do, and they’re not the ones getting their names in the announcements,” said Bomongcag. “Everything we’ve done this year starts with them.”
Five seniors captained the team this season: Ray Takizawa at quarterback, Shou Murakami-Moses at receiver and defensive line, Jackson Bomongcag at receiver and safety, Lysandre Stone-Bourgeois at offensive and defensive line, and John Doll at both running back and linebacker.
The seniors were sophomores when Kadena beat the Mustangs 49-0, and juniors when the team spent a year outside Division 1. This fall, they brought the team back to the league and came within a point of the program that had beaten the Mustangs by 49.
Their last game opened with Doll’s pick-six. It ended with all five captains on the sideline, watching the younger players finish it.
