The Asahi Soft Drink Challengers scored a pair of second-quarter touchdowns Monday to defeat Matsushita Denko Impulse 20-18 in the Tokyo Super Bowl national corporate team championship game.
Asahi running back Tomoya Nakajima scored on a one-yard plunge 11 minutes into the second quarter at the Tokyo Dome and Masashiro Yoshida scored again on a punt return as the X-League West Division runners-up took a 20-3 lead into the locker room at the half.
West Division champion Matsushita came back with 15 points in the fourth quarter, but fell short by two points.
With the victory, the Challengers, established as a team in 1993, advance to the Jan. 3 Rice Bowl national championship game against collegiate champion Hosei University.