SASKATOON – A second-half surge powered the No. 9 Saskatchewan Huskies to a 36-33 win over the No. 8 UBC Thunderbirds in CIS football action on Friday night at Griffiths Stadium in Saskatoon.
UBC's two-game winning streak comes to an end and the team's record drops to 3-2, while Saskatchewan improves to 3-2. Both squads are tied for second place in the Canada West.
The victory made Saskatchewan's Homecoming even more special. Huskies coach Brian Towriss became the all-time winningest coach in CIS history, moving ahead of Western Ontario coaching legend Larry Haylor's mark (170 to 169).
“I don't think we played especially well,” said UBC head coach
Shawn Olson. “Offensively, we couldn't get in sync the whole night. We were really inconsistent. Defensively, I thought we played pretty well for three quarters and then the fourth quarter kind of fell apart a little bit. I thought our coverage teams weren't very good and we didn't tackle well enough and all three of those phases, when they are not working on all cylinders in the Canada West, you're usually going to lose.”
In a back and forth second half, Saskatchewan finally put the game out of reach with 1:03 left in the fourth quarter. Huskies' quarterback Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren rushed 15 yards for a touchdown that made the score 36-26 in favour of Saskatchewan. It was Gilbert-Knorren's second touchdown of the game. The big play of the drive was a 52-yard scamper from running back Ben Coakwell, who rushed for 20 times for 205 yards and two touchdowns in total.
Earlier in the quarter, Gilbert-Knorren, who replaced Trent Peterson at quarterback in the second quarter, rolled left, scrambled right and danced into the end zone from four yards out to make it 29-18.
UBC surrendered 311 rushing yards in the game.
A 14-yard
Billy Greene (Surrey, BC) touchdown run with four seconds left in the game rounded out the scoring at 36-33. It was one of three rushing touchdowns on the night from Greene. He led the team with 73 yards on the ground and completed 30 of 52 passes for 382 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
The UBC had its deficit down to 29-26 in the fourth quarter when Greene finished off a five-play, 65-yard drive with his second rushing major of the night, this time from five yards out. He then found
Ryan Couper (London, ON) in the end zone for the two-point convert.
Saskatchewan trailed 11-2 at halftime but stormed out the gates in the third quarter, scoring 20 points on two Coakwell TD's and two Cole Samson field goals, one of which was set up by a
Dave Boyd (Duncan, BC) fumble in his own territory.
Greene and Micha Thiel (West Vancouver, BC) hooked up on a 25-yard score for UBC's only points of the third quarter.
Greene's first touchdown, a one-yard rush at 10:55 of the second quarter, was the only major in a low-scoring first half. It was set up by a 20-yard interception return by UBC's
Sam Carino (Burnaby, BC).
UBC could have had a bigger halftime lead but Greene threw his first interception of the season in the second quarter. The Thunderbirds were on the Saskatchewan 8-yard line and up 11-1 but Bryce McCall picked off a Greene pass at the back of the end zone.
“I kind of feel like we didn't play well enough to deserve a win,” said Olson after the game. “The big thing that let us down was our focus and that's been our strength to this point. I kind of felt we just weren't mentally focused throughout the whole first half and second half.”
Jordan Grieve (Salmon Arm, BC) caught ten passes for 115 yards to lead all UBC receivers.
Defensively,
Serge Kaminsky (Richmond, BC) recorded 7.5 tackles and a sack while
Adam Konar (North Vancouver, BC) had another impressive game in his first season. The Vancouver College grad intercepted a pass and had 6.5 tackles.
For Saskatchewan, quarterback Gilbert-Knorren did most of his damage on the ground but also finished 15 of 24 for 187 yards passing, while linebacker Tony Michalchuk had nine tackles and a sack.
Both teams will now enjoy a bye week before returning to action. UBC will host Regina in two weeks' time while Calgary will visit Saskatchewan.
- with files from Nicole Betker (Saskatchewan Sports Information Director) and David Bandla (Canada West Communications)
