VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds engineered their second consecutive comeback win, taking down the previously undefeated Manitoba Bisons 26-24 in a closely fought battle at Thunderbird Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Led by veteran receiver Trey Kellogg's career-high three touchdowns, the last of which sealed the victory late in the fourth, the Thunderbirds scored the only points in the final frame as they improve to 2-2 on the season while the Bisons fall to 3-1.
"I was quiet about it leading up to the game but I thought we matched up well with these guys," said UBC Head Coach Blake Nill who saw his team take down a U SPORTS ranked team for the second straight week. "I was fired up in the first quarter because I thought our plan was coming together. Then I said to them at the end of the first quarter, that's one quarter, that's history an unfortunately we enabled their comeback in a lot of ways."
Following a Ben Kolb 37-yard field goal to open scoring in the first quarter, the T-Birds went up 17-0 by the end of the opening frame on two Garrett Rooker touchdown passes to Kellogg.
But the 'Birds wouldn't score again until the final quarter as the Bisons put up 24 straight points and appeared to be the driver's seat heading into the final 15 minutes.
Still a one-score game at the top of the fourth quarter, Daniel Appiah put together a 40-yard punt return, blowing past several defenders, but lost control of the ball at the Manitoba 25 before the T-Birds eventually recovered. Keeping the ball on the ground, three straight Dane Kapler rushes got the ball to the four-yard line to set up first-and-goal for UBC looking to tie the game once again. But in what turned out to a be a game of goal-line stands, this time it was the Bisons' defence which held strong, keeping Isaiah Knight out of the end zone as the visitors took over at their own half-yard line.
With four minutes remaining and down by five, and eerily similar to a week prior in Regina, the T-Birds came up with a critically timed interception as Dustin Magee picked off Manitoba pivot Sawyer Thiessen to give the T-Birds the ball at the Manitoba 32.
Rooker once again went to his favourite target on the day, Kellogg, who reeled in his third TD pass of the game, managing to stay on his feet just long enough to battle through a tackle and cross the plane to put UBC up 25-24 with 1:43 on the clock.
Forced to go for it on third-and-four well inside their own territory on their ensuing possession, the Bisons were stopped by a UBC defence that is developing a penchant for coming up with a well-timed big play as the 'Birds regained the football with just over a minute remaining. Kolb tacked on a single point and UBC's defence finished off the job as the T-Birds won their second straight game while handing Manitoba their first loss on the season.
"This whole season has been about riding the highs and lows and we did that, I'm just proud of my team, they're a bunch of dogs and they keep fighting," said Rooker who finished the game 12-for-22 with 145 yards and the three touchdown passes to Kellogg. "We know we can hang with anyone in the country. We didn't play a great game today, we know we have a lot of improvement to make."
After staking out a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, Rooker once again found Kellogg in the middle of the field as the veteran receiver cut to the corner and found pay dirt for the second time to give UBC their biggest lead of the season, 17-0 through 15 minutes.
Midway through the second quarter the Bisons got the ball just across midfield when a third down T-Birds punt fake failed. Manitoba then got on the board with 5:36 remaining in the half when starting quarterback Jackson Tachinski found Gavin Cobb in the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown, cutting UBC's lead to 10 with a successful convert.
Getting the ball back with just 75 seconds remaining in the half, the Bisons made quick work of it, as Tachinski found Breydon Stubbs for the touchdown with Manitoba entering halftime down by just a field goal.
On their opening possession of the second half, the Bisons turned to backup quarterback Sawyer Thiessen after Tachinski was shaken up. The second stringer got his Bisons to the UBC 26-yard line, but the T-Birds defence held the surging Bisons to a 25-yard Cole Sabourin field goal, tying the game 17-17.
After forcing UBC into a two-and-out and with the rain falling hard, a high snap ended with Rooker being tackled at his own 10-yard line. The Bisons kept the ball in their quarterback's hands and after a failed shot at the end zone on first down, Thiessen was flushed from the pocket but had plenty of room on the near side to rush in the ball himself as Manitoba took their first lead of the game, 24-17.
At that point, much like the week before in Regina, UBC's defence took over and held the Bisons off the board the rest of the way while the offence engineered the successful comeback.
"(Our defence) played awesome," said Nill. "We made it a bit more difficult for us, but at the end we had two points more. This win will be a lot more beneficial to us than a 20 point win."
Kapler didn't get into the end zone Saturday but put up a whopping 134 yards on the ground, a big chunk of UBC's 362 total yards of offence compared to Manitoba's 278.
Tachinski threw for 110 yards on 6-for-10 passing and a pair of touchdowns for Manitoba in the first half. His second half replacement, Thiessen went 2-for-14 for 51 yards.
Now with two straight wins, the Thunderbirds head to Calgary next week for their final road game of the season against the Dinos who face Alberta on Sunday.
The Bisons are back home next Saturday to host the 3-1 Saskatchewan Huskies.
