EDMONTON – Despite a strong first career U SPORTS start for UBC rookie quarterback
Garrett Rooker and some other equally impressive individual efforts, the Thunderbirds suffered a season opening 44-19 loss to the Alberta Golden Bears Saturday afternoon at Edmonton's Foote Field.
Down 20-1 at half time, the T-Birds rallied to start the third quarter with the first of two Rooker passing touchdowns to fellow freshman, receiver
Jason Soriano.
However, foul troubles played a big role for UBC as the Bears took advantage of 179 yards in T-Bird penalties to earn a second straight win over their Canada West rivals.
"Give Alberta all the credit in the world, I'm not taking anything away from what they accomplished…but the penalties just killed us, you're not going to win football games with those penalties," said a disappointed UBC Head Coach
Blake Nill. "What it showed was we're a team that hadn't played for awhile."
Rooker finished the game with a very impressive 372 yards passing going 32-for-45 with the pair of touchdowns and one interception.
"It was outstanding," said Nill of his rookie pivot's performance. "It's not like he's a first year quarterback thrown into a veteran group, he's in charge of a bunch of young men, there's youth all over that offence, it was a pretty solid first outing. You look at some of the individual performances and some of the stats and you could argue we should be the team at the right end of the score, so it's really disappointing."
Golden Bears starting QB Brad Launhardt finished with 224 passing yards and three touchdowns, as he found Matthew Peterson, Dryden Kalesnikoff and Jonathan Rosery for major scores through the air.
Peterson found the end zone three times in total as the second-year running back found pay dirt twice on the ground.
First-year Bears quarterback Luke Hornung also found playing time in the third quarter, finishing with 68 total yards and one TD pass. Jonathan Giustini also recorded a pair of field goals, finishing 5/5 on extra point attempts.
While UBC finished the game leading the Bears in both total yards (459-352) and time of possession (34:59), the Thunderbirds were undone by penalties and special teams lapses.
The lack of a strong kicking game allowed the Bears to have excellent field position multiple times, leading to major scores.
After a slow start, Alberta finally found the end zone midway through the second, when Peterson plunged in for a two-yard rushing score.
He added his second TD of the first half just under two minutes later, as Launhardt found the second-year Bears RB for a 10-yard passing score.
UBC showed signs of life early in the second half, as
Jason Soriano scored the first of his two touchdowns on the day with a 32-yard pass play, before Ben Kolb added a 25-yard field goal.
That would be as close as the visitors would get, as Alberta scored the next 16 points to put Saturday's contest out of reach.
Peterson scored his third major off a gorgeous pass from Hornung in the third, before Launhardt found Kalesnikoff for a 70-yard passing touchdown late in the quarter.
Soriano and Rosery had matching receiving scores for each team in the fourth quarter. Soriano finished his first Canada West game with the two majors and 144 yards receiving as the Vancouver College product didn't disappoint.
Next up for the T-Birds is their home opener on Friday, October 1
st when they host the Saskatchewan Huskies at Thunderbird Stadium with a 7:00 p.m. PT kickoff.
