VANCOUVER – The road towards a playoff berth for the UBC Thunderbirds (2-5) got that much tougher following a 24-10 defeat Friday night at the hands of the Saskatchewan Huskies (6-1), the final game of the 2025 season at Thunderbird Stadium.
The T-Birds' only touchdown of the game came late in the fourth quarter,
Trey Montour's fourth of the season marking the only points of the game scored outside the second frame as the Huskies clinched a home playoff berth with their fourth consecutive victory.
"All year, we've found different ways to self-destruct. We had a chance, we had momentum," bemoaned UBC head coach,
Blake Nill, following his team's third straight loss. "To me, that's the difficulty, there's a humility factor, and there has to be."
After opening scoring on a 13-yard
Alexander Hillyard field goal midway through the second, the T-Birds seemed to be well-poised to battle it out on defence having forced the Huskies to punt on three of their first four possessions, the other drive ending in a pick when
Ben Sangmuah intercepted Jake Farrell.
But the tide turned when the Huskies scored three touchdowns within a five minute span to open up a 21-3 halftime lead.
Following Hillyard's game-opening try, Kayden Miller capped off a six play, 3:48 drive with a three-yard rushing score to give the Huskies their first lead of the game.
Forcing UBC to punt, Saskatchewan's offence continued to pick up momentum. Farrell faked a handoff to Frank and tossed out wide for Daniel Wiebe who scampered in for a four-yard score and a 14-3 lead following the convert.
The T-Birds had opportunity late in the half to answer back, but after
Drew Viotto was sacked for the second time, he was hit as he threw on the following play and was picked off by Seth Hundeby at the UBC 31. One play later, Wiebe put on a show of athleticism. After he was denied to the left edge of the field, he cut back to the right and turned on the jets, scoring his second major of the half and conference leading ninth of the season.
With less than four minutes to play in the fourth, Viotto escaped pressure and threw to Montour who scored the T-Birds' lone touchdown of the game, a 32-yard catch-and-run to cut the deficit to 14 points.
Time being UBC's biggest enemy, the 'Birds elected for the onside kick which they recovered, but the ball failed to go the mandatory ten yards as the Huskies offence got the ball back just ahead of the three-minute warning.
UBC's loss doesn't end their prospects of a fifth straight trip to the Hardy Cup playoffs, but fate is now out of their hands while also needing a win next week in Regina.
"We're going to go in next week and try to be better and try to play a 60 minute game, we haven't done that since week one," said Nill who reiterated his team has plenty of work to do to get to the level of a well-oiled Saskatchewan squad. "They're a tough team. We're just not at their level yet. We played better, we're just not at their level."
One bright spot for UBC was the play of running back
Riley Michaud who put up 88 yards on the ground, many of his 15 carries hard-fought gains.
"He's a tough, hardnosed, thick running back. He spent 13 months rehabbing an ACL and for him to come back like this, it's a total credit to coach
Joe McCullum,
Mel Rogers and our therapy staff and Dr. Leith who did the surgery. Michaud's a good one and he's something we can build on, for sure."
Viotto quietly finished with a solid 306 yards passing with the touchdown to Montour and the one interception.
Farrell threw for 171 yards with two touchdowns and two picks as UBC limited the Huskies to 307 total yards of offence while out-producing an opponent for the first time this season with 371 of their own.
Playing in his final regular season game at Thunderbird Stadium,
Shemar McBean racked up 144 yards receiving.
The T-Birds currently hold onto the fourth and final Canada West playoff berth. Calgary battles Manitoba Saturday with the opportunity for the Dinos to leapfrog UBC with a victory. Whatever happens out of town Saturday, UBC will need both a win at Regina next Friday and help elsewhere to keep their season alive.
