SASKATOON, Sask. – The good feelings from week one's definitive UBC Thunderbirds (1-1) victory were quickly erased Friday night as the blue and gold suffered a humbling 51-14 defeat at the hands of the Saskatchewan Huskies (2-0) at Griffiths Stadium.
Trailing 19-7 at the half and still very much in the fight after a second quarter
Mark Webb touchdown, the No. 8 T-Birds struggled to move the ball on offence after the break while the seventh-ranked Huskies were able to impose their will, outscoring UBC by a 32-7 margin in the final 30 minutes.
Ultimately, UBC was forced to play catch up for far too long, an untenable scenario especially in the tough confines of a packed Griffiths Stadium.
"On the opening kick off, we wanted to come out and cover a kick and we were unable to do that," said UBC head coach,
Blake Nill, who saw too many mistakes from his squad from the get-go. "Defence played most of the game on a short field, eventually they just wore out. Our inability to execute on offence and special teams early on I think was just compounded at the end of the game."
Huskies quarterback Anton Amundrud threw for 418 yards and four touchdown passes, two of them to Daniel Wiebe who amassed more than 200 combined yards on offence.
If there was one aspect that really was UBC's undoing Friday night, it was the inability to stop the run game while conversely, not being able to move the ball on the ground themselves.
"We haven't been able to muster much of a run game and we're trying to figure out how we're going to do that," Nill said. "There just wasn't much going our way – it was mostly our own demise, our own inability to execute. It's obvious that we didn't show up and play the kind of football we felt we had the potential to."
UBC starter
Drew Viotto suffered his first Canada West loss having thrown for 234 yards, completing 18 of 30 pass attempts with a touchdown and an interception.
Looking to re-ignite the T-Birds' offence,
Derek Engel was put in under centre in the fourth quarter and engineered a late touchdown drive capped off by a
Toluwalope Ayedegbe one-yard rush to make the final score slightly more respectable.
Three straight two-and-outs by UBC to start the game was slightly offset by some early defensive success, limiting the Huskies to a pair of field goals on their first two drives.
The Huskies opened up a 13-0 lead on a rapid, two-play drive capped by a 79-yard Wiebe touchdown.
Following Lukas Scott's third field goal of the half, UBC got themselves on the board with a 33-yard Viotto touchdown pass to
Mark Webb, the third-year receiver's first major of the season. One play earlier, Viotto threw to
Trey Montour for a 42-yard pickup as it seemed the 'Birds were finally starting to find their groove.
Down 16-7, UBC's next drive saw another long-range Viotto strike, this time a 52-yard pass to
Shemar McBean to get deep inside Husky territory. But a wide field goal attempt compounded by another Scott try had the 'Birds trailing by 12 at halftime.
That gap only widened in a disastrous third quarter for UBC that saw the Huskies score a pair of touchdowns, Wiebe's second of the game and a Javin Boynton two-yard run on the final play of the frame to put Saskatchewan ahead 35-7 after the convert.
Two more Husky touchdowns within little more than a three minute span the fourth erased any possible doubt about the end result with less than five minutes remaining on the clock.
The loss makes it six straight for UBC in Saskatoon but more importantly, Friday night was a rude reminder of how tough it is to be consistently competitive in the Canada West.
"(The players) have to take responsibility, the coaches have to take responsibility, myself, everybody for not having these kids prepared to play and we got to do a better job next week," insisted Nill.
UBC will indeed have to turn the page quickly and start preparing for a week three home battle against the reigning Hardy Cup champion Regina Rams who improved to 2-0 on the season with a 47-23 win of their own Friday night over the Alberta Golden Bears.
Kickoff at Thunderbird Stadium for the T-Birds' 'Back in Black' game against the Rams goes down Friday, September 12 at 6:00 p.m.
Tickets are available now!
