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VANCOUVER – In one of the most complete and memorable games in recent UBC Football history, the Thunderbirds (6-2) laid a 59-24 beatdown on the visiting Saskatchewan Huskies (6-2) Friday night to close out the regular season in first place, clinching home field advantage throughout the Hardy Cup playoffs for the first time in three years.
Putting up 59 points for the first time since 2016, Friday night's contest at Thunderbird Stadium also marks the biggest blowout win for UBC over the Huskies since a 51-17 victory back in 1987.
Trailing 13-7 after a quarter of the play, the final 45 minutes were absolutely dominant from a T-Birds perspective.
Drew Viotto threw for a season-high 370 yards and three touchdowns,
Trey Montour hauled in a career high 178 yards receiving and scored a pair of spectacular majors while UBC's defence held the conference's leading offence to just eight points total in the second half.
"You know who deserves first credit is my coaching staff. My young coaches just did an incredible job getting these guys ready," said UBC head coach,
Blake Nill, who led the 'Birds to first place in the conference for the second time, just the third such occurrence for the program in the last 27 years. "Coach Khari, Coach Pete, all our offensive staff. Coach Cantor, Coach Pooya, Coach Shomari, Coach Soriano – this is a very young defensive staff. I'm tough on them but man they deserve a ton of credit."
Finishing his sophomore season with 12 touchdown passes after going 21-of-29 for a season-high 72.4 per cent completion rate Friday, Viotto put together a confident, methodical night, spreading the ball around with six receivers all boasting multiple catches.
"Viotto stepped up, man," Nill said in praise of his pivot. "We went in at halftime and said why are we even trying to run the football, let's just throw it. That's what we did and they just didn't have an answer. This receiving corps is a threat. They're big, they're lanky. Drew's just got to give them a chance and when they have a chance, they'll catch the football."
Back-and-forth to start the key contest,
Riley Michaud answered Huskie running back Aulain Penner's game opening score with the first of two touchdowns on the night to tie the game 7-7 midway through the first.
James Keane kicked a pair of Huskies field goals to retake the lead at 13-7 to end the opening quarter, but it was all UBC from there on out.
Montour's first of two touchdowns put UBC back in front, an 18-yard pass from Viotto that saw the third-year wide out climb the ladder under double coverage, only to be outdone by his 53-yard fourth quarter catch-and-run which expanded UBC's lead to an insurmountable 44-17 following
Alexander Hillyard's convert.
Hillyard himself had a career night, going 3-for-3 on field goal attempts and 5-for-5 on converts.
Defensively, it was another gem pitched out by UBC coordinator Noah Cantor, highlighted by first-year defensive lineman
Alex Longo's fourth-quarter pick six. The big man deftly one-handed the ball and scampered 33-yards to essentially put the final nail in Saskatchewan's coffin, pushing the score to 51-17.
It wasn't that the Huskies weren't able to move the ball Friday, they just weren't able to capitalize – again, thanks to UBC's timely defence.
Saskatchewan quarterback Anton Amundrud still managed 397 yards passing, but failed to find the end zone while being picked off twice.
All in all, it was a thorough thrashing by the 'Birds and appropriately so on the team's legacy night where they honoured the more than 100 years of UBC Football.
The team's eight graduating fifth-year players were also honoured prior to kickoff: OL
Riley Scheffer, DB
Damien Bucknor, DL and Long Snapper
Coen Goddard, Receivers
Dylan-Michel Kang and
Gavin Owen, linebacker
Jack Pasloski, defensive lineman
Bear Akachuk and tight end
Zach Patfield, the last of which scored his second touchdown of the season on a keeper play in the fourth quarter.
Securing home field advantage through the Hardy Cup Final, the 'Birds certainly saved their best effort of the season for last, with hopes they have even more to show yet.
"This is as close as we got (to a complete 60 minutes). Now we just need to start understanding we do have talent and ability on this team. Everyone knew what was at stake, and why it was at stake, enough said. We came out, we overcame a lot of things to win this game and to finish first in this league."
The T-Birds will now await the results of Saturday's two matchups to determine who they'll face in next Saturday's semifinal battle at Thunderbird Stadium.
Kickoff against one of Calgary, Manitoba or Regina is set for 1:00 p.m. Saturday, November 7 with
tickets on sale now.
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