VANCOUVER – The No. 9 Saskatchewan Huskies outscored the UBC Thunderbirds 39-34 on Saturday in an entertaining, back and forth Canada West regular season football game in Vancouver.
“We had more fight,” commented UBC head coach
Shawn Olson. “We didn't check out, which was good but we're still missing a lot of details.”
Two fourth quarter touchdowns allowed the visiting Huskies to leave David Sidoo Field at Thunderbird Stadium with its second victory of the season against one loss. UBC drops to 0-3.
FB: T-Birds v. Sask. (Sept. 14, 2012) Gallery
Saskatchewan's Kit Hillis caught a 48-yard touchdown pass at 1:41 of the fourth. Then Mitch Stevens hauled in a 15-yard major from quarterback Drew Burko, who ended up with four TD passes in the game, at 4:43 to put the visiting Huskies up 36-31, a play that would end up as the winning score.
Four minutes later, UBC's
Thomas Moult kicked a 37-yard field goal to bring his team to within two points.
The Thunderbirds got the ball back and quarterback
Billy Greene found
Joey Gabrick with a pass at the UBC 40 yard line with about two and half minutes left in the game but the ball was fumbled, giving Saskatchewan possession, effectively killing any chance of a T-Bird victory in front of a Homecoming crowd of 2,647.
Cole Sampson kicked an 18-yard field goal after the UBC turnover to round out the scoring at 39-34.
“We played a lot better today, than in the last two weeks, especially in Regina,” said Greene of his team's 49-20 loss on Sept. 7. “It's starting to come together. Today's game was really tough to lose because you never want to go 0-3.”
A win looked possible for UBC as the Thunderbirds went up by nine points early in the fourth quarter when Greene found
Jordan Grieve in the back right corner of the end zone, completing a five-play, 75-yard drive at 14:12.
Greene launched a 56-yard pass to
Daniel English at the Saskatchewan 19-yard line to put UBC in the red zone.
Greene threw for 290 yards in the game, completing 22 of 35 passes. He had one touchdown and one interception. Greene also ran for 83 yards on 12 carries. English hauled in 126 yards receiving on seven catches.
The only scoring in the third quarter came from the teams' kickers. Moult had a field goal and a single while Denton Kolodzinski added a rouge for Saskatchewan, which held a one-point lead at halftime, 21-20.
After a 29-yard Moult field goal opened the scoring at 5:43 of the first quarter, UBC fell behind 14-3 in the second period.
Then
Taylor Souster ran in a five-yard touchdown for UBC at 8:51 of the second.
Less than three minutes later, Greene found the end zone on a one-yard scamper to give the Thunderbirds a 17-14 advantage.
But just as quickly, Saskatchewan star Hillis replied, catching an eight-yard touchdown pass from Burko at 13:30.
At the end of the half, Moult nailed a short kick from 12 yards out after the T-Birds were unable to punch the ball into the end zone and take the lead into halftime. Instead, the Huskies led by a point at the break.
Running back
Brandon Deschamps led the ground attack for UBC, racking up 122 rushing yards.
As a team, the Thunderbirds rushed for 276 yards and gained 566 yards of offence compared to 439 for the Huskies,
On the defensive side,
Chris Adams had an excellent day for the home side, recording eight tackles.
For Saskatchewan, Burko was 26 of 32 passing with 328 yards to go along with his four touchdowns. He was also intercepted once.
Huskies' running back Jeremy Andrew gained 66 yards to lead his team.
“Now that we have a couple of the bigger things going in the right direction, I think it is time to get the little things sorted out,” said Greene, whose team will host undefeated Calgary next Saturday at Thunderbird Stadium.
Saskatchewan (2-1) will host provincial rivals, Regina on Friday.
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