“This is one of the most resilient teams I’ve been around.”
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It’s more than two decades since the Regina Rams and University of Saskatchewan Huskies last met for the Canada West football championship.
They’ll do it again, at long last, after two improbable Saturday-afternoon endings.
The Huskies scored two touchdowns in the final minute of their Canada West semifinal game against the host British Columbia Thunderbirds, escaping with a 38-33 victory. Meanwhile, the fourth-place Rams upset the No. 1 Manitoba Bisons, getting a 16-yard touchdown catch from Nicholas Sirleaf with 19 seconds on the clock to take a 28-25 victory.
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The twin wins mean the Huskies — who finished third in the regular season with a 5-3 record — will host the Rams, who ended up 3-5, in the conference final.
Earlier in the week, Huskies’ head coach Scott Flory — whose team had a string of close games this season — sounded a bit prophetic when he said this:
“We’ve got to clean up some things in the first 57 minutes of the game, but we know in the last three minutes that we can move the ball, we can shut people down and we can score points.”
Flory referenced that quote Saturday after the game.
“These young men, in the final three minutes of the game, just continue to make plays and to believe,” Flory said. “They never quit. This is one of the most resilient teams I’ve been around.”
The Huskies trailed UBC 33-20 early in the fourth quarter, and got closer with a 24-yard Lukas Scott field goal and then a rouge.
With exactly one minute on the clock, Saskatchewan receiver Ercy Avul got behind coverage and scored on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Anton Amundrud. That, with the extra point, closed the gap to 33-31.
The Huskies’ then executed a perfect on-side kick, which was recovered by Saskatchewan’s Katley Joseph at the UBC 52.
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Then: Ryker Frank ran for 13 yards, then he ran for 37 more, to the UBC two-yard line. Two plays later, Frank rambled in from a yard out, and the Huskies had the lead with 29 seconds to play. They also had the win.
It’s Saskatchewan’s fifth trip to the Canada West final in the last six seasons. They lost last year’s semifinal, snapping a four-year streak.
Regina’s last appearance in the conference final was 2012, when they lost 38-14 to Calgary.
“Going back to Griffiths, in front of our fans, being at home … that’s going to be awesome,” said Flory, whose team split with the Rams this season, losing 33-28 and winning 22-20. “It’s what we want. We didn’t set ourselves up in the regular season for that, but we’ve got the chance now. We know a good Rams team is coming in, our provincial rival, and I assume that place will be rocking.”
On Saturday, Amundrud completed 31 of 42 passes for 381 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Frank carried 26 times for 192 yards and two touchdowns, while Rhett Vavra caught 13 balls for 187 yards and a TD.
Scoring-wise, Saskatchewan got a two-yard touchdown catch from Vavra (with backup quarterback Jake Farrell behind centre), two one-yard TD runs from Frank and the 33-yard catch from Avul. Scott added field goals of 30, 22 and 24 yards.
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UBC got a 12-yard touchdown catch from Mark Webb, a 14-yard catch from Caleb Cunningham, a 75-yard catch from Sam Davenport, a 16-yard catch from Shemar McBean and a 14-yard field goal from Kieran Flannery-Fleck.
The winner of Saturday’s Huskies/Rams game will host the Quebec champions the following weekend, with the survivor heading to the Vanier Cup Nov. 23 at Queen’s.
“There was no panic,” Flory said of the final few minutes. “It was a calm, cool, workmanlike attitude throughout the game, and even in the final three minutes it was no different.”
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