A pointless second half hurts the Huskies
There was no late game magic for the Huskie football team on Saturday afternoon, as the Regina Rams defeated Saskatchewan 19-14 in the 87th edition of the Hardy Cup at Griffiths Stadium. The Huskies, who a week earlier scored a game winning touchdown in the final minute in a conference semi-final for the win, did not score a point in the final 32 minutes of the conference final on home turf. When asked for his reaction, Huskie head coach, Scott Flory, said, “It’s shock to be honest with you.”
The U of S took a 14-1, first half, lead thanks to a pair of Daniel Wiebe touchdown catches. Quarterback Anton Amundrud connected with Wiebe on 13-yard pass in the opening quarter, then hit Wiebe again on a 7-yard toss later in the opening half. The Rams did manage to stay in the game with a handful of big plays late in the second quarter. With the score 14-4, Regina capitalized on a turnover as defensive back Jackson Sombach took an interception return to the Saskatchewan 16-yard line. Four plays later receiver Emmett Steadman hauled in a five-yard pass from Noah Pelletier and it was 14-11 at the half.
Saskatchewan struggled to move the ball in the third quarter. Then, the Rams made the Huskies pay for another miscue. Amundrud threw another interception, which Carson Sombach returned 45 yards for a touchdown with 6:45 left to go in in the third quarter. “We just got in quicksand with turnovers and couldn’t get out of our own way”, said Flory.
The challenges continued in the fourth quarter as Jacob Tkachuk registered Regina’s third interception of the day with 7:57 remaining, then a last-ditch Huskie drive ended when Collin McKellar had a fourth interception deep in Saskatchewan territory with 21 seconds to go.