While it was far from the most beautiful four quarters of football ever played, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies did more than enough to punch their ticket back to the Hardy Cup.
The Huskies advanced to the Canada West football championship with a 26-7 victory over the UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday afternoon at Griffiths Stadium, led by a stellar day on the defensive side of the ball.
“There was a lot of moments where we saw that good coverage and good pressure,” Huskies all-star linebacker Seth Hundeby said. “I was really proud of the boys, I felt like there was a lot of things we put in and executed well. I was happy with how we played.”
Through 60 minutes of action, the Huskies silenced the Thunderbirds offence and kept UBC off the scoreboard until the final 90 seconds of the game, when Shemar McBean hauled in a 12-yard touchdown pass to spoil the shutout for the hosts.
Leading 4-0 following the first quarter after exchanging safeties, the Huskies finally got their offence going with a 27-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Jake Farrell to Daniel Wiebe for the first strike of the game.
Saskatchewan added a pair of field goals by Lukas Scott and another safety in the second and third quarters, before a dagger of a pass from Farrell to Dawson Lennea with just over nine minutes to play sealed the Hardy Cup semi-final victory for the Huskies and kept their season alive.
- The world’s tallest teenager — a Canadian — becomes tallest player in college basketball history
- Marshawn Kneeland’s death highlights the importance of mental health resources for NFL players
- Dallas Cowboys player Marshawn Kneeland dead at 24
- Blue Jays will ‘plan to be better’ after World Series loss: Shapiro
“Any time you get a win, especially in this conference, is a big relief,” Farrell said. “We played a great team there, a great defence, they got a lot of great athletes on that team. Our defence played unbelievably. As an offence, we got to do a better job of having long drives and more consistent drives. I was just happy we got the win.”
Get breaking National news
Offence was hard to come by for both the Huskies and Thunderbirds, forcing Saskatchewan’s defence to step up, as they only allowed 49 yards rushing on the ground and controlled the line of scrimmage for much of the afternoon.
“I tell Jake (Farrell) all the time, ‘No, man, I got you. Don’t worry about it; all the defence, we got you,'” Hundeby said. “I was really happy that we went out there, we executed, we were able to get our offence back the ball. At the end of the day, that’s what good teams do and I hope that we continue doing that moving forward.”
That defensive effort made up for a rough day in the turnover battle for the usually stingy Huskies, as three straight possessions in the third quarter ended in either lost fumbles or an interception thrown by Farrell.
Huskies head coach Scott Flory said their linemen, linebackers and defensive backs stepped up when needed and were able to buy some time while Farrell settled into his first career Canada West playoff start.
“Three successive drives in the third quarter, we just turned the ball over,” Flory said. “It was wild, it was all us. It was 100 per cent errors on us and the defence didn’t bat an eye. They stood up and didn’t give up any points off turnover.”
The Huskies were able to register three interceptions of their own on Sunday, including a pair in the third quarter from veteran defensive back Ethan Laing, who said it simply was a group of locked-in teammates who went to work together.
“Every time the offence turns over the ball, the defence’s job is to get that ball back,” Laing said. “The only thing we had in our minds was to go get that ball back and that’s what we did.”
Huskies running back Ryker Frank was able to get his playoffs going on the right foot, as he carved through UBC on the ground with 192 rushing yards on 30 carries.
As for Farrell, he was able to calm some early nerves to complete 16 of 21 passing attempts to throw for 216 yards through the air, as well as his pair of touchdowns to Wiebe and Lennea.
In place of Canada West all-star quarterback Anton Amundrud, who missed the Huskies’ final three regular-season games due to injury, the second-year pivot said his experience filling in for the Dogs in October helped prepare him for the playoff start.
“I think it’s the same thing as the three regular-season games,” Farrell said. “Just trust the game plan, trust the guys around me and just get the ball to the playmakers. Don’t try to do too much, just play the game.”
The Huskies will now head to the Hardy Cup conference championship on Nov. 8 in a rematch against the University of Regina Rams, who won a double-overtime thriller 32-29 over the Manitoba Bisons on Saturday night.
With the team set to chase a Canada West title on its home turf, Hundeby said it’s an advantage they’ve earned by being the conference’s top seed.
“You get to sleep in your own bed, you don’t have to potentially sleep with someone who snores,” Hundeby joked. “There’s lots of benefits to it. Getting to play where we practise all day in front of our fans, I think it’s a big advantage. I’m really happy all the work we paid off in the regular season is paying off (now).”
The 88th Hardy Cup will be played on Nov. 8 at Griffiths Stadium, with a 2 p.m. kickoff between the Huskies and Rams.
Comments