The Saskatoon Hilltops and Regina Thunder seem to have a knack for nail-biting finishes.
With the Hilltops leading Regina 25-23 with under two minutes left in Sunday’s Prairie Football Conference (PFC) semi-final, Thunder kicker James Reid lined up a 23-yard field goal that would have put his team in front.
READ MORE: Saskatoon Hilltops down Regina Thunder 25-24, advance to PFC final
But the kick sailed wide left and through the end zone for a single point and the Hilltops held the ball for the remaining 1:46 to seal a thrilling 25-24 victory.
“(It’s the) Sask rivalry. Every game comes down to the last second, it seems,” Hilltops quarterback Jared Andreychuk said, trying to make sense of his team’s narrow escape.
Saskatoon linebacker Adam Benkic admits he was holding his breath while waiting for Reid’s kick attempt.
“I was just thinking, ‘miss it, miss it’ the whole time,” he said.
The dramatic finish came after the Thunder had clawed their way back into a game that the Hilltops controlled for much of the afternoon. Saskatoon held a 25-9 lead midway through the third quarter but a pair of Regina touchdowns made it a two-point affair before the missed field goal. Reid had already connected on three previous attempts.
“At times we weren’t as sharp as we should be, you know. We had a lead and we should have sustained that. But the fifth-year players did a hell of a job to pull that out,” Andreychuk said.
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While the win may not have been pretty, Hilltops head coach Tom Sargeant said the Thunder’s late surge was less a case of the Hilltops collapsing and more Regina finally making some plays.
“I’m very proud of how this team and the coaching staff stuck together to ultimately beat a real good Regina team,” he said. “(The game was) well-coached, well-played, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy and it certainly wasn’t.”
The margin of victory shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been following the PFC this season. In fact, all three games between the Hilltops and Thunder in 2016 have been decided by four points or less. Appropriately, the third and final meeting turned out to be the closest of all.
“We just came out to a good start and then slowed down a little bit but that’ll happen. There’s ebbs and flows in a game, you’ll lose and gain momentum but we came out, got a one-point win, although it was close. But a win is all that matters,” said receiver Ryan Turple, who caught Andreychuk’s only touchdown pass of the contest.
After two tightly contested regular season battles there weren’t many secrets left between the two teams.
“They know everything that we’re doing, who we’re doing it with and hey, they did a good job of shutting us down. We can’t always blame ourselves,” Sargeant said.
“We played a very good team today that wanted it just as bad as we did but ultimately we found a way at the end. That’s what championship teams do.”
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Now the two-time defending national champion Hilltops are on the verge of making their sixth Canadian Bowl appearance in seven years. But first they have a PFC championship game to worry about.
The Hilltops will face the Calgary Colts, who also earned their spot in the final by virtue of a one-point victory, 11-10 over the Edmonton Huskies. If their semifinal results are any indication, the two teams are on course for another nail-biting finish.
The Hilltops and Colts meet Sunday at SMF Field in Saskatoon. Kick off is 1 p.m. CT.
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