Huskies rally in fourth quarter for win

Two fourth quarter touchdowns allowed the visiting Huskies to leave David Sidoo Field at Thunderbird Stadium with its second victory of the season to against one loss.  UBC drops to 0-3.

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.

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 to cut the T-Birds deficit to one 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.

Saskatchewan (2-1) will host provincial rivals, Regina on Friday.

Photo Credit: Josh Schaefer