Saskatchewan Huskies visit UBC in Canada West semi-final battle

The No. 10 ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies road to the 2011 Vanier Cup starts in Vancouver Saturday against the No. 6 ranked UBC Thunderbirds.

For the first time in four seasons, the Huskies hit the road in the Canada West playoffs to face the T-Birds in a semifinal match. UBC edged out the Huskies for second-place in the final conference standings with a 36-23 win over the first place Calgary Dinos in the last game of the season.

Since 1998, the Huskies are 17-4 against the T-Birds, including a 36-33 win on September 30 in Griffiths Stadium. Saskatchewan is 7-0 in the postseason against UBC including a 35-16 win in a semifinal in 2006 – the last of their playoff meetings. In six of the seven seasons, the two teams have met Saskatchewan has gone on to play in the Vanier Cup – three times winning the ultimate prize.

Saskatchewan finished the regular season winning three of their four final games and finally found their offensive stride with a 67-3 victory over Alberta last week.

Quarterback Trent Peterson had his best offensive game of the year completing 19-of-25 passes for two touchdowns and 325 yards against Alberta. His main target was Rory Kohlert connecting with the fifth-year receiver five times for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Jeff Moore also added 95 yards on five receptions. In the red zone, the Huskies scored five times on short runs by running backs Ben Coakwell and Dexter Janke. The touchdowns added to the Huskies top red zone offence scoring 90.6 per cent of the time.

Defensively, the Huskies have held their opponents to a league-best 19 points per game and have snared a league leading 13 interceptions. Fifth-year linebackers Tony Michalchuk and Tom Lynch lead the Huskies in tackles with 49 and 36 respectively. Safety Bryce McCall has added 35.5 tackles, one sack, three interceptions and two fumble recoveries. McCall finishes the season two interceptions away from tying the CIS record.

T-Bird pivot Billy Greene was named Canada West Athlete of the Week after completing 23-of-42 for 421 yards and four touchdowns against the Dinos last week. Greene leads the conference averaging 319.8 yards per game and pass efficiency at 155.2. Jordan Grieve has been his main target all season averaging 18.7 yards per catch with five downdowns. Greene is also a threat to run tallying 483 rushing yards with four touchdowns in the season. Running back Dave Boyd averages another 78.2 rushing yards per game.

Adam Konar, Devin Kavanagh and Levar Hayden lead UBC in tackles with 41, 40 and 39.5 each respectively.

Kick off is set for 2 p.m. at Thunderbirds Stadium Saturday. The game can be heard live on CK750, or [url]www.ck750.com or watched on Shaw Cable. The winner of the game will face either the University of Calgary or the University of Regina Rams, who are battling in the other Canada West semifinal.

Source: Saskatchewan Sports Info