September 25, 2011
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UBC beats Manitoba in thrilling Homecoming Game


VANCOUVER – The no. 9 UBC Thunderbirds football team gave its fans lots to cheer about in a 29-23 Homecoming Game win over the no. 10 Manitoba Bisons on Saturday afternoon.

The win improves UBC’s record to 3-1, the team’s best start since 1999.

“This is a big win because of where we are in the season, where it puts us as far as possibilities for playoffs and that was a very good football team,” said UBC head coach Shawn Olson of the victory over Manitoba.

UBC quarterback Billy Greene (Surrey, BC) found Jordan Grieve (Salmon Arm, BC) behind the Manitoba coverage on a 72-yard touchdown catch and run play at 12:34 of the third quarter for the winning score.

Grieve would end the day with 172 receiving yards on seven catches. It was his fourth touchdown catch of the season, his third over 50 yards.

“I think it’s just hard work,” said Grieve of his team’s ability to make the big play. “We know every week, we have to run. Our goal is to get better every day and as along as we keep doing the right things, executing our jobs, the big plays just fall into place.”

Grieve’s latest big play put UBC ahead 27-20.

Manitoba kicker Nick Boyd’s third field goal of the game to start the fourth quarter made it 27-23.

But UBC’s special teams pinned the Bisons deep in their own half of the field on a punt.

Manitoba then chose to give up a safety at 10:50 of the fourth quarter, which rounded out the scoring at 29-23.

Still, the Bisons had several late opportunities to take the lead but were unable to execute.

Halfway through the final quarter, a Serge Kaminsky (Richmond, BC) sack on the UBC 29 stalled a Manitoba drive, forcing the Bisons to attempt a field goal, which Boyd missed.

With 1:43 to go fourth, and the ball on the UBC 35-yard line, Manitoba quarterback Khaleal Williams threw a pass into the front corner of end zone for Tyson Takasaki, only to have the ball knocked away by Alex Babalos (Delta, BC).

Later that same drive after a third down conversion and a facemask penalty, the Bisons were on the UBC nine-yard line, but a third down pass from Williams to Kienan LaFrance was off the mark.

That allowed the Thunderbirds to celebrate the team’s third win in 2011 in front of an ecstatic Thunderbird Stadium crowd of 2,000.

“Our philosophy on defence is sort of to bend, but don’t break,” said Olson. At different points, you’re going to have to come up and make a play.”

“Two of our best people on this team made big plays for us when we needed to,” said Olson of Babalos and Kaminsky. “And if you look throughout the course of history, in an sport, your best players need to be your best players and I think specifically in the second half, defensively, that was the case.”

UBC held the Bisons to just three second-half points as the Thunderbirds came back from a 20-13 half time deficit.

Micha Theil (West Vancouver, BC) caught an eight-yard pass from Greene at 3:40 of the third quarter to tie the game at 20.

It was Thiel’s second touchdown catch of the game. His first gave UBC a 13-10 lead at 9:13 of the second quarter.

The Bisons then came back with ten straight points. Williams threw a touchdown pass to Stu Schollaardt late in the second quarter before Boyd added another short field goal right at half time to make it 20-13.

Billy Pavlopoulos (Georgetown, ON) also kicked two first-quarter field goals for UBC.

The Thunderbirds’ Greene completed 17 of 30 passes for 306 yards and three touchdowns. He now has 11 touchdowns on the year against no interceptions.

Dave Boyd (Duncan, BC) rushed for 97 yards on 14 carries.

For Manitoba, Williams was 27 of 38, throwing for 391 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

Takasaki caught six passes for 118 yards while youngster Nic Demski gained 107 yards on the ground on 15 carries.

UBC (3-1) is now in sole possession of second place in the Canada West. The team will now face Saskatchewan (2-2) in Saskatoon on Friday night at 6:00 p.m., while Manitoba (2-2) will travel to play Regina (1-3).

UBC sports info

Manitoba
23 		UBC
29
Box Score Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Manitoba (2-2) 7 13 0 3 23
UBC (3-1) 3 10 14 2 29
Vancouver, BC | Thunderbird Stadium

Box Score Play by PlayDrive Summary

Prd Time Scoring Summary Manitoba – UBC
1 06:16 UBC – B. Pavlopoulos 21 yd field goal. 0 – 3
1 01:14 Manitoba – 89 13 yd pass from 7. (47 kick is good).
Drive: 3 plays, 27 yards in 1:17. 		7 – 3
2 11:45 UBC – B. Pavlopoulos 21 yd field goal. 7 – 6
2 07:53 Manitoba – 47 15 yd field goal. 10 – 6
2 05:47 UBC – Micha Theil 43 yd pass from Billy Greene. (B. Pavlopoulos kick is good).
Drive: 4 plays, 75 yards in 2:06. 		10 – 13
2 02:04 Manitoba – 89 5 yd pass from 7. (47 kick is good).
Drive: 10 plays, 69 yards in 3:36. 		17 – 13
2 00:00 Manitoba – 47 14 yd field goal. 20 – 13
3 11:20 UBC – Micha Theil 8 yd pass from Billy Greene. (B. Pavlopoulos kick is good).
Drive: 8 plays, 90 yards in 3:25. 		20 – 20
3 02:26 UBC – Jordan Grieve 72 yd pass from Billy Greene. (B. Pavlopoulos kick is good).
Drive: 2 plays, 80 yards in 0:55. 		20 – 27
4 14:55 Manitoba – 47 39 yd field goal. 23 – 27
4 04:10 UBC – Team safety 23 – 29
ManitobaStatisticsUBC
34 FIRST DOWNS 25
20
11
3		 Passing
Rushing
Penalty		 14
8
3
631 TOTAL NET YARDS 480
76
8.3 		Total Offensive Plays
Average gain per play		 54
8.9
391 NET YARDS PASSING 306
27-38
10.3
2 for 12
1 		Completions-Attempts
Net yards per pass play
Sacked:Number-Yards
Had intercepted		 17-30
10.2
1 for 10
0
240 NET YARDS RUSHING 174
38
6.3 		Rushing Attempts
Average gain per rush		 24
7.2
3 for 127 PUNTS: Number-Yards 5 for 261
42.3 Average 52.2
53 TOTAL RETURN YARDS 175
6 for 29
4 for 24
0 for 0 		Punt Returns:No-Yards
Kickof Returns:No-Yards
Int. Returns:No-Yards		 4 for 51
3 for 61
1 for 63
11 for 110 PENALTIES: Number-Yards 6 for 72
1-0 FUMBLES: Number-Lost 1-1
1 for 10 SACKS: Number-Yards 2 for 12
0 for 0 INTERCEPTIONS: Number-Yards 1 for 63
36:20 TIME OF POSSESSION 23:40
UBC
Passing CP-AT YDS TD INT
Billy Greene 17-30 306 3 0
Rushing ATT YDS AVG LG TD
Dave Boyd 14 97 6.9 19 0
Billy Greene 8 71 8.9 24 0
Sam Adu 2 6 3.0 5 0
Receiving NO YDS AVG LG TD
Jordan Grieve 7 176 25.1 72 1
Micha Theil 3 63 21.0 43 2
Mitch Shuster 1 23 23.0 23 0
Spencer Betts 1 17 17.0 17 0
Dave Boyd 3 13 4.3 12 0
Joey Gabrick 1 8 8.0 8 0
David Scott 1 6 6.0 6 0
Kicking FG LG XP PTS
B. Pavlopoulos 2/3 21 3/3 9
Punting NO YDS AVG LG TB -20
B. Pavlopoulos 5 261 52.2 62 0 3
Kickoffs NO YDS AVG TB OB
B. Pavlopoulos 4 156 39.0 0 0
Kickoff Returns NO YDS AVG LG TD
J. Andrushko 3 61 20.3 30 0
Punt Returns NO YDS AVG LG TD
Spencer Betts 2 44 22.0 29 0
Cameron Canales 2 7 3.5 7 0
Interceptions NO YDS AVG LG TD
Levar Hayden 1 63 63.0 63 0
Fumbles NO LOST O-D REC
B. Pavlopoulos 1 1

Manitoba

Passing CP-AT YDS TD INT
K. Williams 27-38 391 2 1
Rushing ATT YDS AVG LG TD
Nic Demski 15 104 6.9 35 0
K. Williams 10 74 7.4 18 0
Kienan Lafrance 10 46 4.6 11 0
Andrew Barry 3 16 5.3 9 0
Receiving NO YDS AVG LG TD
Tyson Takasaki 6 118 19.7 42 0
Stu Schollaardt 7 82 11.7 24 2
Xavier Johnson 3 71 23.7 57 0
Brendon Bowman 3 50 16.7 19 0
Nic Demski 3 34 11.3 13 0
Kienan Lafrance 2 17 8.5 9 0
Jared Ralko 1 10 10.0 10 0
Bryden Bone 2 9 4.5 7 0
Kicking FG LG XP PTS
Nick Boyd 3/5 39 2/2 11
Punting NO YDS AVG LG TB -20
Brendon Bowman 3 127 42.3 52 0 0
Kickoffs NO YDS AVG TB OB
Nick Boyd 4 213 53.2 0 1
Kickoff Returns NO YDS AVG LG TD
Nic Demski 2 22 11.0 19 0
Thomas Hall 1 0 0.0 0 0
L. Richardson 1 2 2.0 2 0
Punt Returns NO YDS AVG LG TD
Xavier Johnson 5 14 2.8 10 0
Nic Demski 1 15 15.0 15 0
Interceptions NO YDS AVG LG TD
Fumbles NO LOST O-D REC
Nic Demski 1 0
Defensive Statistics

Manitoba Solo Ast Total Sacks-Yds TFL-Yds FF FR-Yds Int-Yds BrUp Blks QBH

UBC Solo Ast Total Sacks-Yds TFL-Yds FF FR-Yds Int-Yds BrUp Blks QBH

25 Marlon Azurdia 6 3 7.5 1 – 10 1 – 10 – –
2 Pete Adams 3 3 4.5 – – – –
5 Evan Gill 2 4 4 – – – – 1
48 Eric Vincent 3 2 4 – – – –
39 Thomas Hall 3 1 3.5 – – – –
23 B. Macfarlane 3 0 3 – – – –
41 Lauren Kroeker 1 3 2.5 – – – –
13 David Ferrier 2 0 2 – – – –
21 Teague Sherman 1 2 2 – – – –
30 Bami Adewale 1 1 1.5 – – – –
44 L. Richardson 1 1 1.5 – – 1 1-0 – 1
45 Al Turnbull 1 1 1.5 – – – –
90 Adam Hindley 0 2 1 – – – – 1
97 Lincoln Bryan 0 2 1 – – – –
98 Clifton Lewis 1 0 1 – – – –
12 Jared Ralko 0 1 0.5 – – – –
47 Nick Boyd 0 1 0.5 – – – –
89 Stu Schollaardt 0 1 0.5 – – – –
35 Grayson Wells – – – – 1
TOTALS 28 28 42 1 – 10 1 – 10 1 1-0 – 3 1
6 Vivie Bojilov 6 6 9 – – – –
44 Devin Kavanagh 6 5 8.5 – – – –
9 Sam Carino 4 2 5 – – – – 1
22 Levar Hayden 4 2 5 – – – 1-63
25 K. Kuma-Mintah 5 0 5 – – – –
20 Chris Mark 2 5 4.5 – – – – 1
2 Adam Konar 1 5 3.5 – – – –
17 J. Carpenter 3 0 3 – – – –
41 Ford Marcotte 1 4 3 – – – –
99 Martin Park 2 2 3 – – – –
5 Serge Kaminsky 1 3 2.5 1 – 1 1 – 1 – –
14 Alex Babalos 2 1 2.5 – – – – 1
31 Connor Flynn 1 3 2.5 1 – 11 1 – 11 – –
8 Kareem Ba 1 1 1.5 – – – –
34 Ryan Couper 1 1 1.5 – – – –
95 Justice Osei 0 3 1.5 – – – –
18 Thomas Harris 0 2 1 – – – –
46 Pierre Lacerte 1 0 1 – – – –
53 Jon Hitchen 1 0 1 – – – –
88 Joey Gabrick 1 0 1 – – – –
90 Geoff Piper 1 0 1 – – – –
TM TEAM 1 0 1 – 1 – 3 1 – –
3 Dave Boyd 0 1 0.5 – – – –
43 Ben Bahrami 0 1 0.5

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