Huskies stun T-Birds with Hardy Cup Semifinal comeback, ending UBC’s season in heartbreak – University of British Columbia Athletics

38

Winner

Saskatchewan Huskies
SSK

1-0

33

UBC Thunderbirds
UBC

0-1

Winner

Saskatchewan Huskies
SSK

1-0

38

33

Score By Quarters

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	F
SSK Saskatchewan Huskies	3	17	0	18	38
UBC UBC Thunderbirds	7	14	12	0	33

Game Recap: Football | 11/2/2024 6:37:00 PM | Jeff Sargeant (UBC Communications)

VANCOUVER – The Saskatchewan Huskies erased a nine point deficit in the final minute of the game, scoring two touchdowns within a 31 second span, to hand the UBC Thunderbirds a shocking 38-33 Hardy Cup Semifinal loss Saturday afternoon, ending their season in spectacular fashion.

The ‘Birds led 33-20 heading into the final quarter and appeared set to earn their third straight trip to the Hardy Cup Final, only to have the Huskies put together a comeback for the ages, ending UBC’s season with a shock.

“I’ve never been part of anything that drastic before,” said UBC Head Coach Blake Nill shortly after the heartbreaking result. “It’s going take time to process.”

Perhaps the key turning point of the game came just inside the three-minute warning when Saskatchewan quarterback Anton Amundrud was picked off by Max Kennedy. But a forced fumble recovered by Ryker Frank before the play was dead gave the Huskies a critical first down. UBC’s defence ended up forcing the Huskies into a 42-yard Lukas Scott field goal attempt that went wide right, ending in a single point.

The damage of that drive was minimal, but considering how the game could have essentially been salted away, it proved pretty critical.

UBC was forced to punt on their next drive, giving the Huskies the ball back down by nine points with 1:22 on the clock. Amundrud led the visitors to an efficient, three-play touchdown drive capped off with a 33 yard pass to Ercy Avul.

Sask lined up for the onside kick with Katley Joseph first onto the ball as the Huskies kept possession on a short field at the UBC 52. Four Ryker Frank carries later and the Huskies got the ball into the end zone again, taking the lead, leaving the ‘Birds with just 22 seconds to try to mount a miraculous comeback of their own which wasn’t to be.

“We must have had a half dozen chances to finish that game,” said a despondent Nill. “Offence completely shut down in the fourth quarter. We had chances to finish it, we just weren’t able to do it. We let them back in with simple mistakes.”

The first three quarters had the Thunderbirds executing well on both sides of the ball. Rooker had two touchdown passes in the opening half, a 12-yard toss to Mark Webb and a dazzling 75-yard completion to Sam Davenport who finished the game with 162 yards, his highest single game total as a T-Bird.

?? FB | A one-play drive for @ubcfbl as Rooker finds Sam Davenport for a 75-yard touchdown and a 21-13 lead! #GoBirdsGo pic.twitter.com/x4Zee9tI4R

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) November 2, 2024

Derek Engel also threw a touchdown pass to offensive lineman Caleb Cunningham who entered as eligible for a little bit of T-Bird trickery, a score which gave UBC a 14-10 lead midway through the second.

All told, UBC had a combined 483 yards of passing, 372 of them from Rooker who finished the game 20-of-29 with three touchdowns and one interception.

But for all of UBC’s success in the air, they were held to just 84 total on the ground. Standout running back Isaiah Knight was not able to dress due to injury with rookie Caleb Yang leading the ground charge with 24 yards on five carries.

After Davenport’s late second quarter touchdown put UBC in front 21-13, Frank got the Huskies back within one at the break with the first of his two major scores of the game.

?? FB | Derek Engel finds Caleb Cunningham and the rookie offensive lineman scores the go-ahead TD for @ubcfbl, now up 14-10 in the @CanadaWest Hardy Cup Semifinal! #GoBirdsGo pic.twitter.com/6yUuo03hKw

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) November 2, 2024

The third quarter belonged to UBC who outscored the Huskies 12-0 on the strength of a 16-yard Rooker touchdown pass to Shemar McBean who battled his way through tackles into the end zone, along with a Kieran Flannery-Fleck field goal and a conceded safety.

But the T-Birds roll came to a halt in the final frame with Saskatchewan now set to host the Hardy Cup Final next weekend against the Regina Rams who earned an upset win of their own Saturday, a 28-25 victory over the Bisons in Winnipeg.

“You got to make plays all game. More than another team winning, you lose it,” Nill added. “Total credit, they were able to keep going and not shut it down, while we did not.”