university of regina rams lose two crucial fumbles and a football game to ubc
undefeated record slips out of their hands during fourth quarter
sep 15 2024
2 minute read
university of regina quarterback noah pelletier passing in an earlier game during the 2024 canada west football season.
heywood yu
/
regina leader-post
lost fumbles on back-to-back, fourth-quarter drives cost the university of regina rams a chance to remain undefeated in canada west football saturday.
“we’ve just been unlucky with a couple unlucky bounces,” rams quarterback noah pelletier said after a 14-12 loss to the visiting ubc thunderbirds at mosaic stadium.
“we hadn’t experienced a loss so we’re gonna bounce back. we gotta learn from it and build from it.”
regina’s record dropped to 2-1, alone in second place behind undefeated manitoba (3-0). british columbia improved to 1-2, sitting in a four-way tie with alberta, calgary and saskatchewan in the six-team conference.
“it’s a jam-packed conference, so every game’s big and it’s a shame to drop that one against a team you play only once this season,” said rams head coach mark mcconkey . ”
“every loss hurts. they all hurt in an eight-game season. we gotta rebound and get better. we gotta win next week.”
the rams visit the alberta golden bears on friday.
after scoring a single on the opening kickoff, exchanging converted touchdowns on their first possessions and having isaac wegner kick another single and a field goal, the rams led 12-7 heading into the fourth quarter.
the early touchdowns came on running plays by pelletier and thunderbirds short-yardage quarterback derek engel, but the game’s next major didn’t come until early in the fourth quarter, when ubc running back dane kapler scurried for a seven-yarder. ubc tried an unsuccessful two-point convert before a single on kieran flannery-fleck’s final kickoff put the visitors ahead 14-12.
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a missed field goal by ubc gave the rams possession with 6 1/2 minutes remaining, but five plays into the potential go-ahead scoring drive pelletier fumbled while being sacked by deacon sterna. ubc’s ensuing possession was stopped when tarick polius sacked tbirds quarterback garrett rooker, so the rams had another opportunity.
“i feel like we sent out a little anger today but we didn’t give a lot of effort,” said polius. “everyone came on slow today. next game for sure, we come with the heat.”
two plays into regina’s crucial possession, starting from their 48-yard line with 2 1/2 minutes remaining, running back jevon garwood fumbled away the football, allowing ubc to use most of the remaining time.
“we worked on (ball security) all week because we had so many fumbles last game,” said mcconkey, whose team lost four if its five fumbles while defeating the university of saskatchewan huskies 33-28 .
“obviously it didn’t work, so we gotta get back to the drawing board and learn to take care of the football.”
rooker completed 21 of 32 passes for 243 yards with one interception, a third-quarter pick by defensive back max polischuk in regina’s end zone. pelletier was 19-for-33 for 181 yards. ubc running back isiah knight had 14 carries for 103 yards.
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