Huskies to challenge Winnipeg
U of S enter playoffs on sloppy note
Huskies 33, Rams 15
The University of Saskatchewan Huskies head into the post-season with memories of sloppy, error-strewn football still fresh.
Saturday’s 33-15 win over the University of Regina Rams featured 14 turnovers — eight by Regina, six by Saskatchewan — and saw the Huskies’ offence struggle to take advantage of the consistently good field position handed to them by their defence.
They have a short week to nail down some answers before visiting the University of Manitoba Bisons for Friday’s Canada West semifinal in Winnipeg.
“Halfway through the third quarter, I said, ‘We could have 45 by now’ — just the way the defence set us up in good field position,” said Huskies’ head coach Brian Towriss, who watched his defenders intercept six Regina passes, five of them from Rams’ quarterback Cayman Shutter.
“We’ve got to get out of the gate better and throw the ball with more authority at the start. We have to be more aggressive and let it fly. There’s no sense being tentative this week; if we are, we won’t be playing the week after. We’ve got to take some chances and go make plays.”
Saturday’s win gives the Huskies a 5-3 record, good for third place in the conference behind 8-0 University of Calgary and 5-3 Manitoba, which holds the tiebreaker based on head-to-head play.
The University of British Columbia, which is 4-4, plays Calgary Saturday in the other semifinal.
Saskatchewan’s six Saturday turnovers included four lost fumbles and two interceptions. The Rams threw six interceptions, with two of them picked off by Braxton Lawrence, along with one lost fumble and a turnover on downs.
Saskatchewan got its scoring from Dexter Janke on runs of two yards and one yard, along with touchdown catches of seven yards from Mitch Stevens and 27 yards from Kit Hillis. Denton Kolodzinski booted a 21yard field goal.
Regina got an 18-yard touchdown catch from Rory Copithorn and a 46-yard TD reception from Richard Sindani.
Saskatchewan quarterback Drew Burko hit 18 of 37 passes for 217 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in a game that saw veteran receiver Jeff Moore exit with a broken ankle.
Manitoba, meanwhile, thumped Alberta 60-18 Saturday.
The Bisons and Huskies met twice this season, with the Huskies winning 36-34 in Winnipeg and Manitoba winning 33-26 last weekend in Saskatoon.
The two teams, said Towriss, are very familiar with each other.
“From a preparation perspective, there’s less film work to do,” Towriss said. “It’s a matter of coming up with a plan and figuring out some things we can take advantage of. We’ll come up with a couple of new things from last game and I’m sure they will, too. Then we’ll both do it again.”