Huskies defeat Rams 57-14, Regina’s season ends

An injury-riddled University of Regina team proved to be no match for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, with the Huskies easily winning 57-14 in Regina Friday.

Due to injuries to both Seb Britton and Noah Picton — and to save a year of eligibility for Josh Donnelly — Colton Hippe got the start in the game.

Hippe became the third starting quarterback in as many games for the Rams.

The Huskies were the first team to find some success on offense, with quarterback Kyle Siemens finding some space on a long run.

The Huskies settled for a field goal to take the early lead.

The Rams defense stepped up later in the first quarter, with Brandon Brooks picking off a Siemens pass in the middle of the field.

That set the Rams offense up around midfield and march down the field, with Atlee Simon finding paydirt to get the first touchdown of the game.

The Huskies once again found a big play in the second quarter, with Colton Klassen receiving a long pass and running it all the way to the end zone.

Tyler Chow put the Huskies back in the driver’s seat of the rivalry game, with a 34-yard run for the score.

Not to be outdone, Rams running back Kyle Borsa broke off a 65-yarder to keep the Rams in it.

The Huskies ended the half on a high note, with Adam Machart taking a screen pass in for the score with 13 seconds left to give the Huskies a 27-14 lead.

The Huskies took the game over in the third quarter, with Jesse Kuntz catching an eight-yard touchdown pass and Joe Trumpy caught another one for the Huskies just over two minutes later.

The Rams couldn’t get anything going at all in the second half, as the Huskies sailed to the win.

“We don’t really have much time to reflect, we’re just moving onto the next opponent,” Huskies head coach Scott Flory said. “I’m proud of the way we progressed, especially down the backstretch here and it’s good but we got work ahead of us and we’re not done yet.”

The Huskies will now look to the playoffs but they don’t know who their opponent is quite yet. The UBC Thunderbirds will meet the University of Manitoba Bisons Saturday to determine the final three spots in the playoffs.

But as one Saskatchewan team will be continuing their season, the others has come to an end.

Atlee Simon, who is the Rams all-time leading rusher, finished the game with 68 yards on the ground.

He finished his Rams career with 3,296 rushing yards.

The Rams finished the season 1-7 after forfeiting three games due to having an ineligible player on the roster.

“I’ve never had a season like this in my life, this last half of the season has been the worst stretch of coaching or even playing, I’ve never experienced anything like it in the last three to four weeks,” Rams head coach Stephen Bryce said.

He called the season “extremely disappointed” but said the team and coaches have to hit the reset button quickly to start preparing for 2019.

Picton’s historic Rams career comes to an end

While Picton didn’t suit up for the final three games of the season, he will still go out as one of the all-time great quarterbacks in U Sports history.

The Regina product finished his career with 11,494 passing yards — more than any other quarterback in Canadian university history.

His 835 completions place him second on the U Sports all-time list.

Picton also threw for 71 touchdowns in his five years as a Ram, which is good for second-place all-time in Canada-West.

His 67.7 per cent completion rate is also a Canada-West record