Huskies fall short against Rouge et Or in Vanier Cup

The Laval Rouge et Or has captured its U Sports-leading 11th Vanier Cup title.

Laval defeated the University of Saskatchewan Huskies 30-24 on Saturday in London, Ont., in the 57th version of the title game — making it two straight years of despair for the Huskies.

Saskatchewan has lost each of its past six appearances in the Vanier Cup. The Huskies last won the Canadian university title in 1998.

Laval’s offence was just too much for the Huskies to handle Saturday, as quarterback Arnaud Desjardins finished with 397 yards passing and receiver Kevin Mital had 142 receiving yards and one passing touchdown.

The teams traded first-quarter field goals before Saskatchewan scored the game’s first major on a three-yard touchdown pass from Mason Nyhus — who could’ve easily run it in — to Everett Iverson on a third-down gamble to open the second quarter.

Laval wasn’t backing down easily, though, and stayed on the tails of the Huskies all half.

Kalenga Muganda was able to finish a 76-yard drive by the Rouge et Or with a three-yard touchdown run.

Both offences were taking shots at each other’s defence as the Huskies marched back with a 75-yard drive, finished by a three-yard TD pass from Nyhus to Rhett Vavra.

Saskatchewan’s defence also put its stamp on the game, limiting Muganda to 76 yards on the ground after he finished with 173 yards on 23 carries in last week’s Mitchell Bowl.

But Desjardins was able to lean on Mital, who was also named the 2022 Hec Crighton Trophy winner as the top U Sports football player.

Going into halftime it was all squared up at 17.

Both offences seemed to stall to open the second half, with Laval getting on the board late in the third quarter with a Vincent Blanchard field goal from 10 yards out.

That’s when Laval started to pull away, as the passing game was just too much for the Huskies’ defence to slow down.

But it wasn’t Desjardins who provided the pivotal moment for the Rouge et Or. Early in the fourth quarter, Mital threw a one-yard touchdown pass out of the wildcat formation to David Dallaire to put Laval up 27-17.

The Huskies marched down the field on their following drive trying to chip away at that lead, but a tipped pass in the end zone led to a Laval interception from Felix Petit.

But Nyhus and Vavra did their best to bring the Huskies back into it after Vavra returned a punt 35 yards into Laval territory and then caught two tipped passes for big gains.

Daniel Wiebe caught a Nyhus pass from three yards out to cut the Laval lead to 27-24.

The Huskies’ defence was then able to make a partial stand, limiting Laval to only a field goal on the following drive.

But that was all the Huskies had left in the tank as Laval’s defence made some crucial stops late in the game. The Rouge et Or were able to run out the clock to secure the Vanier Cup.

Mital was named the game’s most valuable player while Laval’s Charles-Alexandre Jacques was named its top defensive player.

Nyhus finished his U Sport career with 344 passing yards, three touchdowns and an interception in his final game.