Huskies advance to second straight Vanier Cup

The University of Saskatchewan Huskies are heading back to the Vanier Cup.

They defeated the St. Francis Xavier X-Men 36-19 in Saturday’s Uteck Bowl in Antigonish, N.S.

The Huskies were able to overcome two first-half fumbles, from which the X-Men were not able to gain any momentum.

Saskatchewan opened the scoring with a 32-yard field goal from David Solie to take a 3-0 lead after the first quarter.

St. FX was able to come back with two field goals of its own from 32 and 17 yards, respectively.

But Solie was able to tie the game at six before the teams headed into the locker room at halftime.

Saskatchewan’s offence came to life in the second half.

The Huskies were able to score the first touchdown of the game when they opened the second half with an 11-play, 89-yard drive capped off by a one-yard run from running back Ryker Frank.

But the X-Men didn’t waste any time responding with a 64-yard drive finished by a 19-yard run by quarterback Silas Fagnan.

The Huskies’ defence was then able to hold its ground and force the X-Men into a fourth-quarter safety which gave Saskatchewan a 15-13 lead.

That was followed by a four-play, 75-yard scoring drive finished with a 41-yard pass-and-run TD from quarterback Mason Nyhus to Daniel Wiebe to make it 22-13.

The defence then essentially closed the door on any St. FX comeback with a pick-six interception from John Stoll.

The X-Men were able to cut the lead to 10 points after a 38-yard pass from Fagnan to Ben Harrington made it 29-19.

But that was as close as they got as Nyhus finished it out with a 26-yard pass to Daniel Perry, making it 36-19.

Nyhus finished the day going 30-for-38 passing for 327 yards and two touchdowns.

Frank and Wiebe were the other big offensive threats. Frank finished with 134 yards on the ground and a touchdown while Wiebe had a total of 117 yards and one score.

The Huskies will try to close the season out with a national championship in the Canada Life Vanier Cup next Saturday.