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It wasn’t the most ideal start to the season, but University of Regina Rams head coach Mark McConkey said there’s still room for optimism.
The Rams lost their home opener to the UBC Thunderbirds 25-10 on Friday at Mosaic Stadium.
It was a rematch of a Canada West semifinal last year, which UBC won 28-14.
“We just didn’t execute,” McConkey said Friday. “We’re 0-and-1; we’re not dead. We’ve got a lot of football ahead, we’ve just got to continue to get better.”
The Rams’ offence led by second-year quarterback Noah Pelletier struggled to get anything going for most of the game.
The home team didn’t manage to get on the scoreboard until late in the second quarter when UBC conceded a safety.
Third-year running back Christian Katende ran for 32 yards on six carries.
The Thunderbirds had 431 total yards of offence compared to 277 for the Rams.
It was a productive outing for third-year Rams receiver D’Sean Mimbs, who had six catches for 92 yards, and fifth-year receiver Bennett Stusek, who had six catches for 53 yards on top of hauling in a two-point conversion.
It wasn’t a great day for Pelletier as he only managed to complete 12 passes out of 28 attempts for 138 yards.
In the fourth quarter, the Rams handed the reins to fourth-year quarterback Bryden O’Flaherty.
He provided a much-needed spark to the offence as he helped lead the group down the field, with the drive capped off by Pelletier coming back in briefly for a rushing touchdown.
O’Flaherty finished the game with 94 passing yards while completing 10 of 16 passes.
Although the offence struggled, McConkey said he was proud of his defence.
UBC’s conceded safety was set up by fifth-year linebacker Brayden Wagg’s 19-yard sack of UBC quarterback Garrett Rooker the play before.
“That’s probably the best offence in (Canada West) and they held them to 25 points and we probably gave them 10 of those (points) on offence,” McConkey said.
Rooker, who is in his third year, went 19-for-25 while throwing for 305 yards. He was also complemented by a strong rushing attack led by third-year running back Isaiah Knight, who ran for 100 yards while averaging five yards per carry.
But even with all the yards given up, the Rams were able to limit UBC to just one touchdown. Rooker hit third-year receiver Sam Davenport in stride for a 61-yard house call in the second quarter.
Davenport finished the game with three catches for 80 yards.
Rooker spread the ball around, managing to get fourth-year receiver Edgerrin Williams-Hernandez involved (four catches for 65 yards) along with second-year receiver Shemar McBean, who had four catches for 51 yards.
It was a big day for UBC kicker Kieran Flannery-Fleck as he had six field goals and hit the extra point on the team’s sole touchdown.
The Rams will hope to right the ship against the Saskatchewan Huskies next week.
The Huskies are 1-0-0 after a 30-27 victory over the Manitoba Bisons on Friday. Saskatchewan trailed 25-7 at the half before rallying.
The Huskies took their first lead of the game at 7:04 of the fourth quarter, when Anton Amundrud connected with Daniel Wiebe on a 49-yard touchdown pass. David Solie’s convert gave Saskatchewan a 30-25 lead; a converted safety with eight seconds left in the fourth completed the scoring.
Amundrud went 18-for-31 passing for 313 yards with four touchdowns for the Huskies, who got five catches for 150 yards and a touchdown from Daniel Perry.
McConkey couldn’t say which quarterback will be starting next week for the Rams, but he reaffirmed his support for Pelletier.
“Noah’s our guy. He’s been tremendous all camp,” McConkey said.
“I thought he made the right reads sometimes but when the receivers are dropping them and you make a bad throw and then you get hit once or twice, it just starts to add up and (it) kind of compiled on him a little bit there.”