Huskies victory wiped out

Penalty nullifies Braun TD catch with 4.8 seconds to play

Receiver Chad Braun thought he had the winning TD here for the Huskies.

    Some Higher Power up there owes Chad Braun a mulligan.

    The veteran receiver, who is in his fifth-year of eligibility, looked like he was going to be the hero for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team during a U Sports regular season clash on Saturday night at Griffiths Stadium against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.
    With the Thunderbirds holding a slim 29-25 lead, Braun hauled in a pass on a sideline out route and zipped into the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown reception with 4.8 seconds to play.

    The 24-year-old’s score was wiped out, when the officials called an illegal block penalty on Huskies receiver Yol Piok.

    On the next and last play of the game, a Hail Mary pass from Huskies quarterback Kyle Siemens was intercepted by Thunderbirds receiver/defensive back Alex Morrison at the UBC seven to preserve a 29-25 victory for the visitors.

QB Kyle Siemens made some big plays passing for the Huskies.

    The officials departed under a chorus of boos and catcalls from a large number of the 3,310 spectators that were in attendance. A miraculous comeback by the host side was not to be as the Huskies trailed 23-2 entering the fourth quarter.

    If you are part of the Huskies coaching staff headed up by Scott Flory, you initially want to watch the video of Braun’s nullified touchdown catch to see if the officials made the correct penalty call on Piok. If the officials were right, it gives you some piece of mind knowing the correct call was made.

    If the call was wrong, you can start consoling your players telling them they did indeed do the right things during the game-deciding moment. The sideline bosses also have to tell their players in this instant you just have to gut through what happened, because in life, you will encounter various situations where bad things happen to you that are out of your control.

Chad Braun had two TDs called back due to penalties.

    You can get upset at an official’s mistake for a time, but then you have to learn to let it go and move on. In a respectable fashion, you have to realize they are human too.

    The one person who will like have bad dreams about Saturday’s clash is Braun. He had two touchdowns that were called back due to penalties.

    Besides seeing his last-second touchdown catch get nullified, Braun had an 82-yard punt return touchdown late in the third quarter erased due to an offside penalty.

    Braun, who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 190 pounds, came to the Huskies last season after spending five campaigns with the Saskatoon Hilltops of the Canadian Junior Football League. He helped the Toppers win CJFL titles in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015 developing a reputation of having a playing style like Weston Dressler, when he played with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders.

    On top of making electric plays on the field, Braun is one of the most likeable players in the Saskatoon football community, so you feel extra sorry for him when his big plays get taken away.

    A number of Huskies supporters will likely blame the officials for the outcome of Saturday’s game.

QB Michael O’Connor put up big numbers for UBC.

    What most in the general public don’t realize is officials these days do their best to try and get all the calls in a game right, because the most consistent ones move on to work games at higher levels. If they realize a mistake was made, they often don’t feel good about what happened.

    Resorting to jumping on them and overly criticising them just makes the situation worse, and if teams level hard criticism, the members of those clubs gamble with the prospect of coming off as pricks. At that point, you might accidentally not have some calls go your way in the future.

    In Canada, officiating in all sports is a work in progress in trying to make things better.

    In the United States, a lot more funding is put into officiating at all levels of sports, but sports in a big industry there. In Canada, sports at all levels often relies on volunteers to move forward and succeed.

    It also has to be noted for the longest time on Saturday it didn’t appear Huskies would even get in position to win the game with a possible last-second touchdown. They led 2-0 after the first quarter due to the Thunderbirds conceding a safety.

    The visitors proceeded to score 23 straight points. Morrison hauled in touchdown receptions from 25 and 35 yards out in the second quarter from Thunderbirds quarterback Michael O’Connor. O’Connor hit receiver J.J. DesLauriers on a 15-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, and the Huskies conceded a safety to conclude the surge by the visitors.

Huskies DB Payton Hall (#28) nails a Thunderbirds receiver.

    While the Thunderbirds offence scored points, the Huskies offence appeared to be stuck in the mud plagued by a number of dropped passes from receivers.

    The Huskies halted the bleeding early in the fourth quarter, when Siemens hit Samuel Baker for an eight-yard touchdown toss to cut the Thunderbirds lead to 23-9.

    O’Connor ran in a touchdown from six yards out, but the point after attempt was botched to hold UBC’s lead at 29-9.

    Siemens hit sophomore receiver Finley Easton with a 13-yard touchdown toss and Piok with a 33-yard scoring strike to cut the Thunderbirds lead to 29-23. The Thunderbirds conceded a safety with 59.3 seconds to play to cut their edge to 29-25 and give the Huskies one last drive from 75 yards out to try and win the game. That led to the dramatics at the end.

Alex Morrison (#85) makes one of his two TD catches. 

    Siemens completed 26-of-47 passes for 310 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions as the Huskies lost their fourth straight to fall to 2-4. O’Connor completed 37-of 51 passes for 466 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions for the Thunderbirds, who improved to 4-2 and locked up a playoff berth. Thunderbirds receiver Trivel Pinto caught 13 passes to lead all pass catchers with 156 yards receiving.

    With two weeks to go in the regular season, the Huskies still sit fourth in the Canada West Conference and hold the conference’s final playoff berth ahead of the U of Alberta Golden Bears and U of Manitoba Bisons, who are both 1-5.

    After Saturday’s heartbreaker to the Thunderbirds, the Huskies are at a turning point. They could let that affect them to the point where they tailspin right out of the post-season picture.

    They could also show true character and rally back from that disappointment, because they can still have a memorable season.
    The Huskies would look real impressive, if they can pull off the latter.

    Their first chance to get on the upswing occurs this coming Saturday, when they travel to Edmonton to take on the Golden Bears.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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