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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"Dinos jinx" goes on for Huskies

U of Calgary gets 10^th straight win over U of Saskatchewan

Niko DiFonte (#45) boots the winning field goal for the Dinos.

    The University of Saskatchewan Huskies just can’t seem to get a Dinos sized load off their collective backs.

    For a short time in Friday night’s Canadian Interuniversity Sport football encounter at Griffith’s Stadium in Saskatoon, the host Huskies appeared poised to earn their first victory against the University of Calgary Dinos in six years. The Dinos had other ideas.

    With 2:04 to play in the fourth quarter, the Huskies led 19-17 and had the Dinos pinned at their own six yard line. To make matters worse for the visitors, they had to drive into a fairly stiff breeze.

    Those obstacles didn’t seem to matter to fifth-year Dinos quarterback Jimmy Underdahl. Underdahl drove his team 101 yards in nine plays to put U of C in range for a 10-yard chip shot field goal. 

    Kicker Niko DiFonte booted home the winning points with 40.8 seconds remaining on the clock to ultimately give the Dinos a 20-19 victory before a packed house of 7,938 spectators. The win allowed U of C to sit alone in first place in the Canada West Conference with a 3-0 mark, while U of S falls to 2-1.

Quentin Chown (#31) pushes the Dinos into range for a winning field goal.

    Including action in the regular season and playoffs, the Dinos have won 10 straight head-to-head meetings with the Huskies. The Huskies last win over the Dinos came back on Oct. 15, 2010, when U of S claimed a 36-17 decision at Griffiths Stadium.

    Going into Friday’s battle, it seemed like the Huskies, who were rated 10^th in the CIS top ten rankings, were due to break the jinx.

    Before Friday’s contest, the last time these two teams met was in a Canada West quarter-final playoff match last year. The Huskies led that encounter 22-19 early in the fourth quarter only to fall 37-29.

    During the off-season, the Huskies strengthened their depth landing some key recruits from the Saskatoon Hilltops 2015 Canadian Junior Football League championship team. It was hoped the additions of those recruits would get the Huskies over a few humps, which included ending the head-to-head skid with the Dinos, who are rated second in the CIS rankings.

Jimmy Underdahl (#16) fires a pass downfield for the Dinos.

    The visitors got out of the gates with a fast start on Friday going up 10-0 in the first quarter thanks to 22-yard field goal by DiFonte and a 12-yard touchdown run by running back Quentin Chown.

U of S responded rolling off 16 straight points in the second quarter to hold a 16-10 edge at halftime.  
    Huskies quarterback Kyle Siemens fired a 13-yard touchdown strike to Hilltops grad Chad Braun and an eight-yard scoring toss to Samuel Baker. U of S kicker Sean Stenger contributed singles from a missed field goal and a kickoff rouge to round out the Huskies second quarter surge.

    It also appeared luck was going to shine the Huskies way too. The Dinos first possession of the second half ended when DiFonte nailed the right upright on a 40-yard field goal attempt preventing the visitors from cutting into the Huskies lead.

    After a scoreless third quarter, the Dinos went in front 17-16, when Chown ran in a four-yard major score for his second rushing touchdown of the day with 9:16 to play in the fourth quarter.

Chad Braun hauls in a touchdown catch for the Huskies.

    U of S responded on its next series when a five play 78 yard drive culminated with a 20-yard field goal by Stenger to give the hosts a 19-17 edge. That set the stage for the dramatics on Dinos scoring drive late in the frame.

    After the Dinos went ahead 20-19, the Huskies had a chance to get in range for the winning field goal with the wind at their backs, but the offence turned the ball over on downs after three plays.

    Underdahl had a solid night completing 29-of-43 passes for 383 yards. He didn’t have any touchdown passes, but he also didn’t have any interceptions.

    Siemens was sound too connecting on 20-of-35 attempts for 283 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Hilltops grad Matt Kozun had a pair of sacks being named the Huskies player of the game.

Huskies LB Brad Kotania (#40) nails Dinos SB Austen Hartley.

    When the dust settled, the difference in Friday’s game was the fact the Dinos were able to put together that long drive late in the fourth quarter to get in range for the winning kick. The Huskies played valiantly in the setback. With that said, it was still agonizing for the Huskies to drop their 10^th straight to U of C.

    The only thing the Huskies can do now is wait for their next opportunity to break the “Dinos jinx.” The two teams meet again on Oct. 22 in Calgary.

    Before contest comes around, both teams will be focuses on their respective upcoming schedules. The Huskies return to action on Sept. 24, when they travel to Winnipeg to take on the U of Manitoba Bisons. The Dinos remain on the road and travel to Regina this coming Friday to take on the U of Regina Rams.

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