VANCOUVER — If you were to make yet another argument for football as sport’s ultimate game of survival, then UBC’s Friday night victory against the visiting Calgary Dinos was — both literally and figuratively— its perfect storm.
Against the backdrop of a night sky, the lights at Thunderbird Stadium provided the perfect level of illumination from which to appreciate the full scope of the gridiron game played in torrential rain storm.
Unrelenting from start to finish, this so-called ‘atmospheric river’ effectively washed away any notion of flash and gadgetry, stripping the game down to its basics of tackling and running the football.
And guess what the surging ‘Birds (5-2) did best en route to a survivalist-like 21-5 win over the Dinos (2-4), one which not only extended its win streak to five straight, but in the process clinched a home playoff date in the Hardy Cup race with one more week of regular-season play remaining?
Yup.
They tackled and they ran the ball.
“Bad weather, terrible weather,” began UBC head coach Blake Nill. “This time of year you have to be able to run the ball. We were able to run the ball. Calgary… they just weren’t able to get on track.”
Although able to manage just a single point in the second half, UBC was never threatened by Calgary, perhaps most of all because of the ‘Birds ability to disrupt Dinos quarterback Dom Britton throughout the game, effectively cancelling any and all Calgary attempts to build rhythm along the ground behind its RB-1 Mathieu Clarke.
That, coupled with a 25-carry, 163-yard rushing effort from UBC running back Isaiah Knight, who continued to thrive behind his bruising and balanced offensive line, intensified the belief that this is a team ready to meet the challenge of repeating as Hardy Cup champs for the first time in 37 years.
Yet first and foremost was the play of UBC’s defensive front where tackles Aiden Bertuzzi, Deacon Sterna and Aaron Parker seemed to be primary tone-setters, along with the likes of Taaj Jhooty, and versatile linebacking types in Jaxon Ciraolo-Brown and Ronan Horrall.
Over the first half of a game in which the inability to establish a run game would certainly come with dire consequences, the Thunderbirds’ defence limited Dinos’ running back Clarke to just 22 yards on five carries.
Futhermore, over the same span, it suffocated the passing game of Calgary pivot Britton, limiting him to an incredible 1-of-7 performance for just six yards.
Including plays which resulted in negative yardage, the Dinos were limited to just 16 total yards on 17 offensive snaps in the first half, while UBC had 213 yards on 39 snaps.
The Thunderbirds scored both of their touchdowns in the second quarter, each the direct result of Calgary turnovers.
First, in the face of a rush, Britton fumbled away the ball before he could get into his throwing motion, leading to a Sterna recovery at the UBC 40-yard line and an eventual two-yard scoring run by Dane Kapler.
Two UBC possessions later, linebacker Ronan Horrall sacked Britton, his forced fumble recovered by Jhooty to set up an eventual Knight rushing major and a 19-1 lead with 2:33 left in the half.
Combining those two scoring drives offer a clearer perspective of a UBC offence able to do exactly what it had to do under the conditions at hand.
And that, of course, was to keep everything on the ground.
UBC totalled 111 yards of combined offence on its two touchdown drives, 98 of which came along the ground as the ‘Birds rushed on 15 of 17 snaps.
Weather reports had all indicated the level of precipitation expected by game time, and those reports all went into the team’s week of practice.
“We were preparing for it all week… we knew it was going to be this kind of a game,” said Nill, whose team did the best it could to imitate the deluge by keeping footballs as wet as they could throughout drills.
The pay-off?
UBC did not fumble once, its only turnover a second-quarter interception which the ‘Birds nullified with a take-away of their own on the game’s very next snap.
“Our D-line every week is gaining more confidence,” said UBC’s Bertuzzi, the Victoria native and former standout at Mt. Douglas Secondary who might have had his best-ever game in blue-and-gold with eight tackles, including six solo stops, and two-and-a-half tackles for loss.
Had Bertuzzi played in a more challenging weather game at any prior point of his career?
“Not quite like this but I like it because it just makes you go harder,” he said. “Some guys don’t like it, so they go softer, but I just keep going. I am happy but I am never satisfied. I got to keep getting better.”
Bertuzzi added a sack and a forced fumble as part of a resume that may well be among the Canada West’s best defensive performances this week.
Fellow front-line rushers Deacon Sterna and Aaron Parker were excellent, as was Taj Jhooty and linebackers Ciraolo-Brown, Mitchell Townsend and Horral, while Jason Soriano and Jerrell Cummings shone at the cornerback spots when called upon.
On the evening, the defence dialled up by UBC coordinator Pat Tracey registered 10 tackles for loss including four sacks (Ciraolo-Brown, Townsend, Bertuzzi and Horrall), while forcing two fumbles and coming away with one interception (Soriano).
Offensively, UBC quarterback Garrett Rooker morphed into the perfect rainy day general, going 11-of-17 for 30 yards, the latter number substantial in relating the level of restraint required in just such a game.
And that’s because, in a game where surviving the elements was the only priority, UBC has their own Knight in shining armour, and one again, he put on a clinic.
In a game in which he and teammate Kapler (10 carries, 52 yards) did not have a negative yardage play between them, Knight capped an amazing two-game regular season series against the Dinos.
If you add his 25 carries for 163 yards to his 24 carries for a career-high 235 yards in UBC’s 32-30 road win back on Sept. 28, Knight has rushed 49 times for 398 yards and an 8.1 yards-per-carry average against Calgary.
There is the possibility the two teams could meet in the playoffs, but now UBC’s attention shifts to its regular-season finale next Saturday in Winnipeg against a Manitoba team which handed them their worst loss of the season, a 33-10 drubbling back on Sept. 6 at Thunderbird Stadium.
“When we lost to Manitoba, they were all down,” said Nill of his charges and their surprising 0-2 start. “But it’s just a matter of finding the chemistry, and you know what? We’ve still got some ceiling to hit, but we’re playing well.”
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