Noah Pelletier threw for 360 yards in the air, Marshall Erichsen added 196 on the ground, and the Regina Rams improved to 3-0 on the season with a 37-20 win over UBC in Friday night's marquee Canada West matchup.
The evening began with yet another twist at quarterback for the Thunderbirds. UBC's depth charts listed Drew Viotto as QB1 heading into the matchup, but it was Derek Engel taking the snap on the Birds' first down, making his first start of the season.
It was Pelletier who was the best quarterback on the field though. Fresh off a Hardy Cup run last season, Pelletier is bringing that experience and confidence into his game this season.
He's asking for plays, commanding his teammates, always making the efficient decision — and in return this Rams' offence has been catered towards him and his strengths.
Kicker Kieran Flannery-Fleck got the scoring started with an early field goal, his first of two conversions on the night, but after that UBC would chase on the scoreboard the entire contest.
With the Rams at the five yard-line, wide receiver Rylan Sokul was left unattended in the T-bird end zone, making good on what would be Pelletier's first touchdown pass of three against UBC. Ty Gorniak went on to secure the field goal to put Regina up 7-3 after the first quarter.
For those with their eyes on U SPORTS fantasy football, Gorniak might be a name to keep an eye on for your special teams unit. He began the second quarter with another field goal, his second of three conversions on four attempts Friday night.
UBC's defence continues to leak. After giving up 51 points to Saskatchewan in week 2, the T-birds fell into a 14 point hole when Nicholas Sirleaf cruised into the end zone off a 24 yard pass from Pelletier. The first half would conclude with a 20-6 score in favour of Regina.
Head coach Blake Nill called it an intense UBC locker room at half-time and the Thunderbirds came out with a reinvigorated effort on the field.
Engel was given ample amounts of time to make a beautiful 62-yard pass to a streaking Shemar McBean early in the third quarter.
The Birds rolled off that momentum. With 30 seconds remaining in the quarter Drew Viotto took a surprise snap at the two-yard line, sending a pass to tight-end Jeff Curtis for the touchdown.
Regina would stake their claim as a premier threat in CanWest in the fourth quarter, making adjustments to UBC's third quarter counterpunch and levelling another of their own.
Blake Laidlaw caught the Thunderbirds flatfooted and carried the ball into the end zone off yet another pass from Pelletier for the touchdown.
A late drive from running-back Marshall Erichsen would seal the Rams' victory 37-20. Erichsen was a force on a well balanced Regina attack, racking up 196 yards on the night.
"3-0 is nice when you start the year, but like I told the guys, we've still got a lot of room for improvement," Rams head coach Mark McConkey told OB.SESSED.
"Whether we're 3-0 [or] 0-3 —we're playing well — but I think we still need to take that next step and execute a little bit better. But at the end of the day, boys played hard — we made it hard on ourselves sometimes," said McConkey.
"That's a great team there. Coach Nill does the best job recruiting out of anyone in Canada, and they're athletic, they're well coached, and I thought we had a good game plan both sides of the ball — and we just went out and executed a little better than they did. But they'll be back. That team always gets better, so they'll be a team hunting for us at the end."
After not throwing the ball much in their victory over Calgary last week, McConkey was pleased to see his quarterback pick up a few in the air on Friday night.
Blake Nill didn't have any excuses post-game describing the challenges his team is facing at quarterback and with their run game. He hinted at the possibility of giving one quarterback more of an extended look with a longer leash, as his team tries to get themselves on the same page.
"Our officiating crew this week, I thought did a good job making sure that they weren't the focus of the game — and that hasn't happened very often in Canada West this year," said Nill.
"You saw a filled stadium, a great event, and credit to the officials for flying under the radar a bit. That's what we need more and more, if we're going to build the brand here."
The Rams take on their provincial rival Saskatchewan Huskies on the road next week in another can't miss CanWest matchup, while UBC tries to get back on track against an upstart 2-1 Calgary Dinos squad in their homecoming game at Thunderbird Stadium.