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Friday, September 4, 2015

Rams Lose Season Opener to Alberta

 

The University of Regina Rams had a nine-point lead at the half, but Alberta outscored them 22-6 in the second half en route to a 29-22 win in both teams' Canada West opener Friday night at Mosaic Stadium.

After the Golden Bears took their first lead of the game after a pair of Ed Ilnicki touchdown runs in the third quarter, a 10-yard catch for a major by Atlee Simon gave the Rams a slim 22-21 lead midway through the fourth.

But Alberta capitalized following its defence's third interception of the game, taking advantage of a short field with a five-play, 43-yard drive that was completed by an 18-yard Ben Kopczynski pass to Tylor Henry and a successful two-point convert. The Rams took over the ball with 1:27 left and drove 44 yards downfield into Alberta territory, but Tak Landry's hit on Mitchell Picton forced an incomplete pass on third down and solidified the win for the visitors.

Making his first career start, the first-year Kopczynski was 22-for-36 with 278 passing yards for Alberta. Jimmy Ralph had eight catches for 91 yards, while Aundrey Webster finished with six receptions for an even 100 yards. Ilnicki had 16 rushes for 90 yards. Brandon Foster, Reid Knox, and Connor Ralph each had interceptions for the Golden Bears defence, while Samson Abbott and Jacob Narbonne each had a sack for a 13-yard loss. Landry and Tom Tsoumpas tied for the team lead in tackles, both ending up with seven solo and four assisted.

Simon had a career-high 189 yards on 28 carries for the Rams, while Noah Picton was 25-for-37 and finished with 321 yards and two touchdown passes. Andrew Bennett had eight catches for 115 yards, while Richard Sindani had five catches for 102 yards including a 15-yard touchdown reception midway through the second quarter.

Alberta (1-0) will now prepare for its home opener against Saskatchewan, which lost 34-28 to visiting Manitoba on Friday night. The Rams (0-1) will hit the road for their first away test of the season, as they'll take on a UBC team which was railroaded 49-16 by Calgary on Friday night.

(Braden Konschuh/U of R Athletics)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tough 4th quarter for a young team trying to learn how to win. UBC and Calgary next up. YIKES!

Anonymous said...


Mitch, just wondering if you have seen the comments from Coach Gibson in Ian Hamilton's story. If you have, does it sound like anyone you know who was recently let go by another football team in Regina?

PS: Nice job last night. Where was Chop?

Anonymous said...

The comments by Gibson in Ian Hamilton's game recap sound very "Chamblinish" to me.

Anonymous said...

Did the Rams really tell Chop via e-mail his days of doing colour were over and they didn't do it until the night before the game? If that is true, that is one of the most gutless and cowardly things I have ever seen.

Anonymous said...

What was with Gibson at the end of the game? He refused to shake the hands of Alberta's coach. Does he think he's Chris Jones?

Anonymous said...

Lost in the shuffle of what happened during and after the game is the play of Atlee Simon.

Could we be seeing the start of what could be another good Canadian RB in the CFL.

Keith

Anonymous said...

Considering Chop and Marco Ricci are two members of the alumni who are very upset with how the McCrystal/Schmidt situation was handled, this doesn't surprise me and answers why Marco wasn't doing the game last night. I also found out it interesting long-time Rams PA announcer Warren Woods wasn't there either.

It would seem as if the Rams have a Soviet dictatorship mentality.

Perhaps some of the stories I have heard over the past few months are not lip-service.

JN

Anonymous said...

what do canadian RBS amount to unless they played in the ncaa really. there are no game breakers that come out of cis

Anonymous said...

The old Junior Regina Rams days are over boys, get used to it already.

Anonymous said...

The old junior days are over. That's a very accurate comment because under the current screw-ups running this team there is no way this team will ever come close to capturing the glory the junior team had.

That's one of the stupidest comments I've ever heard!