They trailed for almost the entire game, but a late touchdown drive gave the University of Regina Rams a thrilling 35-31 victory over Alberta on Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium.

The four-point victory gave the Rams the season tiebreaker over Alberta after the Golden Bears won by two earlier in the year. Combine that with an upset victory by Manitoba over No. 2 Calgary and Saskatchewan's win over UBC, and the Rams finish in fourth place in the Canada West standings and will meet Calgary in the Canada West semifinals next weekend.

Regina and Calgary will meet at McMahon Stadium in Calgary on Saturday for a 3 p.m. (MST) start. The other Canada West semifinal will feature Saskatchewan hosting Manitoba for a 7 p.m. start on Friday.

Though Alberta led for most of the contest, the Golden Bears never had more than an eight-point advantage over the Rams. The U of R hung around long enough and finally broke through late in the fourth quarter as Noah Picton engineered a six-play, 85-yard drive that was capped by an 11-yard touchdown run by Atlee Simon.

That gave the Rams a four-point lead, and on the ensuing drive a 3rd-and-1 situation near midfield was stuffed by lineman Dean Viena to seal the victory.

Picton finished 27-for-40 and his 467 passing yards rank fourth in U of R history. Three Rams receivers hit triple digits, including Jared Janotta (8 catches, 148 yards), Addison Richards (6 catches, 113 yards), and Mitchell Picton (4 catches, 101 yards).

Simon tied the University of Regina's school record of three touchdown runs for the second straight game and finished with 18 carries for 105 yards.

Alberta's Curtis Dell was 17-for-30 for 306 yards, while receiver Jimmy Ralph had the only touchdown pass of the game after finding Aundrey Webster out of a wildcat formation. Ralph finished with six catches for 136 yards, while Ed Ilnicki had a strong game on the ground for the Golden Bears with 13 rushes for 130 yards and a touchdown. Dell had Alberta's other major, scrambling for a three-yard touchdown on the first drive of the game.

Alberta's defence forced two turnovers during the game, with Tak Landry recording an interception and Codie Abrams forcing a fumble that was recovered by Connor Ralph.

Two major University of Regina records formerly held by Chad Goldie were broken during the game, including by Janotta who overtook Goldie as the school's all-time leader with 2579 receiving yards. Richards also got into the act, breaking Goldie's U of R single-season receptions record with his 55th catch of the season. Janotta's 52 receptions on the year are tied for the third highest total in school history, while Richards and Janotta now sit second and third in the U of R's single-season record book with 916 and 826 receiving yards, respectively.

Janotta, who became Canada West's all-time leader in career receptions last week, passed Chris Evraire (Ottawa), Stefan Ptaszek (Wilfrid Laurier), and Andy Fantuz (Western) to finish sixth in CIS history with 191 catches over his five seasons with the Rams.

NOTES: Noah Picton finishes with 2029 passing yards on the year, breaking Mike Wong's 1999 record for most in a season by a Rams rookie ... Picton's 64.1% completion rate is the third best in school history ... Simon's seven rushing touchdowns on the year stand as the third most in the U of R's single-season record book.