Box Score

The University of Regina Rams scored a win in their home opener on Friday night, defeating No. 7 UBC by a 33-23 score at Mosaic Stadium.

The two teams were tied at halftime and UBC took a 20-13 lead with a touchdown early in the third quarter, but it was all Rams from there. Quarterback Cayman Shutter connected with Addison Richards (pictured) for touchdowns less than seven minutes apart, giving the Rams the lead for good.

Richards' first touchdown catch was from 22 yards out midway through the third quarter, and his second was off a long 41-yard pass from Shutter on the first play of the fourth. Shutter finished 30-for-51 for 430 yards, while Richards led all players in both receptions (9) and receiving yards (133).

Jared Janotta also had six catches for 114 yards for the Rams, while third-year slotback Riley Wilson finished with five catches for a career-high 96 yards.

UBC quarterback Carson Williams completed 17 of his 30 passes for 220 yards. Josh Kronstrom had a team-leading six catches for 60 yards for the Thunderbirds, who will host No. 2-ranked Calgary (1-0) next Saturday in Vancouver.

The game got off to a rough start for the hometown Rams. At the end of Regina's first possession, UBC's Riley Jones blocked an Andrew Fabian punt, picked it up himself, and ran it in 33 yards for the game's first score. UBC tacked on three more with a Quinn van Gylswyk field goal, but the Rams added a field goal of their own before the first quarter was up after getting into Fabian's range thanks to a great scramble by Shutter that saw him evade both Jones and Shane Garza before lobbing a 30-yard pass to Wilson on the right sideline.

UBC had a pair of first downs on its ensuing possession, but Justin Edralin put an end to the drive after picking off a Williams pass that he threw under massive pressure from Dylan Minshull, who made his first career start for the Rams. Edralin's interception set up a lengthy scoring drive for the Rams, as Shutter engineered a 12-play, 72-yard march that took nearly seven minutes off the clock and finished after Landon Buch punched it into the end zone on third down and from one yard out.

van Gylswyk and Fabian traded field goals late in the second quarter as the teams headed into halftime knotted at 13-13.

UBC's early score came when Williams found David Mann up the seam from 31 yards out to give the visitors their final lead of the game. Shutter was sacked on the first offensive play after Mann's major, but he then found Janotta in triple coverage for a 40-yard gain. That eight-play, 90-yard drive ended with Shutter's first touchdown connection to Richards, and the Rams took the lead for good with Richards' second major 16 seconds into the fourth.

Fabian added three more points to the lead with a 40-yard field goal that just crept over the upright, and the Rams defence held strong with two of UBC's three possessions after that going down as two-and-outs. van Gylswyk's third field goal of the night from 13 yards out brought UBC to within seven with 3:25 left, but the Rams ran 1:35 off the clock on their next drive and after a two-and-out, had two clutch rushes from Jens Johnson for first downs and were able to run out the clock for the win. Fabian chipped another field goal through on the last play of the game to push the winning margin to 10, which may come in handy for tiebreaking purposes at the end of the year as these two teams meet in Vancouver later this season.

Joey Dwyer led the Regina defence with eight solo and four assisted tackles, while Minshull had four solo and eight assisted tackles and registered the team's lone tackle for loss of the game. Both Patrick MacDonald and Jeff Propp had pass breakups for the Rams in the victory.

The Rams (1-0) will now prepare for their first road game of the season next Friday at Manitoba.

NOTES: Janotta passed Jordan Sisco for third on the U of R's all-time list with 145 career receptions and needs 29 to pass Chad Goldie for second … Janotta also moved past Michael Thomas for sixth on the school's all-time receiving yards list … Janotta now has 1867 career receiving yards, needing 37 more to pass Brenden Owens for fifth and 125 to surpass Mark McConkey for fourth … rookie running back Atlee Simon handled kickoff duties for the Rams, averaging 45.5 yards on four kickoffs … Fabian was a perfect 4-for-4 on field goal attempts … Mitch Thompson had a 56-yard kickoff return early in the game following the Jones touchdown.