QUICKLY
The University of Regina Rams bowed out of the Canada West playoff picture with a 41-34 setback to the Manitoba Bisons on Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Rams had the only scoring of the first quarter on a safety, a field goal, and a rouge before the two teams traded blows in the second. 
• DeShawn Le Jour caught a 1-yard flip from Jackson Tachinski for the first major of the game, but the Rams responded with a massive 11-play, 79-yard drive that took 7:18 off the clock and finished with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Owen Sieben to Rylan Sokul.
• Manitoba added a Maya Turner field goal at the end of the first half to get within three at the break, and a Markos Bockru interception set up another Turner field goal early in the third which tied up the game. Bockru then got on the board himself, pouncing on a Rams fumble and taking it 33 yards for a touchdown to put Manitoba up 20-13.
• But the Rams replied immediately with a drive led by Marshall Erichsen. It took the Rams just five plays to hit paydirt and Erichsen was involved in all of them, including a 25-yard reception from Sieben which was immediately followed by a 21-yard touchdown run.
• Turner then hit field goals on consecutive Manitoba possessions and had a chance to make it three in a row, but she missed from 47 yards out and Rams rookie Kenton Appel returned it 115 yards for a historic touchdown that put the Rams up 27-26.
• The Rams' lead didn't last long, though. Tachinski found Braeden Smith from 45 yards out for a major, then ran in the two-point conversion himself to put Manitoba up seven.
• Regina replied on the ensuing drive as Sieben engineered an 11-play, 73-yard drive that he finished off himself on 3rd-and-goal from the 5-yard line as he dove into the end zone just inside the right pylon.
• But Manitoba drove downfield for the game-winning score on the visitors' next possession. The crucial play was a Tachinski pass to Michael O'Shea, Jr. for a 15-yard gain with a 15-yard face making penalty tacked onto the end of it, and two plays later Tachinski ran it in to restore Manitoba's seven-point lead with just 49 seconds to go.
• The Rams had a chance to drive downfield for the tie, but took twin 10-yard penalties on the same play which put them in a 1st-and-30 situation that they couldn't recover from.

STANDINGS
The result mathematically eliminates the Rams (1-5) from the Canada West playoff race. While they could still match Manitoba's win total, they would lose out on a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Bisons.

NOTES
Appel's score was the first time in history that a University of Regina player returned a missed field goal for a touchdown. It also breaks the school record for the longest return off a missed field goal, which had stood at 86 yards since Jamir Walker's return against Calgary on Oct. 19, 2012.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Erichsen finished with a game-high 111 rushing yards and 172 all-purpose yards for the Rams.
• Jackson Sombach led the U of R defence with six tackles and a pair of pass breakups.
• Anthony Montas Leipert, Jacob Tkachuk, and Josh White all had a tackle for loss.
• Sieben was 18-for-30 and finished with 234 passing yards.

NEXT UP
The Rams will head to the West Coast to meet UBC next Saturday in what will be their final road game of the 2023 campaign.