• Ty Gorniak drilled a 44-yard field goal with 25 seconds remaining to give the University of Regina Rams a 22-20 road victory over Alberta on Saturday afternoon at Foote Field in Edmonton.

• The Rams clinched a home playoff game courtesy of Saskatchewan's win over UBC on Friday, and Saturday's results made the playoff picture even clearer.
• A Rams win over UBC next weekend combined with a Saskatchewan loss to Manitoba will mean the Rams finish first and will host the winner of Alberta/Calgary in the semifinals.
• Any other result will see the Rams finish second and host Manitoba.

• The first quarter was scoreless, but a big sack by Kaeden Brennan late in the frame caused a fumble which Brandon Wong picked up near midfield. Owen Sieben made consecutive passes to Renzel Arinaza and Nicholas Sirleaf to get the Rams down to Alberta's 26, and then four consecutive Marshall Erichsen runs got the Rams to paydirt.
• The Rams pinned Alberta deep on the ensuing kickoff which caused the Golden Bears to concede a safety, but the Bears got on the board with a 39-yard pass from Eli Hetlinger to Carter Kettyle. The point-after was blocked by Max Polischuk, putting the score at 9-6 for Regina.
• Regina extended the lead with three consecutive big plays late in the half, starting with a 49-yard pass from Sieben to Sirleaf which got the Rams into Alberta territory. Sieben then hit Arinaza for a 22-yard completion, then Erichsen rumbled in from 19 yards out to give the Rams a 16-6 lead at the break. It took the Rams just 24 seconds to run the 3-play, 90-yard scoring drive.
• The Rams opened the second half with a 32-yard Gorniak field goal, but Alberta changed the look of the game with two consecutive touchdowns. Hetlinger and Chevy Thomas matched the Rams' earlier big play with a 49-yard completion which helped set up a 4-yard Seth Poelzer touchdown run, and the Golden Bears took advantage of a short field and scored on an 18-yard pass from Hetlinger to Kettyle which gave Alberta its first lead of the game at 20-19.
• The Rams defence stopped a third-down gamble midway through the fourth quarter, which led to a lengthy 11-play, 63-yard drive that got Regina into field goal range. Gorniak's short field goal from the right hash from 27 yards out looked good to the first-year kicker, but was called wide right and Alberta's Evan Hirst ran it out of the end zone to preserve the one-point lead.
• But the Rams defence forced a two-and-out, giving the visitors an opening that they took full advantage of. Sieben's offence took over from the Regina 41-yard line with 1:44 to go, and the Rams got a pair of first downs and moved into Gorniak's field goal range. Gorniak calmly split the uprights from 44 yards out, matching his career long and putting the Rams up by two with just 25 seconds to go.

• Gorniak's 44-yard winner was the Rams' first go-ahead field goal in the final minute of regulation in 16 years.
• The last time it happened was in 2009, when Perri Scarcelli hammered a 36-yard field goal into the teeth of a northwest wind on a frigid, snowy October night at the old Mosaic Stadium. Scarcelli's boot, which came with 44 seconds left on the clock, secured a 26-24 win for the Rams over Simon Fraser.

• The Rams had been 5-1 two previous occasions - in 2007 and 2010 - but lost their seventh game of the season both of those years. Saturday's win gives the Rams a 6-1 record for the first time in their 26-year history at the U SPORTS level.
• The Rams have already guaranteed that they'll finish with at least a tie for their best Canada West record in program history. They finished 6-2 in 2007, 2012, and 2016, but a win next Friday over UBC would make them the first 7-1 team in school history.

• Erichsen came into Saturday's game with nine touchdown runs, which was tied with Neal Hughes (2003) and Adrian Charles (2010) for the school single-season record.
• His two touchdown runs give him 11 for the season. One more next week would move him into a five-way tie for eighth in Canada West history, while four other players are currently tied for fourth with 13.
• Erichsen also has a touchdown catch, giving him a total of 12 touchdowns scored on the season. He stands alone in second place in U of R history in that category, 2 behind Jason Clermont's record of 14 set back during the 2001 season.
• The third-year running back now has 938 yards on the season, tying him with Atlee Simon (2015) for third in school history. The only Rams with more rushing yards in a single Canada West season are Adrian Charles (972 in 2010) and Neal Hughes (953 in 2003).

11 TD runs (and counting) pic.twitter.com/kbUOUaxgbM

— University of Regina Rams (@reginarams) October 18, 2025

• For the fourth time this season, Sirleaf hit triple digits in receiving yards as he collected 6 catches for a total of 103 yards.
• Sirleaf leads the Rams in all three major receiving categories with 47 catches for 655 yards and 3 touchdowns. 
• The second-year wide receiver is second in Canada West in both receptions and receiving yards, and ranks sixth in the nation with an average of 93.6 receiving yards per game.
• Sirleaf's total of 655 receiving yards is the most by a U of R receiver Ryan Schienbein had 712 back during the 2018 season.

• Besides Polischuk's blocked PAT in the second quarter, the Rams also got a punt block by Carson Sombach in the first quarter. Sombach won't officially get credit for a block because the punt crossed the line of scrimmage, going just seven yards before Ryan Mills jumped on it.
• Besides Brennan's sack - which actually came on an Alberta receiver who was attempting to throw a pass - the Rams also got sacks from Liam LaBelle and Owen Zimmer. The team combined for seven tackles for loss in the win.
• Sombach also broke up two passes while Mills had one pass breakup.

• Arinaza had another solid game for the Rams, catching 7 passes for 82 yards.
• Sieben finished 20-for-30 in his first start of the year and threw for a total of 246 passing yards. The Rams' offensive line had gone six consecutive games without surrendering a sack, but that streak was snapped when Alberta's Emerson Joy brought down Sieben for a 12-yard loss in the third quarter.
• Christian Katende took on a significant share of the running load for the first time since Week 1, finishing with 12 rushes for 34 yards.

• The Rams will close out the Canada West schedule with a rare Friday afternoon game at Leibel Field. Kickoff is set for 1:00 PM.

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