Rams' offence rebounds in victory over Bears

The Leader-Post, Monday, September 10, 2007

After a 23-point loss in Week 1 of the Canada West football season, the University of Regina were a completely different team in Saturday's 24-22 victory against the University of Alberta Golden Bears -- for the first quarter, anyway.

The Rams (1-1-0) jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the first 15 minutes in Saturday's game in Edmonton, but couldn't keep the Bears (0-2-0) down.

"We have to change what we demand of ourselves," Rams head coach Frank McCrystal said Sunday. "Through our own frustration, we forget the fundamentals. We're not going to complete every pass and every run isn't going to be for a first down."

Regina's early lead came courtesy of two touchdown passes from quarterback Teale Orban (23 yards to Chad Goldie and 25 yards to Graham Mosiondz) and a 14-yard Perri Scarcelli field goal.

The score remained unchanged before play was stopped for 33 minutes with 3:24 left in the second quarter due to heavy rain and lightning in the Alberta capital.

When the teams came back on the field, the Bears struck quickly with a 48-yard pass-and-run for a touchdown from Quade Armstrong to Damon Fraietta.

Scarcelli's 13-yard field goal regained Regina's 17-point lead before the half ended.

The third quarter started directly after the end of the second because of the delay and the Bears scored the only 12 points of the frame. First they intercepted Orban on the 25-yard line and Armstrong, who finished the game 12-for-27 with 255 yards, threw a touchdown pass to Aaron Holba on the next play. Next, they scored two points when Scarcelli conceded a safety and Hugh O'Neill kicked a 47-yard field goal to make the score 20-19.

Scarcelli started the fourth quarter with a single but the Bears took a 22-21 lead four minutes later on O'Neill's 33-yard field goal. Scarcelli retook the lead for Regina with a 24-yarder with seven minutes left.

Alberta had a chance to win the game in the final seconds, but O'Neill's 53-yard field-goal attempt fell short and allowed the Rams to breathe a sigh of relief.

McCrystal lamented his team's focus a day after the win.

"We lost that (at the delay)," said McCrystal. "They had 21 yards at that point and the (delay) is not an excuse for letting that go."

There were, however, some very big positives for the Rams on the day. Orban was 38-for-54 for 398 yards with the two touchdown passes and two interceptions. He set a Canada West conference record for most passes completed. Most of those passes went to Goldie (15 catches for 146 yards) who also set a conference record for most receptions in a game.

"Give credit to Teale," said McCrystal. "They were backing way off and we completed a lot of short passes underneath."

Saturday also saw a pair of solid performances from rookie receivers Brenden Owens and Kolten Solomon. Owens caught five balls for 67 yards and Solomon made four catches for 58 yards.

"They figured out it's not high school, but it's not that bad," said McCrystal. "They realized they can play and take the hit. That's a big part mentally."

Now the Rams will be tested mentally for the next two weeks as they try to keep their focus through a bye week and into their next game Sept. 21 against the UBC Thunderbirds at Mosaic Stadium (7 p.m.).

"Hopefully this was a wakeup call," said McCrystal.

In other Canada West games on Saturday, the T-Birds (1-1-0) fell 21-12 to the visiting Manitoba Bisons (2-0-0) and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies (2-0-0) scored 16 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to beat the Calgary Dinos (1-1-0) 27-13. 

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