BISONS CLINCH SECOND, SMOKE RAMS 22-3

The University of Manitoba clinched second place in the Canada West football standings with a 22-3 road win over the Regina Rams on Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium.

The Bisons finish with a 4-2 conference record and will host third-place Alberta (3-3) next weekend in the Canada West semifinals.

Saturday’s game between Manitoba and Regina was a defensive struggle that saw only a single touchdown scored the entire game. That came late in the third quarter when Bisons quarterback Jackson Tachinski scored on a one-yard plunge.

The rest of Manitoba’s points came from four Cole Sabourin field goals and an early conceded safety.

Tachinski completed 15 of his 25 passes for 119 yards before backup Sawyer Thiessen came in early in the fourth quarter. Most of Manitoba’s offence came courtesy of running back duo Breydon Stubbs and Noah Anderson who finished with 88 and 70 rushing yards, respectively.

Nick Conway and Isaac Dokken both had interceptions for Manitoba while Stefan Conway had a solo sack and Connor Kyliuk and Brock Gowanlock shared a sack.

With a rash of injuries at the quarterback position, the Rams went with Bryce Welter under centre for the last game of the season. Welter was No. 5 on the quarterback depth chart last year and moved to running back this season, but slid back to quarterback for this game with Josh Donnelly, Sawyer Buettner, and Bryden O’Flaherty all hurt.

Welter was a respectable 13-for-22 and finished with 116 passing yards, his longest coming on a 46-yard toss to D’Sean Mimbs late in the first half. Mimbs finished with four catches and collected a game-high 83 receiving yards.

Brandon Gandire led the U of R defence with three pass breakups, while Anthony Bennett and Josh White both had a pair of tackles for loss. The Rams surrendered just 325 yards of total offence in the game, a decent number considering time of possession was heavily slanted in Manitoba’s favour.

The Manitoba/Alberta semifinal is scheduled for next Saturday afternoon at 4:00 PM. It’ll be the second Canada West postseason game of the day, as first-place Saskatchewan will host fourth-place UBC in the other semifinal starting at 1:00 PM.

NOTES: The Rams honoured their five fifth-year players prior to kickoff including Cameron Cross, Colton Hippe, Kyler Mosley, Cody Peters, and Travis Semenok … the Rams also recognized graduating fourth-year players Jacob Laboccetta, Matt Moore, and Derek Walde.