football: Tough pill to swallow
Karl Yu, Associate Staff Writer

With turkey and trimmings from Thanksgiving dinner well digested, the SFU football team took to the field against UBC, a team they had beaten eleven days previous. The Clan had high hopes of not only beating their cross-town rivals but of getting back into the playoff race as well.

Though the defense played exceptionally well, and the ground game was running on all cylinders, it was not the Clan's day as they fell to the T-birds 18-10. Head coach Chris Beaton found positives in the obviously disappointing loss. "We played a good defensive football game," said Beaton. "We had one blown coverage that resulted in a touchdown. Other than that we held them to singles and field goals." But Beaton said that the game came down to a battle of field position. "We had very poor field position all game, I don't think we crossed their fifty-yard-line until the fourth quarter."

Linebacker Neil McKinlay was a rock on defense, posting 12 tackles and 2 sacks. After the game McKinlay said, "We played a solid game [defensively]. We missed an assignment here and there, but we made up for it afterwards. I'm proud of the guys, they played well, especially the front four. They've played well the last three or four games and they've really helped us [linebackers] out."

Fellow linebacker B.J. "Bubba" Montabello was also satisfied with the play of the defense. "Our defense played really well and made plays when it counted," said Montabello. "We were deep in our own end a couple of times and only allowed one touchdown. Otherwise we held them to field goals." Montabello also had hope for the offense. "I think our offense will find their way, it'll just take a bit more time."

Defensive lineman Brotheren Osei wasn't as content with the play of the defensive unit. "I think we played fairly well," said Osei. "There were a few breaks and we did let a few things through. We did what we needed to do, but we didn't go beyond that."

Though the offense had difficulty with the passing game, the Clan was able to establish the run. Marty Kipps, who looks more confident through every game, rushed for 157 yards on 21 carries. Kipps was finding the holes and exploding for big gains. This was due in large part to the offensive line. The hogs did yeoman's work in the trenches, not only opening holes for Kipps, but protecting the quarterback as J.R. Davies was sacked only once."

Left tackle Ibrahim Khan was disappointed with the outcome. "The loss hurts, especially for the o-line," Khan said. "We knew we could run the ball based on our performance at the Shrum Bowl and we did for the most part. We had a couple of two and outs but otherwise we played well."

SFU now has to win its remaining two road games against Alberta and Regina and hope Saskatchewan loses their two remaining home games to have any chance of qualifying for a playoff berth.

When asked if the Clan was still in the playoff hunt, Coach Beaton said, "I would think so, we have two games left and a game in hand and other teams can lose. But we can't end up in a tie with Saskatchewan." So in the immortal words of Al Davis; "Just win baby!" Twice.

[ Back to issue 8 ] [ Send The Peak a comment on this story ]

The contents of The Peak are protected by copyright. For information on rights regarding specific articles (including reprinting, where applicable), please contact epeak@mail.peak.sfu.ca with the full URL of the content in question.