KICKOFF: Saturday, Sept. 23 (2:00 PM)
SITE: Mosaic Stadium (Regina, Sask.)
CAPACITY: 33,000
RANKINGS: Manitoba NR, Regina #6
TELEVISION: Canada West Football Showcase on SaskTel maxTV 48/348 & TELUS Optik TV (Dan Plaster/PxP, Jason Clermont/CC, Darren Dupont/host)
REGINA RADIO: 620 CKRM (Michael Ball/PxP, Marco Ricci/CC)
LIVE VIDEO: www.canadawest.tv ($)
HEADLINES
• Saturday’s game will be the lone meeting between the Rams and Manitoba, marking the first time since 2013 they’ve only played once during the regular season.
• The Rams enter Week 4 mired in a three-way tie with Saskatchewan and UBC for second place in the Canada West standings. Saskatchewan hits the road against conference-leading Calgary on Saturday, while UBC travels to winless Alberta.
• After a road setback to Calgary in Week 2, the Rams got back in the win column last week with a 28-18 home victory over Alberta. Mitchell Picton caught two touchdowns for the Rams in the win.
MOORTGAT BREAKING OUT: Last year, Ryan Schienbein was the team’s breakout receiver. This year? It’s clearly third-year player Kyle Moortgat, who had just four career receptions entering the season but already has a Canada West-leading 21 catches this year. Moortgat also ranks second on the team with 239 receiving yards and is tied with Mitch Thompson for second on the Rams with two touchdown catches. Moortgat has started all three games this year at slotback but is expected to move over to wide receiver on Saturday as the team continues to battle injuries.
GETTING THROUGH: Second-year DL Nicholas Dheilly was named the Canada West Rookie of the Year last season after tying for second in the conference in sacks, and that’s exactly where he stands through the first three games of 2017. Dheilly has at least a half sack in all three Canada West contests and with 2½ sacks on the season is tied for second with Saskatchewan’s Evan Machibroda. Calgary’s Jack McEwen is the league leader with three sacks.
GOING WITH THE ROOKIES: The much-ballyhooed Nick Cross has been an impact player for the Rams at sam linebacker this season, but another rookie right out of high school quietly stepped into the starting lineup for Sheldon Gray’s defence last week. Dilan Elgert was a late scratch from last week’s lineup and in came Zach Moore to make the start at hawk, one of the team’s two halfback positions. Moore, a high school teammate of Cross at LeBoldus, was in on three tackles against the Golden Bears. Cross, Moore, and running back/returner Kyle Borsa (Riffel) are the only Rams right out of high school to have appeared in multiple games this season.
AGAINST THE BISONS: Last year the Rams swept the season series with the Bisons. They won 41-38 at home in Week 2, then dominated Manitoba 55-21 in a Week 8 win that clinched first place in the Canada West standings. The two teams have met in the regular season a total of 30 times over the years, with Manitoba holding a 17-13 edge in those contests.
TOUCHDOWN KING: Already the University of Regina’s all-time leader with 18 rushing touchdowns, RB Atlee Simon is closing in on the school’s career record for touchdowns scored overall. He’s currently tied for second in U of R history with Neal Hughes with 24 touchdowns scored and is just two behind Jason Clermont’s record of 26.
NOAH HITS 8000: Noah Picton went past the 8000-yard mark in career passing last week against Alberta, becoming just the eighth quarterback in Canada West history to hit that milestone. He moved all the way up to fifth place over the course of the game and now has 8318 passing yards, behind only Teale Orban (9449), Darryl Leason (8800), Billy Greene (8626), and Greg Vavra (8401).
PICTON TIES CLERMONT: SB Mitchell Picton (Noah’s first cousin) had his seventh career multiple touchdown game last week against Alberta and is now tied with Jason Clermont for second in school history with 19 career touchdown receptions. He also moved past Brenden Owens for sixth in the U of R record book in both career receptions (136) and career receiving yards (1945). And he could move even further up both charts this week, as he’s got Mark McConkey (1991) and Jordan Sisco (2051) within range in the receptions category and Cory Olynick (138) and Sisco (141) just above him in receiving yards.
INJURY WARD: To say the Rams have kept University of Regina athletic therapists Nicole Renneberg and Erica Hoiland busy this season would be an understatement. They’ve long known that OL Matt Degelman and DL Ajai Washington would miss this year, but 14 other players missed the Alberta game due to injuries of varying severity - DB Jonah Branning, DB Taylor Mayer, SB Ryan Schienbein, DB Luke Wilson, WR Brady Eurich, RB Jacob Palmarin, DB Dilan Elgert, LB Jacob Laboccetta, LB Kaiden Jones, OL Liam Jensen, OL Andrew Becker, WR Mitch Thompson, DL Matt Moore, and DL Grey McKen.
COBRA CONNECTION: The Cochrane Cobras have won Alberta Tier III high school provincial championships in four of the past five years, and alumni of the successful program are making their mark with the Rams. Two of the U of R’s three starting slotbacks the past two games are from Cochrane - Kyle Moortgat and Adam Rask - while starting nose tackle Bryce McKinnon is in his fifth and final season with the Rams.
PROPP’S PBUs: Fifth-year DB Jeff Propp broke up three passes in last week’s win over Alberta, becoming the first Rams player to knock down at least three balls in a single game since Joey Dwyer and Patrick MacDonald did it in the same game back in 2014. MacDonald had four pass breakups that game, tying the school record originally set by Andrew Rumbaugh in 2007.
(Courtesy Braden Konschuh/U of R Athletics)
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