In their Friday night home opener at Leibel Field, the University of Regina Rams will try to boldly go where they have gone before: Run wild over the University of Alberta Golden Bears.
Hot off Marshall Erichsen’s school-record-setting four rushing touchdown game in Calgary, the Rams have made a tidy living off the run lately. In fact, the last regular-season game before that was one of their finest hours running the football in Rams history.
Last fall, with their season on the line and trailing 22-4 in the 3rd quarter to the same Golden Bears they will face tonight, the Rams stormed back with 25 unanswered points to sneak into the playoffs with a 29-22 win. And it was all powered by a 228-yard-2, 2-touchdown rushing night by Ram running back Christian Katende.
And it all happened in the same venue the Rams will host Alberta tonight, Leibel Field.
Erichsen expects the 0-1 Bears, who dropped their own home opener to the U of S Huskies, to put up a serious fight.
“Alberta defence is a fast motor team. They are hard-hitting. They like to send pressure a lot,” Erichsen told the SportsCage.
“I think we have a good game plan in place in how we can exploit some of the things that they do and it’s all going to come down to who wants it more every play.”
The Golden Bears, who missed the playoffs by virtue of the regular season finale loss that October night, had to sit and watch the Rams go on their Cinderella run through the 2024 playoffs which included Regina capturing the Hardy Cup and very nearly derailing the eventual national champion Laval Rouge Et Or in the Mitchell Bowl.
Both running backs, Erichsen and Katende, are expected to be available for this game after Katende missed the season opener due to injury. The receiving corps will see a change with Blake Laidlaw stepping into the starting lineup to replace the injured Eythan Crites
After beating Calgary in week one, the Vanier Cup host Rams try to keep pace with the winner of tonight’s UBC-Saskatchewan game as those two teams are the other unbeaten teams in Canada West entering week two.
It should be a noisy affair with a packed house at Leibel Field where weather is not expected to play a big factor. Tonight’s Ram game can be heard on 620 CKRM with the pregame show at 6:45 and kickoff at 7:00.
