VANCOUVER — A sluggish second half bit the Regina Rams hard on the coast Friday night.
A 20-10 halftime lead from some timely red zone plays on defence was squandered by a sputtering offence in the second half en route to the 25-20 Rams loss in front of a packed house at Thunderbird stadium in what was the UBC homing game of 2026.
The game ended on a wild sequence after the Rams tried a game winning drive where quarterback Noah Pelletier marched the Regina offence 64 yards down to the UBC 21-yard-line with 3.9 seconds left when all heck broke loose.
A subsequent pass to the end zone was intercepted sparking a jubilant celebration from the packed house at Thunderbird Stadium until a realization set in the game wasn't over as penalty flags littered the field during the interception return.
A pass interference call in the end zone extended the game but other penalties against the Rams marched them back to the UBC 42-yard-line for one more hail mary pass that ended up getting batted down in the middle of a mad end zone scramble.
Ram coach Mark McConkey admits he's never seen anything like it.
"I thought the play was over so I was actually on the field and I had to run back", McConkey said. "I thought the play was over but it's a tough one and overall, not a great second half."
"Got no momentum going. It just seemed like it was one thing here and here one thing there. We've got to do a better job of coming out in the second half."
Thunderbird running back Marvyn Larozar popped off for over 200 yards rushing for a second straight week and scored two touchdowns including a 70-yard-sprint in the opening quarter.
The Thunderbird pass game took a half to get going and Ram defensive back Brandon Wong, playing in front of family and friends in his hometown of Vancouver, piled up two quarterback sacks in a losing effort.
"There's a lot of things to learn. We'll look at the film and go from there but we didn't play Rams football for 60 minutes and that's how it goes. We've got to play complimentary football", Wong said.
The Rams got touchdowns from running back Christian Katende and receiver Kaleb Senz on a night Regina's Noah Pelletier went 20-of-38 passing for 1 touchdown and no interceptions.
Ranked fourth in the nation coming into the week, the loss drops the Rams into a 2-1 log-jam with with UBC, Saskatchewan and likely Manitoba or Calgary, as long as that game Saturday doesn't end in a tie as there are no more undefeated teams left in the hyper-competitive Canada West conference.
The Rams have built a habit of building leads in the first half of all three games so far this season before letting their foot off the gas in the final 30 minutes on this night it cost them.
A rowdy overflow crowd did cause problems for the offence and the snap-count resulting in three offside penalties, costing precious yards that would've come in handy on that ill-fated final drive.
It remains to be seen if the Rams first bit of non-injury-related adversity helps them the rest of the way or if the opposite happens like it did in the '24 season is where a week three loss to UBC sparked a five-game losing skid.
The Rams and their fans won't have long to lick their wounds as their homecoming match with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies is next at Regina's Mosaic Stadium on Saturday, September 26th in a game that will be carried live on 620 CKRM with the pregame show at 1:45 and 2:00.
