KINGSTON, Ont. – UBC played one of their best defensive games of the year, but Montreal's defence proved stifling in their own right, keeping the Thunderbirds out of the end zone for the entire game as the Carabins earned a 16-9 Vanier Cup victory Saturday afternoon at Richardson Memorial Stadium.

Down 9-0 through the opening frame, the T-Birds got within three points at halftime thanks to a pair of Kieran Flannery-Fleck second quarter field goals. But the Carabins held UBC to just three points total in the second half, while Montreal quarterback Jonathan Sénécal used his legs to score a key third quarter touchdown which proved to be enough to secure their second championship in program history.

It wasn't as if the T-Birds didn't have their opportunities, however. After Flannery-Fleck punched in a 21-yard chip shot for his third field goal of the game to cut Montreal's deficit to seven with over five minutes remaining, UBC got the ball back three more times. Their best chance at tying the game came on their very next possession when Garrett Rooker found Sam Davenport for an 18-yard gain to the Montreal 33 yard-line. But the blue and gold offence stalled, eventually turning the ball over on downs.



"We had three shots to win it if we had to," lamented UBC head coach Blake Nill. "They're a very good football team. We're a good team too, but we just didn't make enough plays today. We knew we had a chance to be in this position at the end, but the bottom line is we didn't score any points. If we're able to put the ball in the end zone a couple times it's a completely different game. I think from a momentum standpoint it would have loosened their defence up and we just weren't able to do that. It was a good game, a solid effort on our part, but today we just didn't have what it took to come up with the win."

Rooker finished the game with 278 yards, completing 26 of his 40 pass attempts compared to Sénécal's 16-for-26, 171 yards and an interception. That pick came on Montreal's game opening drive when Jason Soriano took advantage of a poor throw. But much like the rest of the game, UBC's offence failed to gain traction and take advantage of the opportunity, eventually punting it away.

The T-Birds' second possession ended with a conceded safety having been halted at their own 13 yard line.



Montreal got their own offence back on track at that point, finishing off a five minute drive with an Iraghi Muganda 18 yard rushing touchdown, the second year Carabin bouncing off a couple UBC defenders.

The T-Birds caught a break on the final play of the half when Carl Chabot was tackled at the UBC five yard line with no time on the clock, ending a promising Carabins drive that could have seen the RSEQ champions take a two-possession lead into the half, but instead the score remained just a three point Montreal advantage.

The only other major score of the game came on Montreal's second drive of the second half when Sénécal, facing second and goal at the UBC seven, called his own number, darting into the end zone.



Held without a touchdown for the only time all season, UBC's offence still managed to out-do that of Montreal, amassing 362 total yards to 334 for the Carabins. It's a testament to how well the T-Birds' defence played all afternoon.

"I'm very proud of our defence," continued Nill. "We just knew going in right away we had to be able to move the ball and score some points and we just weren't able to."

The loss moves UBC to 4-3 all-time in Vanier Cups, their last loss coming back in 1987 when the T-Birds fell to McGill at Toronto's Varsity Stadium.

While it's certainly an anti-climactic end to the 2023 season for the 'Birds, there's little doubt the blue and gold are back on the national football scene with the program having every intention of returning to Kingston in November 2024 as Queen's University hosts a second straight Vanier Cup.