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East meets West in Uteck Bowl
HALIFAX - With one pack of Huskies out of their way, the Canada
West champion University of Calgary Dinos will look to muzzle the
Huskies of the east when they take on Atlantic champion Saint
Mary’s in Saturday’s Uteck Bowl in Halifax.
The winner will face the champion of the Mitchell Bowl between
Laval and Queen’s in the Vanier Cup game next weekend in
Quebec City.
Calgary repeated as conference champions after a 39-38 Hardy Cup
game last weekend in Saskatoon that will go down as an all-time
classic. The Dinos came back from a nine-point fourth quarter
deficit and successfully ran the Saskatchewan Huskies’
last-second missed field goal out of the end zone to earn the
one-point victory, joining Laval, Queen’s, and Saint
Mary’s as the last four Canadian university football teams
standing in the 2009 season.
While the Dinos have not faced off with the Halifax-based Huskies
since the 1993 Atlantic Bowl in the same stadium, Calgary has a
distinct Saint Mary’s flavour on the sideline. Head coach
Blake Nill spent eight years with the Huskies before taking over
the Dinos program in 2006, winning six Atlantic championships,
appearing in four Vanier Cups, and winning back-to-back national
titles in 2001 and 2002.
Many of the current Saint Mary’s players were originally
recruited by Nill, while six current Dinos played for him with the
Huskies: linebacker Andrea Bonaventura, quarterback Erik Glavic,
defensive linemen Deji Oduwole and Brandon Rockhill, linebacker
Julian Simmerling, and defensive back Steve Truzak.
Glavic won the 2007 Hec Crighton Trophy as CIS player of the year
with Saint Mary’s, leading the Huskies to a Uteck Bowl upset
over the Laval Rouge et Or. It was in that game he sustained a
severe knee injury that kept him out of action for nearly the
entire 2008 season.
In 2009 after transferring to Calgary, Glavic became the first
player in CIS history to earn MVP awards from two conferences when
Canada West gave him the nod. His remarkable performance in last
week’s Hardy Cup gave the Dinos their second straight Canada
West championship, setting up Saturday’s homecoming showdown
in Halifax.
Calgary and Saint Mary’s have met on the gridiron just three
times in history, with the Dinos holding a 2-1 edge in the series.
The Huskies’ lone win was the 1992 Atlantic Bowl, a 23-11
triumph, with Calgary taking the 1988 Vanier Cup 52-23 and the 1993
Atlantic Bowl 37-23. It’s the third consecutive Bowl game
appearance for the Huskies, while the Dinos make their second
straight trip to the national semi-final. Both teams lost in
out-of-conference action last season, and only one will move on to
play for the Vanier Cup.
The Uteck Bowl will be broadcast live on www.fan960.com with the voice of the
Dinos, Dave Rowe, along with Tony Spoletini calling the action. The
game will also be simulcast by the University of Calgary’s
campus radio station, CJSW 90.9 FM, while www.radio-canada.ca will provide a
live French-language video webcast of the proceedings from Huskies
Stadium in Halifax, which kick off at 1 p.m. local time, 10 a.m.
Mountain. TSN will broadcast the game over its full network on a
four-hour tape delay, beginning at 2 p.m. MT following the live
Mitchell Bowl telecast.
Here’s a
look at the two sides heading into Saturday’s national
semi-final:
No. 2 Calgary Dinos (9-1) – Canada West Champions
Last week: won 39-38 @ Saskatchewan
Until last week’s dramatic conference final, the Dinos had
not won a playoff game on the road since the 1993 Atlantic Bowl at
Saint Mary’s – but breaking that trend was just another
in a long line of feats Calgary recorded in 2009.
Glavic, a native of Pickering, Ont., has been nothing short of
sensational this fall in his first year with the Dinos. He claimed
Canada West MVP honours, led Calgary to a 7-1 conference record
– the program’s best since 1988 – and was at his
best in the Hardy Cup final passing for 479 yards and three
touchdowns and adding another 106 yards and one TD on the ground in
a 39-38 come-from-behind road win over No. 3 Saskatchewan. He was
named CIS offensive player of the week for his efforts.
Calgary’s high-flying offence, which ranked third in the
nation with 39.5 points per game and racked up a CIS-best 283
rushing yards per outing, doesn’t stop with Glavic
however.
Matt Walter, last year’s Canada West MVP, was second in the
country with 1,103 yards on the ground, while Anthony Parker (46
receptions, 816 yards) and Nathan Coehoorn (41 – 765) were
among CIS leaders in all receiving categories.
With Saskatchewan double-teaming Parker throughout last
week’s Hardy Cup, sophomore receiver Richard Snyder stepped
up and posted career numbers with seven catches for 222 yards and
two touchdowns, including a key 60-yard bomb from Glavic in the
third quarter that he took to the end zone.
The Hardy Cup was not a great day for either defence, however, as
the Dinos and Huskies combined for 1,200 yards total offence, and
Calgary will look to tighten up on the defensive side in the Uteck
Bowl. Cornerback Chudi Nzekwu left the Hardy Cup in the first
quarter with a shoulder injury and did not make the trip to
Halifax.
The Dinos are searching for their first-ever Uteck Bowl
championship after falling to Laval in last season’s national
semi-final. Calgary’s last Bowl win came in the 1995
Churchill Bowl at McMahon Stadium, when the Dinos defeated Ottawa
37-7 before winning the Vanier Cup a week later in Toronto.
All-time, Calgary is 5-4 in national semi-final games.
No. 6 Saint Mary’s Huskies (8-1) – Atlantic
University Sport Champions
Last week: won 31-22 vs. StFX
The Huskies will challenge the explosive Calgary offence with an
exceptional defensive unit that ranked third in CIS in conference
play allowing only 14.9 points per game and was second against the
pass holding opponents to 174 yards per duel through the air.
Defensive end Devon Hicks is the AUS nominee for the J.P. Metras
trophy as CIS lineman of the year, leading the conference in sacks
despite playing just six games.
In his first full season as the starting quarterback, Jack
Creighton of Buffalo, NY, was solid if not spectacular averaging
233 yards per outing while throwing only six interceptions. Running
back Devon Jones will return to the lineup after serving a two-game
suspension, while his brother Tristan is recovering from a shoulder
injury and will be a game-time decision.
Should the affair come down to a last-minute field goal, the
Huskies know they can count on fourth-year veteran Justin Palardy,
who led the nation with 23 field goals and 96 points in 2009 while
rewriting the AUS record book.
Saint Mary’s is 3-0 at home in national semifinals since a
40-36 loss to Regina in 2000 and 9-11 overall in Bowl games. The
Glavic-led Huskies won their last Uteck Bowl appearance in 2007
before falling to Manitoba in the Vanier Cup, while the 2008 Saint
Mary’s squad dropped a 28-12 decision to Western Ontario in
the Mitchell Bowl.
Source:
Ben Matchett
Sports Information Director
University of Calgary Dinos
