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CIS football Uteck Bowl: Dinos run past Huskies, to face Queen's for Vanier Cup
By U of Calgary sports information
HALIFAX (CIS) – The No. 2 Calgary Dinos are headed to their
first CIS football national championship game since 1995 after
dominating the No. 6 Saint Mary’s Huskies with a 38-14
victory Saturday afternoon in the Uteck Bowl.
Calgary’s opponents in the Desjardins Vanier Cup Saturday,
Nov. 28 at PEPS Stadium in Quebec City will be the No. 4
Queen’s Gaels (10-1), who upset top-ranked Laval 33-30 in the
Mitchell Bowl. It will be the first meeting between the Dinos and
Gaels since the 1983 Vanier Cup, which Calgary won 31-21 at Varsity
Stadium in Toronto.
The CIS final is set for 12 noon (10 a.m. MT), live on TSN and
Radio-Canada.
In front of 5,735 partisan fans at Huskies Stadium in Halifax, the
Dinos (10-1) took a 19-0 lead with a dominant opening quarter led
by running back Matt Walter. Last year’s Canada West MVP had
eight carries for 125 yards in the first stanza alone, highlighted
by a 69-yard touchdown scamper.
After being lost in the shadow of the media frenzy surrounding the
return of U of C head coach Blake Nill and quarterback Erik Glavic
to Halifax, Walter was named the Uteck Bowl MVP after finishing the
game with 20 carries for 235 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
“It was nice to have the spotlight off me this week, but it
was almost like their defence forgot we had a run game,” said
Walter, a third-year science student from Calgary. “It just
shows we’re a dynamic team, we have so many weapons on
offence, and we can beat teams in so many different ways. Today it
was with the run.”
Nill, who led Saint Mary’s to four Vanier Cup games and two
national championships in his eight years with at the helm of the
program, returns to the CIS final for the first time since 2003 and
has taken the Dinos from a 2-6 record in 2006 to consecutive Canada
West titles and a Bowl victory in just four seasons at Calgary.
“The whole focus seemed to be on Glavic, and nothing was
mentioned about our running game,” said Nill, the 2009 Canada
West coach of the year. “We thought from day one that we
would be able to run the ball against them and that we needed to
exploit that because they have such a great secondary.
“We still need to learn to play ahead and play in front, but
we’ve come a long way. We still have one more step to take
though, and there’s a lot of work to do this week to prepare
for Queen’s.”
Glavic, the 2007 Hec Crighton Trophy winner who is up for the award
again this season, had just 77 yards on 7-of-18 passing in the
contest, his first full game at Huskies Stadium since leading Saint
Mary’s to a 24-2 win over Laval in the 2007 Uteck Bowl. But
the Dinos racked up 426 total yards rushing, with rookie Steven
Lumbala adding to Walter’s tally with 156 yards on the
ground.
The Huskies’ offence was on the sidelines for more than 10
minutes in the first quarter and did not record a first down until
the final play of the opening frame when they were already trailing
19-0. Quarterback Jack Creighton and the locals extended that drive
to last more than seven minutes, taking the ball 83 yards and
scoring 6:11 into the second stanza on a one-yard plunge by Devon
Jones to pull within a dozen points.
Any momentum Saint Mary’s may have gained from that touchdown
was taken back by the Dinos three minutes later when Walter capped
a six-play, 56-yard drive with a four-yard major.
Calgary got a fortuitous bounce on the ensuing kickoff, which Tye
Noble and Steve Truzak combined to recover, setting up a 17-yard
Aaron Ifield field goal that put the Canada West champions ahead
29-7.
After a Calgary fake punt attempt that came up just short of the
first down marker with 54 seconds left before the half, the Huskies
took advantage of good field position to cut the deficit to 15
points at the break. Creighton connected with Carl Hardwick for a
34-yard completion, setting up an eight-yard TD catch by Jahmeek
Murray.
Calgary resumed its domination on the ground early in the second
half and all but put the game away 2:30 in with when Lumbala capped
a 77-yard drive with a five-yard TD run.
A conceded safety midway through the fourth quarter rounded out the
scoring as the Dinos were content to just run out the clock.
Creighton finished the day 19-for-34 for 199 yards and one
touchdown, but he also threw three interceptions – two of
which landed in the arms of safety Wyatt Getty. Hardwick was
Creighton’s favourite target on the day, finishing with eight
catches for 102 yards. Craig Leger led the Huskies in rushing with
13 carries for 63 yards.
It was a quiet day for Calgary’s receivers, with Anthony
Parker recording three catches for 33 yards while Richard Snyder
had 29 yards on just one catch, which was the Dinos’ first
touchdown of the game.
Calgary will remain in Eastern Canada for the week, departing
Halifax for Quebec City on Sunday and spending the week in
preparation for Queen’s and the Desjardins Vanier Cup.
“I feel confident in our offence, and our defence has shown
that they can hang with anybody,” said Walter. “I
can’t wait for next week.”
BOXSCORE
Calgary: 19-10-7-2: 38
Saint Mary’s: 0-14-0-0:14
First Quarter
CGY-SAFETY team 2:07
CGY-FG Aaron Ifield 30 6:19
CGY-TD Richard Snyder 29 pass from Erik Glavic (Aaron Ifield kick)
11:53
CGY-TD Matt Walter 69 run (Aaron Ifield kick) 14:05
Second Quarter
SMU-TD Devon Jones 1 run (Justin Palardy kick) 6:11
CGY-TD Matt Walter 4 run (Aaron Ifield kick) 9:24
CGY-FG Aaron Ifield 17 10:22
SMU-TD Jahmeek Murray 8 pass from Jack Creighton (Justin Palardy
kick) 14:42
Third Quarter
CGY-TD Steven Lumbala 5 run (Aaron Ifield kick) 2:30
Fourth Quarter
CGY-SAFETY team 7:53
-CIS-
