RECAPS (Can West): Dinos offense leads the way; UBC wins thriller

EDMONTON – The University of Alberta Golden Bears football team started strong, and finished even stronger, but were beaten in the middle quarters as the No.2 ranked Calgary Dinos posted a 52-37 victory over the Bears on Saturday afternoon at Foote Field.

Alberta, now 3-3 on the season, combined to outscore the Dinos 27-12 in the first and fourth quarters, but was in turn outscored 40-10 in the second and third quarters by the nation’s second ranked team. Fifth-year quarterback Curtis Dell completed 20 of 36 passes for 322 yards and two touchdowns, while also rushing three times for 30 yards. Sophomore receivers Jimmy Ralph and Tylor Henry had a tremendous day against the Dinos’ secondary, with Ralph hauling in seven catches for 103 yards and a touchdown, while Henry, the conference’s top receiver last season, finished with six catches for 163 yards and one touchdown in his biggest game of the season so far. Henry’s TD catch was a spectacular one-handed diving catch in the back of the end zone in the second quarter, on a pass thrown by Ralph. Rookie runningback Levon Hawreliak also plunged into the Calgary end zone, while David Beard, an offensive lineman and long-snapper, also hauled in a TD catch.

The now 5-1 Dinos received a stellar game from quarterback Andrew Buckley as he rushed 10 times for 172 yards and three touchdowns, while also completing 18 of 30 passes for 307 yards and a pair of TDs. Runningback Quentin Chown, starting in place of the injured Mercer Timmis, churned up 125 rush yards, before getting hurt, as Calgary amassed 431 total rushing yards on the day. Receiver Brett Blaszko hauled in six passes for 101 yards and two TDs as well.

Calgary now sits atop the Canada West standings, alone, at 5-1, while Alberta is tied for third place with the Manitoba Bisons. Saskatchewan, at 4-2, remains in second place.

Alberta opened Saturday’s afternoon tilt with a roaring start as second year receiver Aundrey Webster returned the opening kick-off 82 yards to the Calgary 33-yard line. After a pass interference call on the Dinos, the Bears were sitting pretty on the Calgary 9-yard line, but penalties killed the drive, and Alberta had to settle for a 16-yard Stephen Fabian field goal. Calgary matched when Johnny Mark nailed a 24-yarder seven minutes later, but the Bears headed into the second quarter leading 6-3 thanks to another successful Fabian field goal.

The Dinos jumped ahead 12-9 midway through the second when Buckley scampered 10 yards into the end zone, but the Bears responded on their next possession by marching 60 yards on four plays, capped off with the razzle dazzle of Ralph to Henry which made the score 16-12.
Buckley took his team on his back from there on out, as he again rushed for a touchdown, the beginning of 31 straight points for the Dinos, followed by a TD pass to Blaszko, a pass that was nearly intercepted by the Bears, but instead fell right into Blaszko’s lap, as Calgary stormed into half-time with a 26-19 lead.

Calgary then added their third consecutive touchdown in the third quarter, just 3:52 in, when Blaszko reeled in another TD catch. Buckley then dashed 61-yards through the Alberta defence for his third rushing touchdown of the game, and suddenly, and insurmountably, the Dinos were up 40-16. Mark added his second field goal of the game as Calgary put the cap on a 17-0 third quarter to head into the fourth leading the Bears by 27 points.But there was no quit in Chris Morris’ Golden Bears on this afternoon as Alberta put up 21 fourth quarter points on Calgary. It all began when Hawreliak, the leading rusher in the CJFL in 2013, scored on a two yard touchdown run to start the fourth quarter, and then Dell found Ralph on a 28-yard TD pass, after the Bears recovered a short kick-off to set themselves up in Calgary’s half.

The Dinos came right back, however, as they recovered Alberta’s second straight short kick-off, and then marched down field where third-string runningback Bryce Harper pounded his way into the Alberta end zone from three yards out at the 7:11 mark to make the score 50-30.

Dell and the Bears’ offence just kept marching, however, as the veteran QB called his own number and juked and jived for 20 yards, and then on the next play connected with Henry 31-yards down the sideline to set Alberta up on the Calgary 15-yard line. The Bears capped off the 79-yard drive when Dell found David Beard, a converted offensive lineman, who also long-snaps, wide open in the end zone for a 15-yard TD strike to make the score 50-37. The Bears got another chance to put some points on the board late in the fourth, but were stuffed by the Dinos’ defence and forced to concede the safety, making the final score 52-37.

Golden Bears linebacker Connor Ralph led all defensive players in tackles, with 11, while Calgary’s Adam Konar recorded nine. Bears’ defensive back Brandon Foster picked up the game’s only interception, while Calgary defensive lineman Connor McGough had the game’s only sack.

The Bears are on the road for their next two games, travelling to Saskatchewan next weekend (October 25th) and then Regina on November 1st to close out the regular season. The Bears will need at least one more win to guarantee a playoff spot. Calgary, on the other hand, is locked into a playoff berth, but needs one more victory to secure first place in Canada West and home field advantage through the conference playoffs. They are at home next weekend to UBC, before closing out the year on the road in Manitoba.

Alberta Sports Info

STATS AT BOTTOM

EDMONTON – Fourth-year quarterback Andrew Buckley put the team on his back and accounted for nearly 500 yards of offence on his own, lifting the second-ranked University of Calgary Dinos to a 52-37 win over the Alberta Golden Bears Saturday at Foote Field.

Buckley threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns, adding 172 rushing yards and three majors on the ground to his impressive stat line to help the Dinos improve to 5-1 on the year, clinching a playoff spot and putting them just one win away from guaranteeing first place and home-field advantage throughout the Canada West playoffs.

Alberta falls to 3-3 on the year with two games to play, both of which come on the road: next week at Saskatchewan, followed by the season-ender at Regina.

Calgary had to overcome a slow start, and the Dinos needed just about every point the offence scored to counter some lapses on defence, and in the end their 769-yard offensive performance was just too much for the Golden Bears.

“It wasn’t how we expected the game to go, but kudos to them, they came out hard,” said Buckley, who moved into sixth place among Canada West rushers with his 172-yard performance. “It’s all about execution – but once we got some momentum going we were able to move forward.”

“Defensively we started making some errors again, errors that are generally uncharacteristic of our program,” said Dinos head coach Blake Nill. “Offensively, though, we just kept chugging along and kudos to that unit.”

After the teams traded field goals and Alberta led 6-3 after the first quarter, the Dinos poured it on in the second with 23 points, including two rushing TDs from Buckley. The second of those put the Dinos up for good and was a statement drive for Calgary: on its previous possession, Alberta had run some trickery when receiver Jimmy Ralph tossed it up for Tylor Henry in the end zone to wrestle the lead back from the Dinos. Buckley’s second made it 19-16, however, sparking a string of 31 unanswered points by Calgary through the second and third quarters. Brett Blaszko added a 16-yard receiving touchdown in the final minute of the first half, and Calgary led 26-16 at the break.

Already without their top tailback in Mercer Timmis, who sat out this week, the Dinos saw Quentin Chown carried off the field after being tackled awkwardly midway through the third quarter. To that point, Chown had put up 125 rushing yards, and the Dinos had to soldier on without either of their top two tailbacks. On the next play, however, Buckley found Brett Blaszko on a 39-yard touchdown that was nearly intercepted but bounced off a defender into Blaszko’s hands, extending his lead on the conference receiving majors leaderboard with his 10^th TD of the season.

On the next drive, without Chown behind him, Buckley took care of it himself with a 61-yard touchdown run.

“There’s definitely some extra pressure at that point in the game, but at the same time we have so many good backs and our O-line is just solid, so they’re just going to punch some holes for whoever’s playing back there,” said Buckley.

“I think Andrew would be the first to say that he didn’t have his greatest game, but today showed the big play potential he has,” said Nill. “He’s so composed, he doesn’t let the bad plays get to him – he just moves on. Today was a good indication of that.”

Calgary’s other scoring came courtesy a late touchdown by Bryce Harper – the first of his career – along with a pair of conceded safeties and two field goals by Johnny Mark. The first of those, at the 9:34 mark of the first quarter, vaulted him past Jamie Boreham into first place on the all-time Canada West scoring list with 358 points. He added nine more in the game, setting the new conference mark at 367 points.

Of the Dinos’ 431 rushing yards, 297 came from the Buckley-Chown tandem. Harper added 79. Blaszko was the team’s top receiver with 101 yards and two scores, while Rashawn Simonise had a solid afternoon with three catches for 76 yards.

Defensively, the Dinos were led by Adam Konar’s nine tackles, while Cyril Iwanegbe chipped in with six more for Calgary.

Calgary heads home looking to lock up first place when the Dinos host the UBC Thunderbirds (2-4) next Saturday at McMahon Stadium, with kickoff set for 2 p.m.

Caglary Sports Info

UBC 32, REGINA 32

VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds kept their playoff hopes alive by winning a shot-for-shot battle with the Regina Rams 33-32 on Saturday, with a late rouge from Quinn van Gylswyk holding up as the difference between the teams.

With the game tied at 32 and just over three minutes left, the ‘Birds started a drive near midfield and managed to push the ball into Regina territory on a Carson Williams to Alex Morrison connection. They were stopped on first and second down at the Regina 44, setting up van Gylswyk with a crucial punt with two minutes left.

He made no mistake in pinning Rams return man Caitlin Schneider deep in the corner of the endzone, and the coverage team got down the field quick to bring him down for the single point.

The Rams picked up two first downs on their next drive, but the UBC defence came up big when it really mattered. Riley Jones made a lunging swat to bat a pass down on first down from the UBC 48, and after the pass rush got to Regina quarterback Cayman Shutter on second down to force a short pass for no gain, Chris Adams came up with a big pass defence on third down to effectively end the game.

“Sometimes the game comes down to four or five plays and you don’t know which ones they are until the end of the game,” said UBC coach Shawn Olson. “Our guys made enough plays at the right time to come out with the win. Our defence had a little bit of an issue early on but played awesome down the stretch. Offensively we could have had a couple more touchdowns but we did enough to get the win, and it was a big, timely kick from our kicker there to get the ball into the endzone there. That’s what we asked him to do, and he really unloaded.”

For the game, van Gylswyk average 49.2 yards over eight punt attempts. He had three rouges in total, and was two-for-three on field goals.

Both offences looked comfortable moving the ball on the ground or through the air. Williams finished 20-for-32 for 256 yards and three touchdowns for the T-Birds. He also had a big day on the ground, where the Rams had trouble slowing down the option. Williams ran for 68 yards on six carries.

Shutter was 27-for-38 for 344 yards and a touchdown for Regina. He added 32 rushing yards on five attempts. His favourite target was Addison Richards, who caught nine balls for 110 yards.

“It was really a big team effort,” Olson said of the potentially season-saving win. “Our struggles this year in all three phases of the game have come when our best players have wanted to win so badly that they try to do a bit too much and get out of their responsibilities. They are good kids that want to do the right thing and be champions, and sometimes that works against you but today they trusted in each other and they did their jobs.”

The biggest lead any team had in the game was UBC by 10 midway through the third quarter, and that didn’t even hold up for two minutes before the Rams came back with a touchdown. And after hanging tough but trailing for the whole game, the Rams finally took the lead to start the fourth quarter.

A couple nice grabs by Jared Janotta set the Rams up with first and goal, and after Shutter was denied on two sneak attempts, he managed to punch it across for the touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter for a 32-31 Regina lead.

After the teams exchanged quick possessions and punts, the T-Birds managed to march down to the Regina 20 and looked poised to regain the lead, but van Gylswyk’s 28-yard attempt went wide right and through the back of the endzone for a single point to tie the game at 32 with 7:33 remaining.

Marcus Davis had another big all-purpose day for the Thunderbirds, with 139 total yards, including a 37-yard touchdown catch. Niko Jakobs had three catches for 32 yards and two touchdowns for the ‘Birds. Brandon Deschamps ran for 86 yards on 15 carries.

Atlee Simon was consistently productive for the Rams on the ground, gaining 111 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries.

Regina falls to 1-5, and they will finish up the regular season with two home games against Manitoba and then Alberta. They will need to win both games and get some help to have any shot at a playoff spot, as the fourth and final playoff spot is currently occupied by 3-3 Manitoba.

The T-Birds improve to 2-4, and they are in Calgary next weekend to face the Canada West-leading Dinos. Their final regular season game is at home against Saskatchewan on November 1.

By Lee Dorner (UBC Sports Information Assistant)

IMAGE CREDIT: Bob Frid/UBC Athletics

VANCOUVER, B.C. – A rouge turned out to be the difference in the University of Regina Rams’ 33-32 loss to UBC on Saturday afternoon in a Canada West game at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver.

The two teams were knotted at 32-32 for much of the fourth quarter until Quinn Van Gylswyk bombed a 60-yard punt deep into the end zone with two minutes left that Catlin Schneider was unable to bring out. That single turned out to be the final scoring play of the game, giving UBC the slim victory as the Thunderbirds improve to 2-4 on the season.

On the ensuing drive with time running down, the Rams got a pair of first downs and brought it down to the UBC 47-yard line, but could get no closer. With just 40 seconds left on the clock, the Rams were forced to go for it on 3rd-and-9 and a pass across the middle to Riley Wilson was batted away by UBC’s Chris Adams, essentially sealing the win for the Thunderbirds.

Carson Williams completed 20 of his 32 passes for 256 yards and three touchdowns for UBC, with Josh Kronstrom as his leading receiver with seven catches for 80 yards. Brandon Deschamps led the UBC ground game with 86 yards, while linebacker Yianni Cabylis was credited with three solo tackles and 13 assisted tackles.

Rookie running back Atlee Simon got his first career start for the Rams and had a fine game, rushing 18 times for 121 yards including a 10-yard touchdown midway through the third. Cayman Shutter was 28-for-39 for 351 yards and a touchdown, while Addison Richards finished with nine catches for 110 yards to hit triple digits for the fifth time in six games this year. Jared Janotta added five catches for 71 yards and was the recipient of Shutter’s touchdown pass. Justin Edralin led the Regina defence with six solo tackles and six assisted tackles.

The two teams were never separated by more than 10 points during the ball game. UBC took a 17-7 advantage early in the second only to have the Rams reply immediately with a seven-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a Landon Buch touchdown plunge and Andrew Fabian’s 30-yard field goal just before halftime brought the score level at the break.

UBC also took a 10-point lead in the third after Niko Jacobs’ second touchdown catch of the game was followed by a rouge on the ensuing kickoff, but again the Rams got right back into it. Simon’s first career touchdown and another one-yard plunge by Buch that finished off an 11-play, 75-yard drive gave the Rams their first – and, as it would turn out, their only – lead of the game at 32-31.

But UBC tied it up on a missed Van Gylswyk field goal midway through the fourth that sailed through the end zone for a rouge, and six minutes later the UBC punter would score what would be the last point of the game on the deep boot into the end zone with 1:59 remaining.

The Rams (1-5) aren’t mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but will need to defeat both Manitoba and Alberta in Week 7 and Week 8 to have a chance at qualifying for the postseason. Both of those games are at home, including next Saturday against Manitoba (2 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).

NOTES: Richards now has 774 receiving yards on the season, already the fourth most in University of Regina history with two Canada West games still left on the schedule.

By Regina Sports Info

Calgary vs. Alberta at Edmonton, AB 10/18/2014 at 2:00 pm
Calgary  52	Alberta  37

 

Regina vs. UBC at Vancouver, BC 10/18/2014 at 2:08 pm
Regina  32	UBC  33