Mitchell Bowl: Dinos snowed under by turnovers, Rouge et Or (video)

The Calgary Dinos had a spectacular start, then watched it all crumble in a 41-10 loss to the Laval Rouge et Or Friday night in the Mitchell Bowl at McMahon Stadium.

The Dinos, who won their fourth straight Canada West title last week with a 62-13 pummeling of the UBC Thunderbirds, shot out to an early lead but fell victim to myriad turnovers as the Rouge et Or won their third straight against Calgary and qualified for next weekend’s Vanier Cup in Vancouver, where they will face the McMaster Marauders.

Sébastien Lévesque ran for 144 yards and an all-important touchdown late in the second quarter en route to Mitchell Bowl MVP honours. The MVP nod is Levesque’s third in as many major title games, as he was named the MVP in both last week’s 30-7 Dunsmore Cup victory over l’Université de Montreal and last year’s Vanier Cup victory over the Dinos.

Canada West teams held a combined 17-2 all-time record in Bowl games at home heading into Friday’s tilt, while the Dinos were 16-2 in home playoff games including a perfect 3-0 record in semi-final games. Along with a three-game losing streak in bowl games on the road for Laval, Calgary had good reason to believe their fortunes would change this year against the Rouge et Or. Calgary fell to Laval twice in the past three years at the Telus-Université Laval Stadium in Québec City by scores of 59-10 in the 2009 Uteck Bowl and 29-2 in last year’s Vanier Cup.

It was not to be, however, as the Laval defence made Calgary’s three-headed rushing monster look downright docile on Friday, holding Matt Walter, Anthony Woodson and Steven Lumbala to a combined 44 yards on the ground. Eric Dzwilewski did run for 77 yards individually, but the 121 total yards were still a far cry from the 234.2 rushing average the Dinos achieved up until the Mitchell Bowl. Laval allowed only 53.7 rushing yards per game in 2011, and for the fourth straight year they’ve led country in points allowed.

The game took an early fortuitous turn for the Dinos when an uncharacteristic mistake from Laval QB Bruno Prud’homme turned into six quick points for Calgary. Taking it 30 yards to the house, Tye Noble converted only the second touchdown against Laval for the Dinos in the past three games and solidified the early 7-0 lead.

Sparked with momentum, the Dinos defence was rock-solid in the early going, holding the explosive Rouge et Or to nary a first down in the first 15 minutes. Laval had only 47 yards in the opening quarter.

Despite the stellar early play from their defence, Calgary fell apart after the first quarter, giving up an astounding four turnovers on special teams, something that head coach Blake Nill had no answer for.

“We just made some really uncharacteristic mistakes for this team,” said Nill, who is now 2-2 in bowl games with the Dinos.

“I can attribute 24 points directly to mishandled balls on special teams. If you take that away, I thought our defence played really well overall. And with that big turn in points, it seemed to press our offence and keep us out of rhythm.”

The Dinos fumbled twice on a punt and a kickoff which led directly to 10 Rouge et Or points in the first half. Prud’homme converted seven of those, finding Guillaume Rioux on the edge of the end zone for a nine yard marker just one minute and 47 seconds after hitting Julien Feoli-Gudino for a 12 yard score.

Both the turnovers and the improved play from Sébastien Lévesque and the Laval offensive line put the Laval offence back in gear in the second quarter. Lévesque made it 27-10 late in the half with a plunge up the middle for a 35 yard untouched scamper to pay-dirt. Lévesque finished the half with 130 yards on 15 carries.

Laval salted the game away on the opening kickoff of the second half. Calgary returner Chris Dobko collected the ball 11 yards deep in his end zone, crossed the goal line, then turned back into the end zone. He coughed up the ball, and Jéremie Chrétien bounced on the loose rock for a touchdown just nine seconds into the third quarter to make it 34-10.

Christian Lavaud scored the final points of the game on another fumble return late in the fourth quarter.

Dzwilewski finished with a dismal 98 yards passing with only nine completions on 24 attempts. Prud’homme, meanwhile, finished the game going 15-24 for 165 yards. His favorite receiver was Patrick Lavoie, who brought in three catches for 52 yards.

Frédéric Plesius led the Laval defensive charge with 6.5 tackles and one of their forced fumbles, while Noble responded for Calgary with a spectacular effort of nine tackles and the lone Calgary touchdown.

The game marked the final appearance in Dinos uniforms for fifth-year seniors Anthony Woodson, Matt Walter, Kyle Carbert, and Chudi Nzekwu. Cornerback Michael Lau is also a fifth-year senior who was unable to play in Friday night’s game due to injury.

-UC-

Ben Matchett