Nation’s top offences set for semi-final showdown

 

HAMILTON, Ont. – The Canada West champion University of Calgary Dinos have arrived in Steeltown to get set for the Mitchell Bowl Saturday afternoon at Ron Joyce Stadium on the campus of McMaster University, where the top two offences in the nation will battle it out for a trip to the Vanier Cup.

 

The third-ranked Dinos, fresh off their record fifth consecutive Canada West championship, arrived in Hamilton late Wednesday night to prepare for their fifth consecutive national semi-final, as they get set to face the No. 1, undefeated, defending Vanier Cup champion McMaster Marauders.

 

Kickoff goes just after 4 p.m. local (2 p.m. MST), live on TSN and RDS. The winner will advance to the Vanier Cup on Friday, Nov. 23 at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, part of the 100th Grey Cup Festival. The other semi-final match-up features the Atlantic champion Acadia Axemen heading into Quebec City to take on the perennial Quebec conference victors, the Laval Rouge et Or, in a game that immediately precedes the Mitchell Bowl.

 

For the Dinos, the season’s theme was the Drive for Five as they battled for an unprecedented fifth straight Hardy Cup title; now, the four-time national champions have embarked another Drive for Five – the quest to bring the University of Calgary a fifth Vanier Cup title.

 

It’s the first-ever meeting between the two teams, and the game has all the makings of a classic. The Dinos and Marauders boasted the two most potent offences in the nation, led by a pair of quarterbacks that are their conferences’ nominees for the Hec Crighton trophy in Calgary’s Eric Dzwilewski and McMaster’s Kyle Quinlan. The Dinos were among the stingiest defences in all of CIS, led by Canada West’s defensive player of the year in linebacker Mike Edem, while McMaster will counter with Aram Eisho – Ontario’s defensive MVP – and a defence that allowed just 15.6 points and 340.2 yards, on average, during the regular season.

 

Here’s a look at the two teams:

 

No. 3 Calgary Dinos (9-1) – Canada West Champions

Last week: defeated Regina 38-14 (Hardy Cup)

 

The Hardy Cup tucked safely back in the trophy case after last weekend’s win over the Regina Rams, the Dinos turn their attention to the national success that has eluded them over the course of their remarkable run of consistency inside the conference.

 

In their four previous trips into the national final four since 2008, the Dinos have been unable to come up with the big prize – and they’ll need a big win on the road to make it happen in 2012. But the Regina game presented some adversity that the team hadn’t faced through most of this season, with Calgary forced to play from behind in the second half after cruising to big wins in seven of their eight regular season games as well as the playoff semi-final against Manitoba.

Last Saturday’s Hardy Cup triumph demonstrated the Dinos’ extraordinary offensive balance. On the same day that Steven Lumbala picked up a career-best 251 rushing yards, Dzwilewski set a school record with 33 completions in the game while Jake Harty set a Canada West postseason mark – and a program record as well – with his 15-catch performance. Calgary put up more than 600 yards of total offence for the fifth time in 10 games, while the defence held the Rams to just 27 rushing yards while Marc Mueller couldn’t get his offence going in the final game of his illustrious career.

 

The pressure in the Mitchell Bowl will, of course, fall on that defence as they face Quinlan and the powerful Marauders offence.

 

Playing their first game in Ontario since the 1995 Vanier Cup – a 54-24 win over Western – the Dinos will look to exorcise the ghosts of the last time they played any team from the province: 2009’s heartbreaking Vanier Cup against Queen’s in Quebec City, a 33-31 loss after Calgary held an 18-point lead at half time.

 

During their recent run of success, the Dinos are 1-1 in Bowl games on the road with a loss at Laval in 2008 and a win at Saint Mary’s in 2009. Overall, the Dinos are 7-5 in national semi-final contests, with a 4-4 record on the road.

 

It is the Dinos’ first national semi-final in the province of Ontario since the 1988 Central Bowl, a 34-14 win over Western. All-time the Dinos have a record of 6-5 against OUA teams in playoff competition, with a 1-3 mark on the road – including the 1993 Vanier Cup loss to Toronto.

 

While there are plenty of of Ontario connections on the Dinos roster, including rookies Brett Blaszko and Mercer Timmis, both from nearby Burlington, linebacker Jordan Verdone is the only player to have actually faced McMaster in CIS competition. Verdone, a native of Echo Bay, Ont., was the CIS rookie of the year in 2008 while playing for the University of Waterloo.

 

Calgary head coach Blake Nill also has some history with McMaster. While head coach at Saint Mary’s, Nill led the Huskies into Hamilton for the 2002 Churchill Bowl, emerging with a victory en route to a second consecutive Vanier Cup championship.

 

No. 1 McMaster Marauders (10-0) – OUA Champions

Last week: defeated Guelph 30-13 (Yates Cup)

 

On a record-breaking 20-game overall win streak, the longest in CIS history, the defending Vanier Cup champions are a deep, veteran, talented, explosive group with the hard-earned swagger of the defending champions, and they’ll force the Dinos to play their best game of the season to have a shot at the Vanier Cup next week.

 

They are led, of course, by fifth-year pivot Kyle Quinlan, the OUA player of the year and 2011 Vanier Cup MVP. Hailing from South Woodslee, Ontario, Quinlan spent the 2012 OUA season re-writing the McMaster record book as he led the Marauders to an undefeated league record. In his final year of eligibility, Quinlan set a new OUA record by completing 162 of 235 pass attempts for a completion percentage of 69%.  He passed for 2,457 yards for a league leading 10.46 yards per completion average and also led the OUA with 19 touchdown tosses, compared to only two interceptions.

 

Complementing Quinlan is a terrific group of receivers led by Robert Babic and Michael DiCroce, last year’s OUA league MVP who missed the entire regular season with an injury but came back in time for the playoffs and has racked up 253 yards in two games since. All that talent produced 45.6 points, 582.5 total yards and 370 passing yards per contest, each good for a second-place ranking in the nation, behind Calgary.

 

On the defensive side of the football, the Marauders are led by linebacker Aram Eisho, the defensive MVP of last year’s Vanier Cup and the OUA’s top defensive player in 2012. Eisho led Ontario with 52.5 tackles on the year – including 50 of the solo variety – and added three sacks. Defensive end Ben D’Aguilar is the OUA’s nominee for the J.P. Metras Trophy as the top down lineman in the nation after a solid campaign where he was the top pass-rusher on the top defence in the conference, while cornerback Joey Cupido and safety Mike Daly were first team OUA all-stars this season.

 

McMaster will be looking for its first-ever national semi-final win on home turf, coming into the game with an 0-3 record in national semi-finals at home – including a 36-25 loss in the 2002 Churchill Bowl against Blake Nill and the Saint Mary’s Huskies.