No. 4 Dinos head to Winnipeg to face Bisons

CALGARY – This week marks the first of two ‘swing weeks’ in Canada West football in 2010.

In the new six-team conference, each team plays three others twice in the season and the remaining two teams once each. Weeks 4 and 5 are set aside for those one-time meetings, and the fourth-ranked University of Calgary Dinos will face the Manitoba Bisons and the UBC Thunderbirds before heading into the Thanksgiving bye week.

The Dinos head to Winnipeg for their second straight road game after a late come-from-behind 23-14 win over Alberta last Saturday at Foote Field. The hero in that one was defensive back Tye Noble, who picked off Bears quarterback Julian Marchand and ran it back 45 yards for the winning touchdown with just six minutes left in the game. Noble, who was named the Canada West and CIS defensive player of the week for his efforts, is a Winnipeg native and will have plenty of support in the stands at University Stadium this Saturday afternoon.

Kickoff goes at 1 p.m. local (noon MT), live on Shaw TV (Calgary and Winnipeg only).

The Dinos and Bisons have split their last 10 conference games right down the middle, with each team winning five. Home field has indeed been an advantage since 2002, with the home side winning eight of the last 10 contests, and the Bisons will look to continue that trend in their homecoming game Saturday afternoon. It will be the Dinos’ only game on grass this season.

Calgary won the lone meeting between the teams last year by a 35-24 score at McMahon Stadium, but the Bisons did put up quite the fight. Trailing 23-0 early in the second quarter, the Bisons put up 24 unanswered points before a pair of late Dinos touchdowns sealed the victory.

Since a 27-5 playoff win over Calgary en route to a Vanier Cup title in 2007, the Bisons have dropped their last three games to the Dinos.

Here’s a look at the two sides:

No. 4 Calgary (2-1)

Last week: defeated Alberta 23-14

Next week: host UBC

Ever so slowly, the Dinos are starting to get players back from the disabled list after being plagued with injuries to start the season. Running back/receiver Anthony Woodson made his presence felt in his first full game in more than two years last weekend at Alberta, racking up 78 rushing yards and a touchdown, while safety Anthony DesLauriers also re-joined the lineup last weekend.

The Dinos should get another boost defensively with the addition of All-Canadian middle linebacker Andrea Bonaventura, who is expected to return to the lineup to face Manitoba. Bonaventura was injured early in the Dinos’ exhibition contest against Alberta, and his return will shore up a defensive unit that is continuing to improve and gel with every quarter it plays.

Offensively, the Dinos will once again rely on freshman quarterback Eric Dzwilewski, who will make his third consecutive start Saturday afternoon in Winnipeg. He has led the Dinos to victories in both of his first two games and showed his versatility last week in Edmonton in nearly matching his 120 passing yards with 115 along the ground as Calgary went with an option offence.

The Dinos have a four-headed monster in the backfield with Dzwilewski, Woodson, Steven Lumbala, and Matt Walter all threats along the ground. The four combined to rack up 292 rushing yards last week to make up for a quiet day by the Calgary receiving corps.

Walter, the two-time defending conference rushing champion, will look to join some elite company this weekend at University Stadium. The fourth-year Haskayne School of Business student is just 82 yards away from 3,000 on his career, and he would become just the 30th athlete in CIS history to record the feat. Walter continues to inch toward Elio Geremia’s (1983-87) school record of 3,784 career yards, having moved past Chris Lewis (1993-96) last weekend.

Fifth-year kicker Aaron Ifield also had a solid day against Alberta, kicking three field goals to move into the top spot on the University of Calgary’s all-time scoring list with 281 points. He also inched closer to the national field goal record, which sits at 70, in the process. Ifield enters this weekend with 59, having five games to kick 11 field goals to tie the record.

Calgary hosts UBC next Saturday, Oct. 2 at McMahon Stadium before the conference-wide bye over Thanksgiving weekend.

Manitoba (1-2)

Last week: defeated UBC 40-17

Next week: at Saskatchewan

The Manitoba Bisons have personified the topsy-turvy nature of Canada West football in 2010. After a pair of convincing losses to start the season, the Herd thundered into Vancouver and emerged with a 40-17 dismantling of the UBC Thunderbirds – the same UBC team that had convincingly upset then-No. 2 Saskatchewan one week earlier.

Running back Matt Henry had a breakout game against the ‘Birds, racking up 134 yards on 27 carries while quarterback Khaleal Williams ran for 100 yards on just seven tries. Williams put up 215 passing yards on just nine completions in the game to average nearly 24 yards per completion – so the Calgary defence will need to be ready for the big play potential of the Bison offence.

That said, the Bisons showed very little in their first two games of the season, scoring just 17 points. They have given up a conference-worst 31 points per game, and despite winning by 23 points at Thunderbird Stadium last week, UBC still racked up 556 yards of total offence.

Stu Schollaardt is Manitoba’s leading receiver with 13 catches for 170 yards so far this season, while defensive lineman Louie Richardson leads the way with 15.5 tackles so far on the year – good enough for ninth place on the Canada West leaderboard.

The road doesn’t get much easier for the Bisons next week, as they head to Griffiths Stadium to take on the Saskatchewan Huskies next weekend.