PREVIEW (UTECK BOWL): Bisons travel to Montreal for CIS semi-final

The road warriors continue to make football history. The Manitoba Bisons Football team went back on the road in the 2014 post-season and defeated the #4 Calgary Dinos in the Canada West Final on Sat., Nov. 15 and captured the program’s 11th Hardy Cup trophy.

With the victory, Manitoba (regular season: 4-4; playoffs: 2-0) will now be the Canada West representative in the CIS-Semi-Final when they travel to play at the #2 Montreal Carabins (regular season: 7-1; playoffs: 2-0) in the Uteck Bowl on Saturday, November 22 at 12:30 p.m. ET. The game will be shown on live webcast at cis-sic.tv website plus nationally on Sportsnet 360 and Radio Canada.

The Bisons have now won back-to-back road playoff games as they also rallied for a 47-39 win against #8 Saskatchewan Huskies in the Canada West Semi-Final on Friday, November 7 to advance to the conference final. Plus, both times that Manitoba won playoff football games on the road for the first time in Calgary and at Saskatoon.

This is the first ever meeting between Montreal and Manitoba in football. Overall, in CIS Semi-Final, Manitoba is 4-2. (4-2 at home; 0-0 on road) and this will be the first time that the Herd will play a Final 4 contest on the road.

During Bison football head coach Brian Dobie 19 years at the helm at Manitoba, the Bisons have never won three consecutive road games in the playoffs. Dobie’s playoff record now stands at 12-8 (60% winning percentage).

At stake in the playoff game is advancing to the CIS Final (50th annual Vanier Cup) next weekend in Montreal, Quebec. The championship final will be played on Saturday, November 29 at 1 p.m. ET at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium. The winner from the Uteck Bowl will square off against the winner of the Mitchell Bowl (#3 McMaster Marauders or #6 Mount Allison Mounties).

Bison Football Notes: Manitoba is trying to be only the third 4-4 team to reach the Vanier Cup in history as Regina (2000) and Saskatchewan (2002) both accomplished the feat.

(Source:  Chris Zuk, Manitoba Bisons Sports Information)

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