Ilnicki’s three TDs powers Bears to win over Bisons

Second year runningback Ed Ilnicki scored a trio of touchdowns to power the University of Alberta Golden Bears to a 38-31 victory over the No.10 ranked Manitoba Bisons on Saturday evening at Foote Field in Edmonton.

Ilnicki, who hails from Spruce Grove, Alberta, scored rushing touchdowns in the second, third and fourth quarters, increasing his conference total to seven on the season which is tops in Canada West. He finished with 33 carries on the night, along with 192 total rushing yards. Freshman running back Levon Hawreliak also scored a major, as did sophomore receiver Tylor Henry. Kicker Stephen Fabian scored rouge, on a missed field goal, while the Bears were also awarded a safety.

Manitoba quarterback Jordan Yantz rushed for a pair of TDs, while receiver Matt Sawyer and linebacker DJ Lamala also scored for the Bisons. Kicker Ryan Jones also added a field goal.
Dell finished the night by completing 12 of 22 passes for 104 yards and one TD, while Henry caught six passes for 61 yards. Yantz, meanwhile, completed 26 of 41 passes for Manitoba, with 327 yards and one TD. Runningback Kienan Lafrance added 130 rushing yards for the Bisons, as well as 100 receiving yards.

With the win, the Bears improve to 3-2 on the season, including 2-1 at Foote Field, and they take sole possession of third place in the Canada West standings. Manitoba, meanwhile, slips to 2-3 on the year, but remain in a playoff position.

Alberta opened the game up with a 14-3 first quarter lead, thanks to touchdowns by Henry, his first of the season, and Hawreliak, his second of the season. But, the Bisons were suddenly back in the game when Lalama intercepted an errant Curtis Dell pass and returned it 26-yards for late first quarter TD.

Dell and the offence responded in the second quarter however, marching the field with a combination of underneath passes, hitch passes and the two-headed rushing attack of Ilnicki and Hawreliak. Ilnicki capped off the drive with a four yard plunge, and the Bears were able to go into half-time with a 21-10 lead.

Ilnicki found pay dirt on Alberta’s first possession of the second quarter increasing the Bears’ advantage to 28-10 early in the second half.

Yantz, however, put together a strong second half, as he first cut the lead down to 11 points early in the third quarter when he connected with a wide open Matt Sawyer in the end zone from 22 yards out, and then drew the Bisons to within five points when he scampered into the endzone, untouched, from 10-yards out at the start of the fourth quarter.

Aundrey Wesbter, Alberta’s multi-purpose weapon, sparked the next points for the Bears when he returned a Manitoba kick-off 54-yards to spot the offence inside the Manitoba 50-yard line. Four running plays later, including a 15-yard dash by Dell, and Ilnicki was in the endzone again, this time from 12-yards out, as the Bears jumped out to a 36-24 advantage.

Alberta looked to have scored another touchdown, with 6:12 remaining in the fourth, when receiver-turned-defensive back Tak Landry scooped up a fumble at the Bisons’ one yard line and fell into the endzone. But the officials ruled Yantz had intentionally grounded the ball, a penalty, and awarded Alberta a two-point safety touch instead.

Unfazed, Yantz once again marched the Bisons back into the Alberta endzone, as he finished off another drive with a 10-yard touchdown run to make the score 38-31 with 3:13 to go in the game.

Webster, as he did before, took another Manitoba kick-off back into Bisons territory, this time a 42-yard return, but Alberta couldn’t capitalize and was forced to punt the ball back to the Bisons with less than a minute to play.

Yantz then led Manitoba on a harrowing march, as he connected with receivers all over the field, but stalled out at the Alberta 25-yard line. Facing a first-and-10 situation, Yantz floated a rainbow into the endzone, but sailed it well out of reach of the intended receiver. On second-and-10, with just three seconds remaining, Yantz heaved a prayer to Dustin Pedersen in the endzone, but pass was broken up by Landry, and the Bears held on for the 38-31 final.

Both teams will take a “bye” next weekend, as will all Canada West teams over the Thanksgiving Weekend, but the Bears will play their final home game on October 18th, at 2:00 p.m. against the Calgary Dinos, while Manitoba will host the Saskatchewan Huskies on October 17th.

Matt Gutsch

STATS AT BOTTOM OF ARTICLE

CALGARY – The second-ranked University of Calgary Dinos used a solid performance on both sides of the football to cruise into the Canada West bye week with a 59-7 win over the Regina Rams Saturday afternoon at McMahon Stadium.

With the win, the Dinos improve to 4-1 on the season while Regina falls to 1-4 with the loss.
Despite losing the services of conference MVP Mercer Timmis just minutes into the game, the Dinos still managed to put up nearly 400 rushing yards against the Rams as backup Quentin Chown did the lion’s share of the work along the ground. But the Calgary defence also stood tall, allowing just 350 yards of offence by the Rams – and 71 of those came on one play, leading to Regina’s only score of the game. And Calgary was able to carry that play throughout the contest, scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter with most of the backups in.

“I thought in the third quarter we stalled a little, but I told the kids at the end of the game that our ability to play the fourth quarter at that tempo was a good point of emphasis for us,” said Dinos head coach Blake Nill after the game. “We don’t have the big ‘star power’ that we’ve had in the past – but we have good, solid football players who are able to make plays when given the opportunity. Case in point, we lose Mercer right away and Chown takes over, and then at the end we give Jansher (Hundal) an opportunity. That builds the team and gets the guys all excited for one another, and it marvellous to see some of your young kids get a chance to finally contribute.”

Timmis put up 77 yards on just four carries in the opening eight minutes before landing awkwardly following a 42-yard run that set up Brett Blaszko’s first of two touchdowns on the day midway through the first quarter. In his absence, Chown rumbled for 95 yards, including a 31-yard touchdown in the fourth, and Hundal added 69 yards and his first career CIS touchdown in the final minute of the game.

Calgary pivot Andrew Buckley completed 18 of 26 passes for 216 yards and two touchdowns, both to Blaszko. Buckley also ran in a pair of majors himself. Calgary’s other scoring came courtesy a pair of field goals and two singles from Johnny Mark, a conceded safety, and an 18-yard Austen Hartley touchdown run in the waning moments of the game.

Rashaun Simonise had an efficient night receiving, hauling in two catches for 101 yards, while Blaszko added six catches for 59 yards and two scores.

Defensively, the Dinos shut down Regina all afternoon, limiting the second-best offence in the conference under 300 passing yards and 72 rushing yards – only 10 of which came in the first half as the Dinos built up a 35-7 lead at the break. Regina quarterback Noah Picton was sacked four times, completing 19 of 37 passes for 277 yards. The one fly in the ointment for the Calgary defence was a 71-yard play to Addison Richards in the second quarter, which set up Regina’s only score of the game – a three-yard Picton-to-Jared-Janotta pass. Other than that, the Rams managed just 14 first downs in the game and didn’t threaten.

Richards was the game’s top receiver with 109 yards on five catches, while Atlee Simon was Regina’s top rusher with 35 yards.

The game wraps up the pre-Thanksgiving portion of the schedule for both teams as Canada West takes the week off next week. Both sides will be on the road for their next action on Oct. 18 when the Rams visit UBC while Calgary heads north to take on the Alberta Golden Bears.

Ben Matchett

STATS AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

Third-year running back Shane Buchanan rushed for 105 yards and two touchdowns to help the No. 7 ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies to a 31-25 win over the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds Saturday night at Saskatoon’s Griffiths Stadium in PotashCorp Park.

Buchanan hit the century mark for the first time in the 2014 season on 19 carries. Both touchdowns came in the first half as the Huskies built a 19-7 halftime lead.

Saskatchewan would grow the lead to 29-10 early in the fourth quarter, but UBC battled back with a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to cut the lead to six. That is as close as the Thunderbirds would come, as the Huskies were able to run out the clock and improve to 4-1 on the season. UBC drops to 1-4 with the loss.

Huskie quarterback Drew Burko completed 19-of-33 passes for 212 yards and one touchdown. The T-Birds were able to intercept Burko twice in the game. John Trumpy was the Huskies leading receiver with 41 yards on three receptions.

Carson Williams finished the game 21-for-40 through the air with 296 yards and a touchdown. Patrick Bull hauled in six passes for a team high 83 yards. Brandon Deschamps carried the ball 16 times, racking up 129 yards on the ground for UBC.

Both teams will enjoy Thanksgiving weekend off before returning to Canada West action the following weekend. Saskatchewan visits Manitoba (2-3) on October 17, while UBC will host Regina (1-4) on October 18. 

GAME RECAP BY QUARTER

1^st Quarter

UBC looked to hold the Huskies to just a field goal on the game’s opening possession, but an unnecessary roughness penalty kept the Saskatchewan drive alive. On the following play from the 11-yard line Burko would pitch the ball to Shane Buchanan on the quarterback option to score the touchdown at 4:22.

T-Bird quarterback Carson Williams connected on a 43-yard pass to Marcus Davis setting up the visitors inside the Saskatchewan five-yard line. Davis would take a handoff into the end zone on the next play to even the game at 12:54.

2^nd Quarter

Buchanan would find the end zone for the second time in the game at 5:12, again taking the option pitch from Burko for an eight-yard score

After the T-Birds conceded a safety, Denton Kolodzinski split the uprights from 37 yards out at 13:49 to give Saskatchewan a 19-7 halftime lead.

3^rd Quarter

A forced fumble by the UBC defense set up the T-Birds with good field position on the Saskatchewan side of half. The turnover led to a 38-yard Quinn van Gylswyk at 7:48.

The Saskatchewan offense got back on track in the second half with a long drive that was capped off by a seven-yard pass from Burko to receiver Brydon Ozmun at 13:11.

4^th Quarter

The next Huskie possession ended with Kolodzinski’s second field goal of the night, this time from 16-yards at 1:20.

Marcus Davis broke multiple tackles as he returned the ensuing Saskatchewan kickoff 107 yards for UBC, putting the T-Birds right back in the game at 1:37.

UBC closed the gap to six points with a late touchdown. Carson Williams found Niko Jakobs in the back of the end zone from the three-yard line at 13:35.

UBC vs. Saskatchewan at Saskatoon. SK 10/4/2014 at 7:00pm
UBC  25	Saskatchewan  31