CALGARY – Andrew Buckley threw for 512 yards while Mercer Timmis picked up four touchdowns and Chris Dobko added his name to the record books as the University of Calgary Dinos scored a dominant 48-24 win over the University of Manitoba Bisons Friday night at McMahon Stadium.
No. 5 Calgary improves to 4-0 on the season while dropping the eighth-ranked Bisons to 2-2 in the only meeting between the two teams this season.
The Dinos offence exploded in the first half, jumping out to a 34-10 lead at the break before grinding out the win in the final two quarters while holding the vaunted Manitoba offence at bay for most of the game, giving up just 17 points before a last-minute major gave Calgary 24. And the explosion didn’t take very long.
After going two-and-out on the opening drive, Buckley found Brett Blaszko for a 91-yard score just 2:46 into the game to set the tone. It was the third-longest passing play in school history and gave the Dinos an early lead. Two more big plays came before the half was out with Buckley finding Rashaun Simonise for a 56-yard major – the first of his CIS career – while Mercer Timmis had a 32-yard scamper to go with a one-yard plunge before the halftime gun sounded.
At the break, Buckley had exactly 400 passing yards and the Dinos had a 24-point lead.
“We were hoping that our offence would be able to put up some points,” said Dinos head coach Blake Nill. “We still have to get better at finishing consistently, but we made some big plays in the first half and to answer right away in the second half was huge. I couldn’t be happier with the offence.”
The Dinos’ game plan on defence was clearly to limit the effectiveness of the fearsome duo of Anthony Coombs and Nic Demski, and for the most part they succeeded. Coombs did pick up two touchdowns, one in the final seconds of the opening half and another midway through the third quarter, but the Bisons were unable to pick up any of the big plays they’ve been known for so far this year. Despite that, Coombs had big numbers: 22 carries for 120 yards on the ground, along with six catches for 115 yards and two majors. Demski added 103 yards on five catches – but it wasn’t enough for the Bisons, who scored just 24 points despite moving the ball 580 yards in the game.
“It was a bend-but-don’t-break effort, and that’s all we can expect from the kids on defence,” said Nill. “We focused on those two (Coombs and Demski) … we knew we couldn’t stop them completely, but we wanted to limit them, and for the most part we did.”
Doctor Cassama was key to Calgary’s defensive effort, recording 10 solo tackles along with a pair of assists. Michael Schmidt had six more for Calgary.
While the Bisons were unable to stretch the field, the Dinos used the big play to their advantage, and the entire offence got in the act. Blaszko and Simonise had the big plays, while Timmis picked up 118 rushing yards and four more touchdowns, bringing his total to nine in the 2013 season. But the night belonged to receiver Chris Dobko, who became the University of Calgary’s all-time leading receiver with 146 career catches, breaking Don Blair’s old record of 138 with a nine-catch, 203-yard night through the air.
“It’s pretty amazing that Chris is the all-time leading receiver,” said Nill. “I’ve probably given Chris as hard a time as any player I’ve had, but over the last year and a half he has matured tremendously and I couldn’t be happier for him.”
Blaszko added 138 receiving yards, while Buckley – making just his third CIS start – had the 20th-best game by a quarterback in Canadian university history and the third-best Dinos performance, completing 24 of 36 passes for 512 yards and three touchdowns on the night.
Manitoba’s defence was led by Bami Adewale with 8.5 tackles, followed closely by Thomas Miles with seven.
The Bisons return to Investors Group Field next weekend to host the Regina Rams. Calgary, meanwhile, puts its undefeated record on the line next Saturday in Edmonton as the Dinos face off against the Alberta Golden Bears (0-4) at Foote Field. Kickoff goes at 5 p.m.
SCORING SUMMARY
1st Quarter
CGY – Brett Blaszko 91-yard TD catch from Andrew Buckley (Johnny Mark convert), 2:46, 7-0 CGY
CGY – Johnny Mark 27-yard FG, 8:40, 10-0 CGY
CGY – Johnny Mark 25-yard FG, 12:14, 13-0 CGY
2nd Quarter
MAN – Nick Boyd 23-yard FG, 4:42, 13-3 CGY
CGY – Rashaun Simonise 56-yard TD catch from Andrew Buckley (Johnny Mark convert), 10:03, 20-3 CGY
CGY – Mercer Timmis 1-yard TD run (Johnny Mark convert), 12:42, 27-3 CGY
CGY – Mercer Timmis 32-yard TD run (Johnny Mark convert), 13:54, 34-3 CGY
MAN – Anthony Coombs 21-yard TD catch from Jordan Yantz (Nick Boyd convert), 14:49, 34-10 CGY
3rd Quarter
CGY – Mercer Timmis 15-yard TD catch from Andrew Buckley (Johnny Mark convert), 1:48, 41-10 CGY
MAN – Anthony Coombs 16-yard TD catch from Jordan Yantz (Nick Boyd convert), 8:17, 41-17 CGY
4th Quarter
CGY – Mercer Timmis 2-yard TD run (Johnny Mark convert), 0:42, 48-17 CGY
MAN – Bryden Bone 4-yard TD catch from Jordan Yantz (Nick Boyd convert), 14:10, 48-24 CGY
Source: Ben Matchett, Caglary Dinos Sports Information
The #8 Manitoba Bisons Football team went into #5 Calgary Dinos and were handed a 48-24 road loss on Friday, Sept. 20 evening at McMahon Stadium. With the win, Calgary moves to a perfect 4-0 while the Herd drops to 2-2 in the 2013 conference season.
Going back to last season’s playoff game at Calgary, the Bisons have now been outscore 105-42 by the Dinos and have not beaten the five-time Canada West champions in ten consecutive games (dating back to the 2007 Vanier Cup Championship for Manitoba).
In a match-up of two Top 10 CIS teams, the home team started early and often in the first half. The hosts scored on their second possession of the contest as the Dinos starting quarterback Andrew Buckley found Brett Blaszko on a 91 pass and run play with less three minutes gone to start the scoring onslaught.
After a 13-0 first quarter lead, Calgary struck quickly for three straight TDs to end the half. Buckley found Rashaun Simonise on a 56 yard TD connection then followed by conference touchdown leader Mercer Timmis on a one yard and 32 yard TD runs – all in a span of less than five minutes. Manitoba finally found the end zone late when conference leading all-purpose yards leader Anthony Coombs caught a 21 yard TD pass from Bison QB Jordan Yantz.
At the half, the scoreboard was Calgary 34-10 and their offence racked up over 500 yards while Buckley was 18-25 for a staggering 400 passing yards in only 30 minutes.
The rest of the game saw the visitors keep pace as both teams scored two majors before the final gun.
Despite the loss, Manitoba generated 580 yards in offence and was led by Coombs with 2 receiving TDs and a combined 235 yards (22-120 rush yards; 6-115 receiving) plus Nic Demski had 5-103 receiving yards along with Yantz 25-47 for 450 yards (a new Bison record) and 3 TDs and 1 INT. The Bisons gave up a whopping 678 yards on offence (second most in team history only to Calgary racking up 776 last season in regular season 78-54 win).
Coombs commented after the game, “We were just doing everything wrong. Every time we come here they just seem to out-physical us and again I don’t think we played like men, we played like boys….We’ve just gotta come out and start executing our stuff a lot better.”
Source: Chris Zuk, Mantioba Bisons Sports Information
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