VANCOUVER β For the third time in four seasons, the University of Calgary Dinos will host the Regina Rams in a Canada West semi-final at McMahon Stadium.
The Dinos, who dropped their first game of the 2011 season 36-23 to the UBC Thunderbirds Saturday afternoon, finish conference play at 7-1 for the fourth time in school history and will begin the second season Friday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. when the Rams roll into McMahon, live on Shaw TV (Channel 10 Calgary).
The Dinos and Calgary Stampeders have teamed up for that game, so all fans who show a ticket to the Saturday, Nov. 5 CFL game between the Stamps and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will also be granted admission to the Dinos-Rams game Friday night.
Thanks to their win, UBC (6-2) will host a playoff game for the first time since 1999 as the Saskatchewan Huskies (5-3) head to Vancouver to start their playoff chase. That game will go on Saturday, Nov. 5.
In a game that meant nothing from a standings perspective for Calgary but did impact home field advantage for UBC, the Thunderbirds came out firing and put up a 14-0 lead just over five minutes into the contest. The Dinos stormed back to tie and even took a late first-half lead at 17-14, but the Thunderbirds rode their quarterback and likely Canada West MVP Billy Greene to their sixth win of the season.
Greene found Mitch Shuster for a 50-yard TD strike just 63 seconds into the game, then connected with Spencer Betts from 13 yards out at the 5:20 mark to make it 14-0 T-Birds. As Calgaryβs offence began to settle in, however, Eric Dzwilewski found Richard Snyder for his first TD of the season at the 13:49 mark of the first quarter, then tossed Chris Dobko his conference-leading eighth touchdown of the year from 11 yards out in the early stages of the second quarter to tie it up.
After a Billy Pavlopoulos field goal, Dzwilewski ran it in himself from 20 yards out to give the Dinos their first and only lead of the day at 17-14. With just 40 seconds remaining in the half, however, Greene connected with David Scott for a 29-yard touchdown and the Thunderbirds led 24-21 heading into the break.
While the first half featured more than 650 combined yards, the second half didnβt see nearly as many offensive fireworks. Scoring in the third quarter was limited to another Pavlopoulos field goal and a conceded safety by UBC, while the fourth saw Greenβs fourth TD pass of the afternoon β a two-yard strike to Jordan Grieve. The Dinosβ only points in the second half came with 14 seconds left as the Thunderbirds conceded a safety to run out the clock.
Dobko had a career day, tying a school record with 12 catches for 142 yards. He finishes the season with 56 receptions, tied for the second-most in school history with Don Blairβs Hec Crighton-winning 1995 season. Also making his mark in the record book was running back Matt Walter, who became just the ninth player in CIS history to surpass the 4,000-yard career rushing mark with 28 yards on the day. He wraps up his CIS career with 4,014 yards, good for eighth on the all-time CIS list.
Dzwilewski, who suffered just the second loss of his CIS career as a starting quarterback, completed 21 of 34 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns, adding a further 35 yards along the ground. Steven Lumbala was the teamβs rushing leader on the day with 81 yards, while Anthony Woodson added 42 more.
Dinos kicker Jonny Mark missed his lone field goal try of the day and finishes the year with 17, one short of the schoolβs all-time record set in 2010 by Aaron Ifield. Mark finishes the season 17-for-19 (.895) in field goals.
Greene had another sensational day for UBC, completing 23 of 42 passes for 421 yards and four majors. Greene found eight different receivers on the afternoon, with Grieve leading the way with seven catches for 96 yards while Scott added 88 yards on four catches.
NOTES: Saturdayβs results mean that for the first time since the four-team playoff format was adopted in Canada West in 1999, both semi-final games will be played east of the Alberta-Saskatchewan border β¦ Calgary defeated Regina 51-1 in the teamsβ lone meeting of the year at Mosaic Stadium Sept. 16 β¦ Calgary is 2-2 against Regina in the playoffs all-time, winning in 2008 and 2010 β and all four games have been at McMahon Stadium β¦ the Dinos also finished 7-1 in 2009, 1988, and 1984 β¦ by virtue of their first-place finish, Calgary will enjoy home field advantage all the way through the national semi-final Mitchell Bowl β¦
Photo credit Rich Lam, UBC
Calgary sports info
VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds will host a playoff game for the first time since 1999 next weekend thanks to their 36-23 upset of the CIS No. 1 Calgary Dinos at Thunderbird Stadium on Saturday.
Fourth-year quarterback Billy Greene connected on 23 of 42 pass attempts for 421 yards and four touchdowns while also leading the ‘Birds with 60 rushing yards
He got the T-Birds out of the starting gate in a hurry, chucking a 50-yard bomb over the middle to a wide open Mitch Shuster for a touchdown on the second play from scrimmage.
The ‘Birds quickly made it a 14-0 lead, and after Calgary charged back to take the lead 21-17 in the second quarter, another long touchdown heave from Greene – this time a 29-yarder to David Scott – gave UBC the lead for good.
The Thunderbirds held the high-octane Dinos offence scoreless in the second half, ending their bid for a perfect season.
“The focus for our guys was to make sure they know we can beat them,” said UBC head coach Shawn Olson. “Sometimes when you’re 7-0 and rolling through the competition it’s important to know you’re not infallible, and it’s important for us to know we can hang with them. We’ve talked about it all year since training camp that we can hang with the best if we play well.”
And play well they did.
Though the Dinos used rushing leader Steven Lumbala only sparingly in the contest, limiting him to just six carries all in the first half, the other two thirds of their three-headed rushing monster were bottled up well by the T-Birds in the second half.
Lumbala ran wild for 81 yards on those six carries in the opening half, but Matt Walter and Anthony Woodson were held to 70 yards on 19 carries in the game.
The T-Bird rushing game wasn’t much better, with Brandon Deschamps and Sam Adu combining for 47 yards on 15 carries, but the aerial attack that gave UBC a quick start proved too much for the Dinos to handle.
“We usually come out of the game pretty strong in most games, and then sometimes have a lull in the second quarter,” said Olson. “We game planned some stuff and thought we could make some matchup problems for them, and it worked out. Billy played awesome. That was the best game I’ve seen him play since I’ve been here. He was very efficient and there was a real confidence about him today.”
The win puts UBC at 6-2 to finish the regular season, setting them up to host the Saskatchewan Huskies next Saturday in their first home playoff game since 1999.
“I don’t know if [playing at home] will make that much of a difference to be honest,” said Olson. “We’re comfortable being a road team, and since I’ve been here we’ve probably been better over those two season on the road than at home, but this year we’ve been very good at home so it is nice. The biggest thing to me though is now we will be playing on Saturday, so we get an extra day to get our guys healthy again and hopefully have a full squad.”
The Dinos fall to 7-1, but still have home field advantage locked up throughout the playoffs.
Eric Dzwilewski was 16 for 27 for 184 yards and two touchdown tosses to Chris Dobko and Richard Snyder. Dzwilewski also ran for 33 yards and Calgary’s third touchdown.
David Scott led UBC in the receiving game with 77 yards and a touchdown. Spencer Betts also added three grabs for 47 yards and a score.
UBC linebacker Adam Konar led the team with seven tackles.
Playoff football returns to UBC on Saturday, November 5th at Thunderbird Stadium. The T-Birds host the Saskatchewan Huskies, while the Calgary Dinos get the Regina Cougars at home to begin the postseason.
Source: UBC Sports Info
SCORING SUMMARY
1st Quarter
UBC β Mitch Shuster 50-yard TD catch from Billy Greene (Billy Pavlopoulos convert), 1:03, 7-0 UBC
UBC β Spencer Betts 13-yard TD catch from Billy Greene (Billy Pavlopoulos convert), 5:20, 14-0 UBC
CGY β Richard Snyder 10-yard TD catch from Eric Dzwilewski (Johnny Mark convert), 13:49, 14-7 UBC
2nd Quarter
CGY β Chris Dobko 11-yard TD catch from Eric Dzwilewski (Johnny Mark convert), 3:33, 14-14
UBC β Billy Pavlopoulos 32-yard FG, 9:34, 17-14 UBC
CGY β Eric Dzwilewski 20-yard TD run (Johnny Mark convert), 11:54, 21-17 CGY
UBC β David Scott 29-yard TD catch from Billy Greene (Billy Pavlopoulos convert), 14:20, 24-21 UBC
3rd Quarter
UBC β Billy Pavlopoulos 43-yard FG, 3:45, 27-21 UBC
UBC β Team Safety, 15:00, 29-21 UBC
4th Quarter
UBC β Jordan Grieve 2-yard TD catch from Billy Greene (Billy Pavlopoulos convert), 6:51, 36-21 UBC
CGY β Team Safety, 14:46, 36-23
Ben Matchett
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