CALGARY – The Calgary Dinos defence stopped the Regina Rams on a third-and-one gamble at the goal line in the final two minutes en route to a 24-17 victory in the Canada West semifinal Sunday afternoon at McMahon Stadium.
BOX SCORE
The win snapped a 13-year, seven-game playoff losing streak for the Dinos, who earned their first-ever conference semifinal win Sunday afternoon. The last post-season win for Calgary was the 1995 Vanier Cup. Calgary advances to the Canada West Final for the first time since 1997 and will host the Simon Fraser Clan next weekend for the Hardy Cup.
In front of 2214 fans, fifth year Regina quarterback Teale Orban led the Rams 83 yards downfield with eight consecutive completed passes on a last-ditch drive late in the fourth quarter.. After a first down incompletion from the Calgary seven yard line, Orban found Jordan Sisco for a six yard gain, but Dinos halfback Matt Grohn was able to keep Sisco out of the end zone. With 1:47 to play, Julian Simmerling and Andrew Obrecht led the Calgary charge to keep Orban out of the end zone on a quarterback keeper, turning the ball over on downs.
Calgary got a key first down from its own one yard line and was able to run out the clock for the victory.
“That was the biggest defensive play of the season, for sure,” said Calgary head coach Blake Nill, who moved to 13-6 in the playoffs in his CIS coaching career. “That just shows you how close these two programs are. It's a game of inches, and we've been saying from Day 1 that our defence is the strength of this team and we're going to rely on them for any other success we might have.
“This is just a huge win for this program.”
Calgary jumped out to a 16-7 halftime lead on the strength of Aaron Ifield field goals from 16, 35, and 35 yards along with a five-yard touchdown plunge by conference rushing champion Matt Walter. The Rams countered with field goals of 22 and 14 yards along with a 45-yard punt single from Perri Scarcelli.
In a third quarter where the teams combined to punt nine times, the Rams scored the only points to take a 17-16 lead. Chris King ran back an Ifield punt for a 68-yard touchdown midway through the third, while Scarcelli added a 25-yard field goal late to give Regina the lead heading into the final quarter.
Starting with good field position on the Regina 54, Walter engineered the drive of the game for Calgary with less than eight minutes to play. With a 15-yard Regina unnecessary roughness penalty extending a drive that looked to have stalled, Walter racked up the other 39 yards the Dinos needed on five plays, ending it with a four-yard run for the major. Deke Junior found offensive lineman Paul Swiston on the ensuing two-point convert attempt to put Calgary up by a full converted touchdown.
While Calgary's streak of playoff futility came to an end Sunday, so too did the career of the greatest passer in Canada West history. Regina's Orban was 28-for-51 with one interception for 336 yards in his final outing and leaves as the all-time conference leader in passing yards, completions, and passing touchdowns. Orban's top target, Jason Price, hauled in six catches for 99 yards, while Sheldon Tillotson made five catches for 59 yards.
Regina all but abandoned its running game without fifth-year senior Luke Derkson in the lineup, picking up just 42 total yards along the ground. Austin Kappel accounted for 35 of those yards.
Walter was again the offensive story for Calgary, finishing with 22 carries for 105 yards and two touchdowns. Junior added 23 yards rushing to go with 20-of-30 passing for 229 yards without a single interception. #K.C. Prince# led the Dinos with 63 yards on just two catches, while Nathan Coehoorn caught four balls for 54 yards.
Defensively, Grohn led all players with eight total tackles, with Andrea Bonaventura right behind him with 7.5. Darren Geddert had six to pace Regina, while Tamon George and Mike Picken added five each.
The Regina loss means that for the first time since 2003, a team from east of Alberta will not play in the Hardy Cup final. Simon Fraser – who defeated Alberta in that 2003 game – will visit the Dinos for Canada West football supremacy next Saturday, Nov. 8 at McMahon Stadium.
The Clan defeated Calgary 20-3 in their only meeting of the season on Sept. 20 in Burnaby, a loss the Dinos are eager to avenge.
“There are really two reasons this is a good match-up for the Canada West final,” said Nill. “First, it says a lot about our two programs, which are parallel in our rebuilding in a lot of ways, that we can get to the final in the early stages of that rebuilding. I have the utmost respect for Coach Johnson and what he's done there.
“The other thing is that when we went down there, we didn't play our best and they really put the boots to us. They pounded us on the run and we couldn't stop it. But we get a chance to redeem ourselves, and what more can you ask for? I think it's great that it's Simon Fraser and Calgary in the final.”
Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. Saturday at McMahon Stadium.
-UC-
