CALGARY – The third-ranked University of Calgary Dinos clinched at least second place in Canada West Saturday after exploding for more than 700 yards offence in a 47-29 victory over the Regina Rams at McMahon Stadium.

BOX SCORE

Calgary improves to 6-1 on the season while Regina falls to 3-4 with just one week remaining. The Dinos close the season next Saturday afternoon against the similarly 3-4 Alberta Golden Bears, while the Rams will host the Saskatchewan Huskies Friday night.

The Dinos and Rams combined for more than 1,100 yards offence with most of it through the air as the top two quarterbacks in the conference went head-to-head. Calgary's Erik Glavic racked up 470 yards through the air, the third best single-game total in school history, while Regina's Marc Mueller passed for 384.

“Coming off a bye week is always tough, and we wanted to come out and play sharp and we did that in a lot of ways,” said Dinos head coach Blake Nill after leading his team to their 12th straight victory at McMahon Stadium.  “We had a couple of breakdowns in special teams, we had some turnovers on offence that hurt us, and we also had some issues with our pass coverages. We're still a work in progress, but I think we have the right athletes in place.”

Calgary set the passing tone early when on the first offensive play of the game Glavic found Anthony Parker for an 85-yard touchdown. After Aaron Ifield added a 76-yard single on the ensuing kickoff, the Dinos had an 8-0 lead just 40 seconds into the contest. A safety and an 18-yard major from Mueller to Brendan Owens put the Rams up 9-8 heading into the quarter, but that's when the Calgary offence really took off.

Glavic threw for 260 yards in the second quarter, leading the Dinos on three touchdown drives. Parker added a major along the ground from eight yards out and just over four minutes after that, Glavic found Richard Snyder, who made a spectacular 54-yard catch before rolling into the end zone.

Matt Walter scored the first of his three touchdowns on the afternoon in the dying stages of the half, putting Calgary up 29-9 heading to the break, and the Rams never really threatened from there.

A pair of Perri Scarcelli field goals bookended a third quarter that saw Mueller take flight, with the Regina highlight a 47-yard touchdown toss to Jordan Sisco. Calgary responded with a four-yard major from Walter, who added another from the same distance early in the fourth. A one-yard Sisco plunge and a 32-yard Ifield field goal wrapped up the scoring.

Neither defence performed particularly well on the afternoon as both offences had a field day. Calgary's 719 yards total offence put them over the 4,000 mark on the season, a new single-season team record with one game left to be played. Nearly 250 of those yards came courtesy Parker, who padded his lead atop the conference receiving standings with 154 receiving – more than half of which came on the first play of the game. Parker was also the leading rusher on either side, scampering for 79 yards.

Walter, the conference's leading rusher, was held to his lowest yardage of the season with just 57, but his three touchdowns gave him 11 on the season, one ahead of Parker to lead the conference.

The Calgary offence, however, begins and ends with Glavic, who demonstrated once again his ability to make plays happen with his arm and his legs. He completed 25 of 34 passes to reach the 470-yard mark, adding two touchdown tosses to the mix.

“Erik did a few things better this game than he has in the past few,” said Nill. “He made some better decisions, he protected the ball better, and he took what their defence gave him. We've been working with Erik to help him improve as a manager of the game, and he's shown that he can do that.”

On the other side, Mueller completed 26 of 42 passes for 384 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His favourite target on the afternoon was Sisco, who put up 176 yards, while the Rams all but abandoned the run game with just 65 yards compared to Calgary's 245 yards along the ground. Graham Mosiondz led the way with 10 carries for 29 yards for the Rams.

Defensively, linebacker Thomas Irving paced Regina with 9.5 tackles, while Deji Oduwole had 6.5 tackles and the lone sack of the afternoon for the Dinos.

Calgary heads to Edmonton next weekend needing both a victory and a Saskatchewan loss to Regina to claim first place in Canada West. They may know their fate in advance, however, as the Rams host the Huskies in a Friday night contest at Mosaic Stadium needing a victory to earn a playoff berth.

Regardless of the final standings, the Dinos and Huskies will host the two conference semi-final games on Saturday, Nov. 7.

SCORING SUMMARY
1st Quarter
CGY – Parker 85-yard TD catch from Glavic (Ifield convert), 0:36, 7-0 CGY
CGY – Ifield 76-yard kickoff single, 0:40, 8-0 CGY
REG – TEAM safety, 3:17, 8-2 CGY
REG – Owens 18-yard TD catch from Mueller (Scarcelli convert), 7:52, 9-8 REG

2nd Quarter
CGY – Parker 8-yard TD run (Ifield convert), 2:08, 15-9 CGY
CGY – Snyder 54-yard TD catch from Glavic (Ifield convert), 6:27, 22-9 CGY
CGY – Walter 2-yard TD run (Ifield convert), 12:53, 29-9 CGY

3rd Quarter
REG – Scarcelli 41-yard FG, 2:14, 29-12 CGY
CGY – Walter 4-yard TD run (Ifield convert), 5:28, 36-12 CGY
REG – Sisco 47-yard TD catch from Mueller (Scarcelli convert), 6:40, 36-19 CGY
REG – Scarcelli 33-yard FG, 12:30, 36-22 CGY

4th Quarter
CGY – Walter 4-yard TD run (Ifield convert), 5:37, 43-22 CGY
CGY – Ifield 63-yard punt single, 9:07, 44-22 CGY
REG – Sisco 1-yard TD run (Scarcelli convert), 11:58, 44-29 CGY
CGY – Ifield 32-yard FG, 13:46, 47-29 CGY

-UC-