BOX SCORE CALGARY – It wasn't pretty, but the second-ranked Calgary Dinos are off to their fourth straight Hardy Cup championship game after a 16-4 win over the Regina Rams in a Canada West semi-final Friday night at McMahon Stadium.

BOX SCORE

The Dinos will host the 75th Hardy Cup on Remembrance Day, Nov. 11 at 6 p.m. MT, live on TSN and QR77, and will take on the winner of Saturday's UBC-Saskatchewan playoff contest at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver.

For the third straight season, the Dinos scored a long passing touchdown on their first offensive play in a game against the Rams. Last year it was Erik Glavic hitting Anthony Parker to open the game with a long Dinos touchdown, and on Friday night Eric Dzwilewski aired out a 90-yard pass to Richard Snyder for the major – and what turned out to be the winning score.

“We saw that adjustment in their formation, and it worked to Parker last year and it worked to Snyder today,” said Dinos head coach Blake Nill. “We knew we had to do something to loosen them up, and we thought we'd take the shot with Snyder. It worked.”

A 21-yard major by Calgary running back Matt Walter late in the first half would prove to be the only other touchdown of the game.

Steven Lumbala ended up with a game-high 113 rushing yards for Calgary, while Dzwilewski completed eight of his 16 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown. Snyder caught four passes for 143 yards, most of which came on the long game-opening major. Sam Hurl led Calgary defensively with seven solo tackles, six assisted tackles, and a pair of sacks.

Regina quarterback Zach Oleynik was 18-for-35 and threw for 193 yards. Mark McConkey led all players with five receptions, while Jay Smith had a team-high 44 receiving yards. Adrian Charles rushed 14 times for 63 yards.

Jamir Walker had a pair of interceptions for Regina, including one on the goal line that snuffed out a promising looking Calgary drive. Dzwilewski threw just three interceptions during the regular season.

Penalties were a major story for the Dinos, who committed 14 infractions for 140 yards and had 85 offensive yards called back due to orange nylon.

“We knew it would be a matter of us trying to run the football, and we had success against a tough run defence,” said Nill. “The thing that really hurt us was inopportune penalties. We had good field position offensively for most of the game, but we couldn't really capitalize on opportunities.”

Chris Bodnar's field goal midway through the first quarter cut the lead to 7-3 after Snyder's opening play score, but the 39-yarder would be the visitors' lone points of the first half.

Stuck deep in their own territory late in the second quarter, the Rams bought themselves some breathing room by conceding a safety. Calgary, though, put together a quick seven-play, 75-yard drive that was finished off by a 21-yard Walter run to send the Dinos into halftime with a 16-3 advantage.

Bodnar's rouge stood up as the only point of the second half, as both teams had chances in the red zone but were unable to convert. Dzwilewski had a pass picked off by Walker on the goal line, and the Rams drove all the way down to Calgary's 15 late in the fourth but a bad snap knocked Regina back 20 yards.

The Dinos will host the Hardy Cup for the third time in four seasons next Friday night, looking to repeat as conference champions for the fourth year in a row. The winner of next week's Canada West title game will also earn the right to host the Quebec champion in the CIS semi-final Mitchell Bowl on Nov. 18.

SCORING SUMMARY
1st Quarter
CGY – Richard Snyder 90-yard TD catch from Eric Dzwilewski (Johnny Mark convert), 2:47, 7-0 CGY
REG – Chris Bodnar 39-yard FG, 6:33, 7-3 CGY

2nd Quarter
CGY – TEAM safety, 10:31, 9-3 CGY
CGY – Matt Walter 21-yard TD run (Johnny Mark convert), 12:06, 16-3 CGY

3rd Quarter
REG – Chris Bodnar 50-yard punt single, 12:35, 16-4 CGY

4th Quarter
No scoring.

-UC-