EDMONTON – Fourth-year quarterback Andrew Buckley put the team on his back and accounted for nearly 500 yards of offence on his own, lifting the second-ranked University of Calgary Dinos to a 52-37 win over the Alberta Golden Bears Saturday at Foote Field.

Buckley threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns, adding 172 rushing yards and three majors on the ground to his impressive stat line to help the Dinos improve to 5-1 on the year, clinching a playoff spot and putting them just one win away from guaranteeing first place and home-field advantage throughout the Canada West playoffs.

Alberta falls to 3-3 on the year with two games to play, both of which come on the road: next week at Saskatchewan, followed by the season-ender at Regina.

Calgary had to overcome a slow start, and the Dinos needed just about every point the offence scored to counter some lapses on defence, and in the end their 769-yard offensive performance was just too much for the Golden Bears.

"It wasn't how we expected the game to go, but kudos to them, they came out hard," said Buckley, who moved into sixth place among Canada West rushers with his 172-yard performance. "It's all about execution – but once we got some momentum going we were able to move forward."

"Defensively we started making some errors again, errors that are generally uncharacteristic of our program," said Dinos head coach Blake Nill. "Offensively, though, we just kept chugging along and kudos to that unit."

After the teams traded field goals and Alberta led 6-3 after the first quarter, the Dinos poured it on in the second with 23 points, including two rushing TDs from Buckley. The second of those put the Dinos up for good and was a statement drive for Calgary: on its previous possession, Alberta had run some trickery when receiver Jimmy Ralph tossed it up for Tylor Henry in the end zone to wrestle the lead back from the Dinos. Buckley's second made it 19-16, however, sparking a string of 31 unanswered points by Calgary through the second and third quarters. Brett Blaszko added a 16-yard receiving touchdown in the final minute of the first half, and Calgary led 26-16 at the break.

Already without their top tailback in Mercer Timmis, who sat out this week, the Dinos saw Quentin Chown carried off the field after being tackled awkwardly midway through the third quarter. To that point, Chown had put up 125 rushing yards, and the Dinos had to soldier on without either of their top two tailbacks. On the next play, however, Buckley found Brett Blaszko on a 39-yard touchdown that was nearly intercepted but bounced off a defender into Blaszko's hands, extending his lead on the conference receiving majors leaderboard with his 10th TD of the season.

On the next drive, without Chown behind him, Buckley took care of it himself with a 61-yard touchdown run.

"There's definitely some extra pressure at that point in the game, but at the same time we have so many good backs and our O-line is just solid, so they're just going to punch some holes for whoever's playing back there," said Buckley.

"I think Andrew would be the first to say that he didn't have his greatest game, but today showed the big play potential he has," said Nill. "He's so composed, he doesn't let the bad plays get to him – he just moves on. Today was a good indication of that."

Calgary's other scoring came courtesy a late touchdown by Bryce Harper – the first of his career – along with a pair of conceded safeties and two field goals by Johnny Mark. The first of those, at the 9:34 mark of the first quarter, vaulted him past Jamie Boreham into first place on the all-time Canada West scoring list with 358 points. He added nine more in the game, setting the new conference mark at 367 points.

Of the Dinos' 431 rushing yards, 297 came from the Buckley-Chown tandem. Harper added 79. Blaszko was the team's top receiver with 101 yards and two scores, while Rashawn Simonise had a solid afternoon with three catches for 76 yards.

Defensively, the Dinos were led by Adam Konar's nine tackles, while Cyril Iwanegbe chipped in with six more for Calgary.

Calgary heads home looking to lock up first place when the Dinos host the UBC Thunderbirds (2-4) next Saturday at McMahon Stadium, with kickoff set for 2 p.m.

SCORING SUMMARY
1st Quarter
ALB – Stephen Fabian 16-yard FG, 2:21, 3-0 ALB
CGY – Johnny Mark 24-yard FG, 9:34, 3-3
ALB – Stephen Fabian 39-yard FG, 13:06, 6-3 ALB

2nd Quarter
CGY – TEAM safety, 1:44, 6-5 ALB
ALB – Stephen Fabian 35-yard FG, 4:13, 9-5 ALB
CGY – Andrew Buckley 10-yard TD run (Johnny Mark convert), 5:13, 12-9 CGY
ALB – Tylor Henry 14-yard TD pass from Jimmy Ralph (Stephen Fabian convert), 7:22, 16-12 ALB
CGY – Andrew Buckley 6-yard TD run (Johnny Mark convert), 11:49, 19-16 CGY
CGY – Brett Blaszko 16-yard TD pass from Andrew Buckley (Johnny Mark convert), 14:22, 26-16 CGY
 
3rd Quarter
CGY – Brett Blaszko 39-yard TD pass from Andrew Buckley (Johnny Mark convert), 3:52, 33-16 CGY
CGY – Andrew Buckley 61-yard TD run (Johnny Mark convert), 7:12, 40-16 CGY
CGY – Johnny Mark 26-yard FG, 10:56, 43-16 CGY

4th Quarter
ALB – Levon Hawreliak 2-yard TD run (Stephen Fabian convert), 2:26, 43-24 CGY
ALB – Jimmy Ralph 27-yard TD pass from Curtis Dell (Stephen Fabian convert), 4:12, 43-30 CGY
CGY – Bryce Harper 3-yard TD run (Johnny Mark convert), 7:11, 50-30 CGY
ALB – David Beard 15-yard TD pass from Curtis Dell (Stephen Fabian convert), 9:08, 50-37 CGY
CGY – TEAM safety, 12:16, 52-37 CGY

-UC-