QUEBEC CITY – After a 24-year wait, the Vanier Cup is coming back to Calgary.
The University of Calgary Dinos captured the fifth Vanier Cup championship in program history Saturday with a solid 27-13 win over the Montreal Carabins, vaulting them to the top of the U SPORTS football world for the first time since 1995.
Bouncing back from a pair of first-half injuries on defence, the Dinos did all of their scoring in the second and fourth quarters while holding the Quebec champion Carabins to just one touchdown and a pair of field goals to raise the championship trophy on the campus of Université Laval, the scene of so much heartbreak for the program over the past dozen years.
"I was there in '95 as a part of the staff. We have been back a few times and come up short each time," said Dinos Head Coach
Wayne Harris, who becomes the second Calgary bench boss to capture the national title after Peter Connellan's wins in 1983, 1985, 1988, and 1995. "Now, we finally got the win, and we're very happy for all the people in our organization – players, coaches, the university, the fans, supporters back home. And thank you to the people of Quebec for treating us so well all week.
"Through everything that they went through this year, I'm extremely proud. They battled through so much adversity. When camp opened up I knew we had a pretty good team, but then we had a bunch of injuries and I didn't know if we were going to last the year. The guys just kept battling and fighting through it and got the win today…and I think that adversity helped."
In his final university game, Calgary quarterback
Adam Sinagra was named winner of the Ted Morris Memorial Trophy as the game's MVP, completing 22 of 28 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Dinos to the win.
"I'm finally a champion, and in my home province of all places," said Sinagra, who finished the game with 22 completions on 28 attempts for 292 yards. "This is huge for our team. We responded well in every situation today. I'm so proud of this group.
"The amount of work that we put in…it's a dream come true. To go out on top like this, it's hard to put into words. This team grew so much together and had to overcome a lot of adversity, and it's a tribute to the guys in the locker room. I'd like to shout out everyone involved in this program, from the top down, the alumni and everyone who has helped built this program into what it should be – a competitive, national powerhouse team.
"It has been 25 years, and we're bringing it home – I'm proud to be a part of that."
Leading 13-7 at the half, the Dinos never looked back when they returned to the field, despite repeated menacing attempts from the Carabins late in the game. Calgary completed the score adding a third touchdown in the final minute of the game, tallying 27 points against Montreal's defence who had surrendered only 16 points in three playoff games.
Deprived of star players Marc-Antoine Dequoy and Jean-Philippe Lévesque because of early injuries, Carabins' head coach Danny Maciocia refused to use this an excuse.
"It's part of football," he said. "We were obviously missing a few pieces, but you have to give some credit to the Dinos who played an excellent game."
The Carabins also had to play without their starting quarterback Frédéric Paquette-Perreault, who was injured in last week's Uteck Bowl game at Acadia.
It took a while to get anything offensively for both teams in this 55th Vanier Cup. After a missed field goal on each side, the first quarter ended without any points on the scoreboard. The Dinos were the first to get on the scoresheet with a pair of field goals from
Niko DiFonte from 23 and 38 yards. Calgary was up 6-0 with more than 11 minutes left in the half.
A big defensive play for the Carabins was the tone setter for this championship game. Redha Kramdi kicked things off stripping Sinagra of the ball while knocking him over. After the game, Kramdi received the Bruce Coulter Award as the defensive player of the game.
Forced to punt the ball at Calgary's 37-yard line and standing five yards away from a first down, Maciocia decided to pull a trick out of his bag of plays. Raphael Major-Dagenais connected with Bruno Lagacé for 11 yards, paving the way to Montreal's only touchdown of the game, scored by Reda Malki.
The Carabins weren't done celebrating when the Dinos answered less than two minutes later. Sinagra needed only four completions to cover the length of the field, finding
Jalen Philpot on a 37 yards play to open the drive before finishing it off with the same target, his favourite of the day, on a 13-yard touchdown pass.
The Dinos were leading 13-7 at the half, a lead they held for the rest of the game.
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