CALGARY – Jet Zakrzewski scored a pair of touchdowns to help the University of Calgary Dinos to a 34-29 win over rival Alberta Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale from McMahon Stadium.

The Dinos finished the season with a 3-5 record. Alberta closes out Year 1 under first-year head coach Stevenson Bone at 1-7.

Saturday's latest installment of the Battle of Alberta would have had a playoff berth on the line for the winner had Regina defeated UBC on Friday, but the Thunderbirds scored 15 points in the final 1:39 of regulation before winning in overtime to eliminate both the Dinos and Golden Bears from playoff contention.

"This is a big win for a lot of our guys, and we can't overlook that," Calgary head coach Ryan Sheahan said. "The trouble with today was overcoming the emotion of knowing the playoffs weren't possible. I felt some of our miscues were caused by that. But I'm proud of these guys. They didn't quit. It was a little squirrely in the first half, but we answered back."

The Golden Bears were the first in the end zone in this one, capitalizing on a nice drive that featured a handful of unique plays with a 23-yard pass from Eli Hetlinger to Brian Davies to give the visitors an 8-3 lead. 

The Dinos responded nicely with a six-play, 49-yard scoring drive that was finished off on a two-yard plunge by Evan Smith to close the first with Calgary ahead, 10-9.

Seth Poelzer had a four-yard run for his third score of his rookie campaign, before Zakrzewski's first major of the day to knot the game up at 17-all at the half. 

The difference in this one came late in the third. With Alberta leading 20-19, Zakrzewski once again capped off a nice drive with a one-yard scoring run. A two-point conversion from Evan Smith put the Dinos up, 27-20 with 3:31 left in the frame. Fast forward two quick possessions in the game, and Dinos' senior Joel Pipke sent a booming 55-yard punt to the Alberta goal line. The punt was muffed and recovered in the endzone by fellow senior Tyreese Bristol to flip a one-point deficit into a 14-point lead with one quarter to play.

"You always hope that guys in key spots come up big, but it has extra special flavour when it's a senior playing in his last home game as a Dino," Sheahan said. "I'm proud of these guys. I hate that this season had to come to an end because, as I told the guys, I really, really liked this group."

Alberta made things interesting. Hetlinger had a one-yard scoring run of his own to continue the theme of the day, to pull within seven with 8:43 to play.

The Bears got the ball back with 4:14 to play and drove from their own 36 to the Dinos' 18 yard line, but Steen Rasmussen made a nice breakup to force a turnover on downs. 

Calgary conceded a safety to play the field position game in the game's dying seconds to finish out the scoring in this one.

David Jordan had another strong performance, finishing with 217 yards passing for Calgary on 20-30 attempts.

Hetlinger went 22-40 for 236 yards and a touchdown for Alberta. Kolby Hurford was the leading receiver in this one, racking up 101 yards on eight catches.

Defensively, Osasare Odemwingie led the Dinos with eight tackles and one sack. Everett Schmuland also racked up eight tackles on the day, while Deakon Taylor-Young hauled in his first career interception, showing impressive concentration on ball that was tipped multiple times.

"When I look at the growth of this team, I look all the way back to the beginning of 2024," Sheahan said of his team's progress. "We all know that change is not easy. I'm super proud of the guys that have stuck around and they were buying in to what we were preaching. We needed a little bit of a culture shift and it is happening now on a continuum. We brought in a lot of new players. We had young players in various starting positions, and I thought they battled in every game.

"If you look back at all nine weeks including the bye week, we were in each contest. Sometimes a game comes down to five plays. We're looking at a season that comes down to five plays where we could have been 5-3 or 6-2. We've got to learn from it. Failure is life's great teacher. Not getting into the playoffs is not acceptable for any of us. That will give us a sour taste in our mouths going into the offseason and hopefully help stoke the fire for strength and conditioning and next year's prep." 
 
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