Week 7 Canada West Football Recap

The No. 9 ranked UBC Thunderbirds and their big play offense outlasted the University of Saskatchewan Huskies 41-36 Friday night at Griffiths Stadium in PotashCorp Park.

UBC had scoring plays of 47 and 89 yards in the first half and a number of others in the win, helping them improve their record to 5-2. Saskatchewan is dealt a blow to their playoff hopes with the loss as they drop to 2-5.

The Huskies had help on Friday night from the Manitoba Bisons who knocked off the Alberta Golden Bears 29-7 to keep Saskatchewan tied with Alberta, battling for the final Canada West playoff spot.

UBC returns home for a meeting with the Manitoba Bisons next weekend. The winner of that game will host a Canada West semifinal as the conference's second seed. Saskatchewan will travel to face Regina next weekend where a win and an Alberta loss would slot the Huskies into the fourth and final playoff spot.

Huskie quarterback Kyle Siemens in his first CIS start posted historic results. Siemens threw for 520 yards, the fourth highest single game total by a Huskie. His 44 completions and 67 attempts both set Huskie single game records.

(U of S)

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In the final conference regular season football game at home, #8 Manitoba Bisons won 29-7 against the Alberta Golden Bears at the Investors Group Field on Friday, October 23 for their fourth consecutive win by Manitoba.


With the victory, the Bisons improve to 5-2 in 2015 while the Bears fall to 2-5 and now on a five game losing streak.


Manitoba churned up 351 rushing yards (seventh most in team history) and did not have a turnover while not allowing a touchdown, for the first time this season, at home. Alberta finished with 492 offence yards.


The Bisons were led by a surprise start at quarterback as Foster Martens made his CIS debut. Martens, in his second year of eligibility, managed the game in an efficient 13-20 for 165 passing yards and 17 rushing yards.


"I was prepared and thought we did a good job on offence tonight," stated Martens. "Our OL stepped up in the second half and give them a lot of credit for the win."


The Bisons were paced with fullback touchdown runs by graduating player Matt Hallock with three yard and one yard plunges in the first quarter for a 14-0 lead. Another graduating fullback Andrew Barry had a 13 yard run to end the scoring in the fourth.


In between major scores, Alberta received field goals by Stephen Fabian from 13 and ten yards and rouge off a 35 yarder miss. Bison kicker Ryan Jones kicked his career high with a 49 yard field goal early in the fourth and added a 41 yarder with a safety given up the Bears to round out the scoring.


Individually for the hosts, Alex Christie had a game-high 103 rushing yards for Manitoba while seven different Bisons had a reception. Jamel Lyles added to his all-purpose totals with 181 yards (92 rush; 58 kickoff; 26 punt return; 5 receiving). David Onyemata had a game-high 9.5 total tackles with 1.5 sacks while Christian Turner added 7.5 tackles with 2.5 sacks in his first start for the Herd.


Alberta had a strong game from quarterback Ben Kopczynski as he went 17-28 for 321 yards and registered 36 rushing yards on six carries. Ed Ilnicki added 94 rush yards and Jimmy Ralph went for 152 receiving yards with six grabs. Ryan Migadel and Brendan Friesen were top defenders with seven total tackles each.


For the Bisons, they finished 2-2 at home while Alberta was 1-3 on the road in the 2015 campaign.


Alberta ends their regular season at home against #1 Calgary Dinos on Saturday, October 31 at 1 p.m. MT while the showdown for second place will happen when Manitoba plays at #9 UBC in week eight on Saturday, October 31 on 1 p.m. PT.

(University of Manitoba

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The No. 1-ranked University of Calgary Dinos are one step closer to an undefeated season after dispatching the Regina Rams 57-7 Saturday afternoon at McMahon Stadium.

Calgary (7-0) heads to Edmonton next weekend to wrap up regular season play against the Alberta Golden Bears (2-5) in one final tune-up before hosting a Canada West semi-final Nov. 7. The Rams (0-7), meanwhile, will look to play spoiler as they host the Saskatchewan Huskies (2-5) next Friday night at Mosaic Stadium.

It was a slow start for the Dinos in this one, but their third drive of the game – an 11-play, 79-yard march that ended in a Jimmy Underdahl touchdown plunge – set the tone for the rest of the afternoon as Calgary cruised to the 50-point win. Calgary's next two drives also resulted in points: a 1-yard TD by Imoreshi Dania, his first CIS touchdown, and a field goal by Johnny Mark. The 16-yards splitting of the uprights by Mark was his 85th career field goal, setting a new CIS record in the category. He added two more on the night, setting the new standard at 87 with one game remaining.

The Rams cut the deficit to 18-7 after Riley Wilson's touchdown reception in the second and it looked like it might just be a two-possession game at halftime, but Calgary scored two majors in the final two minutes to give the hometown Dinos plenty of momentum heading into the second half.

The second half was all Dinos, with Calgary scoring 12 points in both quarters to get up to its eventual 50-point margin of victory.

With the Dinos having already clinched first place and home field advantage throughout the Hardy Cup playoffs, the game was a chance for the Dinos to take a look at some of their younger players while managing the playing time of the starters.

(University of Calgary)