The Dinos put up big numbers and big passes to beat the University of Regina Rams during their Canada West semi-final on Nov. 6. They now advance to the Canada West finals to play the University of Alberta Golden Bears at the Hardy Cup for the right to move on to play the winner of the Atlantic conference. Alberta beat the Saskatchewan Huskies 31-30 in the other Canada West semi-final on the same day after a late comeback.
The Dinos scored on the first play of the game against the Rams when quarterback Erik Glavic completed a 70-yard pass to Anthony Parker. They continued to build their lead, scoring two additional points off Aaron Ifield’s 77-yard kickoff single and 42-yard punt single 11 minutes later. Nathan Coehoorn scored a touchdown off a 28-yard pass from Glavic giving the Dinos a 16-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“That was an exciting first play, a lot of credit to the O-line for giving me the time and Anthony running hard and catching up to it,” said Glavic.”That’s an awesome way to start the game, hopefully we can do it again next week.”
“We had a game plan for that particular play for a while, for that week there, and it just happened to work out exactly how we wanted it,” said Parker. “It takes a lot of wind out of the other team.”
The Rams scored a touchdown to open the second quarter and later a field goal, but otherwise the Dinos dominated first-half scoring. They added another touchdown seven minutes into the second quarter when Parker caught a 20-yard pass from running back Steven Lumbala to take a 26-10 lead into halftime.
The Rams scored just one point in the third quarter off a rouge by kicker Chris Bodnar. Parker added another touchdown on the game scoring 10 minutes in off a 45-yard pass from Glavic.
“They’re a very good football team, see that’s the thing that people forget,” said head coach Blake Nill. “I thought we played overall pretty well. Our guys just stepped up.”
The Rams came into the fourth quarter strong, scoring three touchdowns. Anthony Woodson’s touchdown in the fourth minute of the quarter helped the Dinos secure enough of a lead to stave off the Rams’ offensive charge and win 40-33.
“We had a little scare there at the end but our offense had a really good outing,” said Glavic.
Parker was named the Canada West offensive and special teams player of the week for his superb performance during the game. Parker totaled 267 yards, scored three touchdowns and had four kickoff returns for 58 yards.
The Dinos play the Bears in the Hardy Cup on Nov. 13 at McMahon Stadium.
“We’re going to be ready for a tough football game and I’m sure that’s what we’re going to get,” said Nill. “They know that if they want to keep playing week after week they gotta come up with A efforts.”
Nine Dinos players were named to the Canada West 2010 all-star football team. The Dinos lead Canada West with the most players named to the team. Saskatchewan had eight players, Regina seven and Alberta three. Running back Matt Walter was named to the team for his third year running and receivers Coehoorn and Parker and centre Alex Krausnick-Groh earned conference all-star appearances once again after being named in 2009. Left tackle Paul Swiston and right guard Reed Alexander made the offensive list for the first time. On the defensive and special teams side of things, halfback Tye Noble, linebacker Sam Hurl and kicker Ifield round out the Dinos named to the all-star team.