By Todd Penney
Our West Coast rival UBC Thunderbirds flew into town last Friday hoping to get rid of the goose egg filling their ‘w’ column. UBC lost four close games in a row so their frustration was bound to make them hungry for a win. Unfortunately, their opponent was our U of C Dinos who were just coming off a tough loss and looking to displace their anger somewhere. They accomplished that by handing the T-Birds a 24-18 loss.
The game began slowly as neither team made any impressive scoring drives. In the second quarter, the Dinos turned on the juice and scored two touchdowns to give themselves an 11-point lead over the T-Birds. The first score was a 54-yard pass from quarterback Lincoln Blumell to a completely wide open Jamie Elliott who ran into the endzone unscathed. That was Elliott’s ninth touchdown of the season, tops in the Canada West. This leads to the question of why the Thunderbirds left a player like Elliott wide open on a pass.
The second td came from a big push by the offensive line on the T-Bird one-yard line to give Blumell enough space to collapse into the endzone. Running back Luke Mayer was the workhorse for this scoring drive as he marched the ball 28 yards on three carries. Unfortunately, Mayer went down later in the half with a knee injury and did not return. For the rest of the half, ubc tried to play catch up, but the half ended with Calgary up 14–11.
The second half was more of the same. Calgary punched in another score on a perfectly timed 20-yard pass from Blumell to Elliott deep in the T-Bird endzone. ubc tried to chip away at the Calgary lead with field goals but they were unable to complete their drives with a big finish. Case in point, ubc quarterback Zack Silverman was absolutely clobbered by linebacker Agustin "Goose" Barrencchea late in the game, which forced an interception and crushed any hope of ubc tying it up. After all, if a truck like the Goose is after you, something bad is bound to happen.
Some new faces stepped up this game for the Dinos. Running back Jeff Williams replaced the injured Mayer and had some incredible carries. Also, receiver Brett Bowron made some brilliant receptions late in the game.
"Our team has appeared to start slow in past games because of poor field position and a lack of good play execution," said Head Coach Tony Fasano. "In this game, blocks were made, plays were executed and some key drives were finished. We threw in some plays that involved a lot of different players and they performed well."
The offensive line also played well, allowing little penetration from the UBC defense.
"There are no seniors on the o-line," Fasano said. "And that is a part of our game that is really improving and we are very pleased with that."
The Dinos have the week off to rest and hopefully give key players like Luke Mayer and Blake Machan some time to heal. They face the U of A Golden Bears in the final regular season home game on Oct. 11.