CALGARY – A magical football season came to an end in Calgary for the UBC Thunderbirds as they lost the Hardy Cup game for the Canada West championship by a score of 62-13 to the host Dinos on Friday night.
“Sometimes when you bend, and you bend and you bend, and eventually you break,” said UBC head coach
Shawn Olson. “We just couldn't get enough things going offensively, we didn't make enough plays, whether they be tough catches, or better throws or better decisions or running the ball consistently. I think what this says to us is that we still have a long way to go to be the team we need to be if we're going to be champions.”
Calgary quarterback Eric Dzwilewski set a CIS record by rushing for four touchdowns as the Dinos scored 41 second-half points to overwhelm UBC. He also threw for a major in the second half.
He ended the night with nine pass completions on 13 attempts with 112 yards passing and 101 yards rushing on 14 carries.
As a team, Calgary rushed for 409 yards. They were led by running back Steven Lumbala's 198 yards on 22 carries.
Dzwilewski ran in two second half scores to give Calgary the victory after the Dinos led 20-13 at the half.
His five-yard touchdown run at 9:16 of the third made it 27-13 and opened the floodgates for Calgary's offence.
UBC had a chance to respond, as the team, sparked by a 52-yard kickoff return from
Mitch Shuster, drove down to the Calgary 8-yard line.
But on 2nd and 7, quarterback
Billy Greene's pass was intercepted by Chudi Nzekwu in the end zone, snuffing out the best UBC chance to get back into the game.
Dzwilewski opened the fourth quarter with his fourth TD of the game. He then found Chris Dobko on a 12-yard pass to make it 41-13 before John Kadiebwe's 50-yard interception return for a touchdown.
“We needed to be more physical on both sides of the football in the second half and I think we came out and did that and I think the wind just came out of our sails a little bit when we weren't able to score and Calgary did go down and score,” said Olson.
The Dinos returned two more inteceptions, one off Greene and one off
Carson Williams, back for touchdowns.
Greene completed ten of 29 passes on the night, throwing for a touchdown and three interceptions.
He also led the team in rushing with 99 yards, while
Jordan Grieve led the receiving corps with 94 yards on three receptions.
Senior
Devin Kavanagh led UBC with 8.5 tackles
Calgary took a 20-13 lead into half time after Lumbala scored on a three-yard touchdown run with 26 seconds left in the half, capping off an 18-play drive.
It was the only major score in the second quarter, which also saw
Billy Pavlopoulos and Johnny Mark each kick a field goal for UBC and Calgary respectively.
The first quarter ended 10-10 with the teams trading field goals and then touchdowns.
The Dinos used their powerful running attack, racking up 115 yards on the ground in the first quarter, culminating in a seven-yard Dzwileski TD run at 11:05 to go ahead 10-3.
Calgary didn't throw a pass until there was just 1:53 left in the opening quarter.
But UBC responded with a spectacular 87-yard touchdown pass from Greene to Grieve at 12:37.
“They were fairly physical,” said Olson of Calgary. “The big difference from this and what they've done all year is that they ran their quarterback a little bit more, which added a little bit of a different dimension to their running game. They just out-physical-ed us, and in the end, this is a physical game and when you get beat up in the trenches, that's usually how it ends up.”
UBC ends the 2011 campaign with a 6-2 regular season record with a 1-1 mark in the playoffs. It was the best season for the Thunderbirds since 1999.
Shawn Olson and quarterback Greene still have a chance to win more honours for the school as they are up for the CIS Coach of the Year award and the Hec Crighton Trophy respectively.
Calgary is the first team since the 1930's to win four straight Canada West championships, and will host the Mitchell Bowl next Friday against the Quebec champions.
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