Vanier bound
Bisons heading to national finals
Romer Bautista, Staff
Photo by Chris Shay ©, www.shayphoto.ca ©
The University of Manitoba Bisons football team is heading to the Vanier Cup for the first time since 2001. The Bisons punched their ticket to the national finals with a 52-20 rout of the University of Western Ontario Mustangs in Saturday night’s Mitchell Bowl in front of 4,000 fans at Canad Inns Stadium.
They will now play the Saint Mary’s University Huskies for the national title in Toronto, Ont. inside the Rogers Centre on Friday, Nov. 23. The Huskies advanced to the finals by upsetting the No.1-ranked Université Laval Rouge-et-Or in the Uteck Bowl.
Saturday night’s trouncing of the Mustangs was a complete team effort. Not only did the Bisons get five touchdowns from their offence, they also got one each from their defence and their special teams.
“You look at Brad Black’s returns on special teams, but that’s a team concept,” said Bisons head coach Brian Dobie when describing his team’s effort. “The protection John Makie for in order to be able to have time to hit his receivers. Our defence was an absolute team concept, with how they have to operate within our system. This team epitomizes, without a doubt, a coachable team that did its job. It’s all about methodology, it’s all about process, and it’s all about focus.”
After a couple shaky possessions to open the game, momentum started to turn in Manitoba’s favour when Mike Howard came up with a huge blocked punt midway through the first quarter. Brady Browne scooped up the loose ball and ran it in to give the Bisons a 7-2 after the first quarter of play.
In the second quarter, the Mustangs looked to be getting back into the game by, relying mostly on the arm of quarterback Michael Faulds.
Faulds moved the Mustangs into the red zone with a 36-yard pass to Jesse Bellamy. But on the next play, he under threw Randy McCauley, allowing Jim Jeavons to jump the route for the interception, and run it back 99 yards for the major.
The Mustangs were forced to throw in the red zone because the Bisons had completely stuffed their run attack. They held Western Ontario’s feature back, McCauley, to just 62 yards and the entire Mustangs team to just 75 yards on the ground.
And so, the Mustangs relied on Faulds to make the big plays for them. Unfortunately for the Mustangs, he didn’t have the same magic in his arm that helped lead their team to seven straight victories. Faulds finished the game completing 36-of-70 pass attempts, for 387 yards, but also threw three interceptions.
The pick-six that he threw to Jeavons was a backbreaker. It kick started a dominating second quarter performance for the Bisons, one in which they outscored the Mustangs 24-0.
Second quarters have been good for the Bisons during their 11-game winning streak. They have outscored their opponents by a margin of 153-48 in the second quarter this season.
The Bisons’ second quarter run put them up by a comfortable 26-point margin, 31-5.
The only question heading into the second half was whether or not the Bisons defence would be able to make it four consecutive games without allowing a touchdown. Coming into the Mitchell Bowl, the last time the Bisons had allowed a touchdown was in the second quarter of their Oct. 20 regular-season contest against the University of Regina Rams.
Finally, 4:51 into the third quarter, the Mustangs were able to pierce the impenetrable Bisons defence for a touchdown. The Bisons’ streak of not allowing a touchdown ended after 245 minutes and 28 seconds.
But having their streak snapped was not going to ruin the night for the Bisons, who did everything else right the rest of the game.
With a comfortable lead, quarterback John Makie was meticulous in his dissection of the Mustangs defence. Makie finished the game 14-for-24 for 235 yards and three touchdowns. Those three majors went to Simon Blaszczak, Terry Firr, and Neil Fulgueras.
The Bisons also got two touchdowns on the ground from Matt Henry, who finished with 49 yards on 12 carries. His backfield partner in crime, Karim Lowen chipped in 95 yards on the ground on 13 carries.
“I feel very, very happy. I feel very proud of our guys,” Dobie said.
“We wanted to prove that we are the best defence in the country, for sure,” said Howard, who was awarded Maury L. Van Vliet trophy, which is given to the games most valuable player. Howard finished the game with a team-high nine tackles, a couple of them on special teams, and also forced two fumbles, had one break up, and, of course, had that crucial blocked punt in the first quarter.
“Coach just put me in a position to make a bunch of plays. They said ‘We want you to do some more things.' And I did. They put me in the right spot, and I just made plays,” said Howard of his performance.
Even though the Bisons were ecstatic with their win, they know that there is still one more game to go.
“This is great right now, but it really matter until you win the Vanier. No one remembers second place. They only remember the champions,” said Howard.
“All the other teams, all the other divisions can say whatever they want of us. We worked really hard for this, and we deserve this, and we’re going to try to keep this going,” said Blaszczak.
