Bisons 28, Huskies 14
Manitoba captures third Vanier Cup in school history
Joey Coleman
The University of Manitoba Bisons kicked off the biggest football weekend in Winnipeg’s history by showing how the Blue Bombers how it’s done — winning the Vanier Cup by a score of 28-14 over the Saint Mary’s University Huskies.
The Bisons got off to a rough start, with the receiving core dropping the ball more often than they caught it in the first half and the Saint Mary Huskies scoring a touchdown on their first drive. The eight-play, 71-yard Huskies drive ended in a 13-yard touchdown pass to Fraser O’Neill from the Huskies’ backup quarterback Ted Abraham. Abraham was starting in place of the Hec Creighton award winner, Erik Glavic, who was out with an injured knee.
“They got a big play on me early, and that was the biggest play on me all year long,” said Bisons defensive back Mike Howard who was beat on that touchdown play.
The Bisons turned around and threatened on the next drive, but the receivers had a bad case of the nerves and Scott Dixon was called on to kick the ball through the uprights. The Bison’s were trailing 7-3.
Things started turning around for the Bisons as the defence shut down the Huskies with a major sack by Justin Cooper. On their ensuing possession, Bisons quarterback John Makie turned to the running game. Running back Matt Henry broke free and ran for the game’s longest run of 29 yards with 55 seconds left in the first quarter. It looked like he was going all the way when suddenly the Huskies Jeff Zelinski came out of nowhere, caught up to him, and hit him cleanly from Henry’s blindside.
Henry went down in obvious pain. The replay was shown and the 26,700 people in Rogers Centre gasped in collective shock as the extent of the injury was immediately known. Then there was silence, you could hear a pin drop, as everyone in the stadium tried to absorb what they just saw. After 10 minutes that felt more like an hour, Henry was taken off the field on a stretcher with a shattered femur. It seemed that the Bisons hopes were driven off the field with him.
A leader was needed, somebody to spark the Bisons to do better; that person turned out to be Howard.
With the Huskies driving deep into Bisons territory again, Abraham once again looked towards the end zone, but Mike Howard climbed an invisible ladder and intercepted the ball. He ran it out to the 32, saving the Bisons from at least falling behind another three points.
After the Bisons were forced to punt, Abraham went to the air again, but again, out of nowhere, Howard stepped in front of the ball for his second interception of the game.
Howard said that the injury to Henry was the extra motivation that the Bisons needed. “I had to help out my team in some way. That was motivation right there, when [Henry] went down.”
Howard’s back-to-back interceptions were the turning point of the game. The Bisons offence finally found the end zone after the second interception with Steve Gronick catching the ball and Dixon adding the extra point for a 13-7 lead.
After a missed Huskies field goal led to a rouge, the Bisons went into the halftime break with a 13-8 lead.
The second-half Bisons looked nothing like the first-half team. Coach Brian Dobie clearly put his team back together with a pep talk that got the first-half jitters out of their system.
In the first drive of the second half, the Bisons moved the ball 52 yards with Makie ending the drive with his first rushing touchdown of the year, giving the Bisons a commanding 20-8 lead.
Later in the third quarter Howard would make his third interception of the game setting up another Dixon field goal. The score was 23-8 for the Bisons going into the fourth quarter.
Manitoba added to their lead 54 seconds into the fourth quarter when Dixon sailed a 33-yard field goal through the uprights, his fourth of the game, for a 26-8 lead. This would be the final offensive points for the Bisons.
Just when it looked liked it was over, the Huskies responded with a touchdown to close the gap to 12 points. The Huskies went for the two point convert but the Bisons defence held, and the Huskies were unable to cut the Bisons lead anymore.
The Huskies continued to threaten for the next seven minutes, but were not able to make anything happen. With less than five minutes remaining, a Dixon punt pinned the Huskies at their own one yard line. After two running plays, the Huskies were unable to get a first down and conceded the safety for a 28-14 game.
This would be the final score. Saint Mary’s tried to come back, but each time they were shut down by the defensive line which made key sacks to force the Huskies into third and long situations.
With less than a minute left on the clock, coach Dobie was given the Gatorade shower, and the celebration began. The Bison team made their way onto the field for the celebration and many went to the stands to thank the fans would came out in record numbers to show their support. “We couldn’t have done it without them,” said Dixon. “They came all this way for us, thank you!”
There were a lot of congratulations from the Huskies and many Bisons said they were impressed by their competition. With only three players not returning next year, it is quite possible that the Bisons will face them again in next year’s Vanier Cup.
