QUEBEC CITY (CFL.ca wire) -– Running back Pierre-Luc Yao scored three touchdowns as the top-ranked Laval Rouge et Or (10-0) claimed their fifth straight Dunsmore Cup as Quebec University Football League champions with a dominating 35-10 win over the No. 8 Concordia Stingers (6-4) in front of a sold-out crowd of 12,051 at PEPS Stadium, on Saturday.
The reigning Vanier Cup Rouge et Or, now riding a 14-game overall winning streak dating back to a loss to Montreal in the 2006 regular-season finale, will now travel to Halifax to face the No. 4 Saint Mary’s Huskies (8-1) in the Uteck Bowl national semi-final next Saturday at 12 p.m. Atlantic Time (11 a.m. Eastern), live on The Score and RDS.
Saint Mary’s edged StFX 25-24 in Saturday’s Loney Bowl to earn their first Jewett Trophy as Atlantic conference champions since 2004.
Laval and Saint Mary’s have met once before in a CIS football semifinal, the Huskies rolling over the Rouge et Or 48-8 in the 2001 Atlantic Bowl in Halifax.
Yao, one of three fifth-year seniors on the Laval roster looking for a record fourth Vanier Cup ring, finished with 128 rushing yards and two scores on 22 carries and added 25 yards and one major on four receptions.
Mexican-born quarterback Cesar Sanchez Hernandez had the fourth Laval touchdown on a one-yard run early in the fourth quarter, while Christopher Milo added a pair of field goals and a single as the Rouge et Or racked up 386 yards of total offence and 24 first downs, compared to 316 and 17 for Concordia.
Yao opened the scoring five minutes and eight seconds into the game on a one-yard run and his second touchdown of the day, also on a one-yard rush, made it 17-0 Laval midway through the second quarter.
Trailing 17-3 at the break, Concordia came back to within seven points when running Cedric Ferdinand punched the ball in from one yard out 2:48 into the second half.
But the Rouge et Or responded with 11 unanswered points before the end of the third frame, including Yao’s third visit to the end zone on a six-yard pass from Sanchez Hernandez.
Sanchez Hernandez, who connected with eight different receivers on the afternoon, completed 19 of 24 passes for 241 yards and no interceptions.
His counterpart Liam Mahoney was held to 115 yards on 10-of-21 passing and was intercepted twice, but did some damage with his legs leading all rushers in the game with 94 yards on 12 carries. Ferdinand had 19 yards on seven rushes.
