CFL.ca Staff
OTTAWA — The CIS football national semifinals are set following wins by the top-ranked Laval Rouge et Or, No. 2 Calgary Dinos, No. 4 McMaster Marauders and No. 9 Acadia Axemen in the conference finals.
Acadia (8-1) will now host McMaster (9-1) in the Uteck Bowl at Moncton Stadium in Moncton, while Calgary (9-1) will host Laval (10-1) in the Mitchell Bowl at McMahon Stadium
Both games will air live on TSN and RDS on Friday, Nov. 18, with the Uteck kicking off at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time (7:30 p.m. Atlantic) and the Mitchell following at 9:30 p.m. Eastern (7:30 p.m. Mountain).
The Rouge et Or advanced thanks to a 30-7 home win over No. 7 Montreal (7-4) in the RSEQ’s Dunsmore Cup final in Quebec City; the Dinos crushed No. 6 UBC (7-3) 62-13 in the Canada West final, the Hardy Cup, in Calgary; the Marauders travelled to London, Ont., to defeat No. 3 Western Ontario (8-2) 41-19 in the 104th OUA Yates Cup title match; and the Axemen dominated unranked Saint Mary’s (8-2) 39-20 in the AUS championship game, the Loney Bowl, in Wolfville, N.S.
Interestingly, all four conference champions triumphed against the only team to beat them in the regular season.
Laval lost to Montreal 17-12 on Oct. 8. Calgary dropped a 36-23 decision to UBC on Oct. 29. McMaster was outscored 48-21 by Western on Sept. 10. Acadia was edged 8-3 by Saint Mary’s on Oct. 1.
The CIS Bowl winners will face off in the 47th Vanier Cup final on Friday, Nov. 25, at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver. Kickoff for the CIS championship game is set for 6 p.m. Pacific (9 p.m. Eastern), live on TSN and RDS.
LONEY BOWL – Acadia 39, Saint Mary’s 20
At Raymond Field in Wolfville, N.S., quarterback Kyle Graves rushed for three touchdowns as Acadia ended Saint Mary’s four-year domination in the Atlantic conference with a 39-20 win over the visiting Huskies in the Loney Bowl final.
The Axemen, who avenged a 37-8 loss to Saint Mary’s in last year’s AUS championship match, led 22-10 at the half and never looked back en route to capturing their first title since back-to-back banners in 2005 and 2006.
Graves, the AUS player of the year from Barrie, Ont., finished with 78 rushing yards on 10 carries and completed 12 of 16 passes for 170 yards, with no interceptions, to claim the Don Loney memorial trophy as the game MVP. Running back Zack Skibin also starred in the victory with 147 yards and one major on 27 runs as Acadia dominated 315 yards to 71 in the ground game.
The Huskies led 10-7 midway through the first quarter thanks to a 51-yard touchdown pass from Jack Creighton to Jahmeek Taylor and a Brett Lauther field goal but saw their rivals respond with 22 unanswered points over the next 30 minutes to put the game away.
Creighton racked up 251 yards on 17-of-30 passing but was intercepted twice. Taylor was his favourite target and finished with 108 yards on six catches.
Acadia had 25 first downs to Saint Mary’s 15. The Huskies were also hurt by 15 penalties for losses of 106 yards.
DUNSMORE CUP – Laval 30, Montreal 7
At TELUS-Université Laval Stadium in Quebec City, Sébastien Lévesque rushed for 197 yards and a pair of long touchdowns on 17 carries and the Rouge et Or defence was true to its reputation as top-ranked Laval defeated archrival Montreal 30-7 to repeat as Dunsmore cup champion.
With the victory, the reigning Vanier cup champions extended a pair of CIS-record streaks. Laval has now claimed nine straight conference titles and is undefeated in 51 consecutive games on home turf, dating back to 2004.
Lévesque, who led the RSEQ this season with a team-record 1,059 rushing yards, gave Laval a 14-0 lead with one minute left in the opening quarter thanks to a 40-yard scamper to the end zone, and then put the game away with a minute remaining in the third when he exploded for an 85-yard major that made it 25-7.
Senior quarterback Bruno Prud’homme played a conservative, mistake-free contest finishing with 145 yards and a touchdown on 9-of-18 passing, with no interceptions. His 26-yard TD strike to Junior Seydou Haidara opened the scoring 10 minutes into the game.
The Laval defence was especially effective against RSEQ all-star running back Rotrand Sené, who was held to 60 yards on 15 attempts. Quarterback Alexandre Nadeau-Piuze completed 16 of 32 passes for 187 yards but was intercepted twice. He scored the Carabins’ lone touchdown on a one-yard run to cut the deficit to 18-7 with five minutes left in the third period.
Montreal was hurt by penalties as the visitors were flagged 16 times for losses of 210 yards.
YATES CUP: McMaster 41, Western Ontario 19
At TD Waterhouse Stadium in London, Ont., McMaster quarterback Kyle Quinlan threw four touchdown passes to lift the Marauders to a 41-19 victory over the Western Mustangs in the 104th Yates Cup.
Quinlan, from South Woodslee, Ont., captured the Dalt White Trophy as the game MVP, posting completing 16 of 24 passes for 275 yards and four touchdowns. He was also a driving force in the McMaster ground game, amassing 103 yards on 10 carries.
McMaster posted just eight yards of net offence in the first quarter, but regrouped from its lacklustre start with a run of 34 unanswered points to claim its first OUA football title since 2003. The win also marked the first time that McMaster has won a Yates Cup on the road.
Marauder receiver and 2011 OUA MVP Michael DiCroce, of Hamilton, Ont., led McMaster receivers with 128 yards on four receptions and a pair of touchdowns, including a 102-yard receiving major. Chris Pezzetta, of Burlington, Ont., topped McMaster rushers with 145 yards on 19 carries, including one touchdown.
In the losing effort, Western’s Tyler Varga, of Kitchener, Ont., the winner of the 2011 Norm Marshall Trophy as the OUA rookie of the year, gained 154 yards on 30 carries. Quarterback Donnie Marshall, of London, Ont., threw for 187 yards, connecting on 14 of 27 attempts and a single touchdown.
Linebacker Aram Eisho, of Hamilton, Ont. led the Marauders defenders with 9.5 tackles, including two tackles for a loss.
“I am awestruck at how well our defence played—they exceeded every expectation we had of them this game,” said a jubilant McMaster head coach, Stefan Ptaszek, celebrating his first Yates Cup banner as a head coach.
The first quarter saw Western failing to capitalize on numerous opportunities and a sluggish McMaster start. Mustang place kicker Lirim Hajrullahu, of St. Catharines, Ont., missed two field goal attempts in the first quarter, his initial try being the victim of a bad hold, and the second being partly blocked by the McMaster line and rattling through the end zone for a single point. McMaster, which posted just single first down in the opening frame, conceded a safety touch rather than punt into the wind from its own end zone, giving Western a 3-0 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
The Marauder offence sputtered to life in the second quarter, capping their first drive of the quarter with a 29-yard field goal by Teddy Peters, of Mississauga, Ont. Pezzetta added a major score on a seven-yard rush to give McMaster a 10-3 advantage
McMaster’s defence made a dominating goal line stand with three minutes remaining in the quarter, stopping the Mustangs on three straight plays from within their three yard line and forcing a turnover. In the dying seconds of the half, Western had again driven the ball to the McMaster 16 yard line, but a 40-yard interception by McMaster defensive back Joey Cupido, of Hamilton, Ont., again kept the Mustangs off the score sheet.
The Marauder offence dominated the second half, widening its lead with DiCroce’s 102-yard major and a 15-yard Peters field goal in the third frame.
McMaster opened up a 34-3 lead the opening minutes of the final quarter with Quinlan finding, in succession, Robert Babic, of Oakville, Ont., and Bradley Fochesato, of Windsor, Ont., for a pair of touchdowns.
Largely unheard of since the first quarter, Western’s offence finally found the end zone at the 7:22 mark of the final frame, capping an eight-play, 75-yard drive with a one-yard rushing score from Varga.
Quinlan and DiCroce connected for one final McMaster major in the final minutes of the game, followed by Donnie Marshall connecting with Zach Bull, of Port Colborne, Ont., for a seven-yard touchdown at the 13:39 mark.
HARDY CUP: Calgary 62, UBC 13
At McMahon Stadium in Calgary, Friday night, sophomore quarterback Eric Dzwilewski ran for 101 yards and four touchdowns and the second-ranked Dinos used 42 unanswered points in the second half – including a 35-0 fourth quarter – to crush the No. 6 Thunderbirds 62-13 and claim a record-tying fourth straight Canada West title.
Saskatchewan was the only previous school to capture four consecutive Canada West banners outright, way back in the 1930s (1934-1937).
Calgary held a 20-13 lead at halftime but the game turned into a record-setting, lopsided affair after the break. Dzwilewski became the first Canada West player and the first pivot in CIS history to rush for four majors in a playoff contest as the Dinos racked up a mind-boggling 409 yards along the ground. Their 62 points scored are the highest single-game total since the inception of the Hardy Cup final in 1976.
Steven Lumbala carried the ball 22 times for 194 yards, Chris Dobko and Adam Osterling each had a receiving major, while Wyatt Getty and John Kadiebwe both returned an interception all the way to the end zone for the winners.
Dzwilewski, the 2010 CIS rookie of the year from Boise, Idaho, only attempted 13 passes and completed nine of them for 112 yards.
For UBC, it was a night to forget for quarterback Billy Greene, the Canada West MVP and Hec Crighton trophy nominee. The native of Surrey, B.C., who entered the contest with the best touchdown-to-interception ratio in the country (23-4), completed only 10 of 29 passes for a season-low 175 yards and three picks. He did however tally a team-high 99 yards on 12 carries and connected with Jordan Grieve for an 87-yard scoring play that tied the game at 10-10 after one quarter.
-With files from the CIS
