CFL.ca Staff
OTTAWA — The stage is set for the CIS national semifinals and if last weekend’s conference championship games are any indication of things to come, football fans are in for quite a thrill on Friday night.
In the nightcap at Calgary’s McMahon Stadium, the No. 2 Dinos (9-1) host the top-seeded Laval Rouge et Or (10-1) for the Mitchell Bowl, in a rematch of last year’s Vanier Cup final.
The game will air countrywide on TSN and RDS at 7:30 p.m. Mountain.
The winner advance to the 47th Vanier Cup championship on Friday, Nov. 25 at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver, also on TSN and RDS (6 p.m. Pacific).
The Mitchell promises to be a classic duel between a pair of powerhouses meeting in the post-season for the third time in four years.
Laval ended Calgary’s season in Quebec City in both 2008 and 2010, thanks to a 59-10 Uteck Bowl win and a 29-2 Vanier Cup victory, respectively. The latter gave the Rouge et Or a record-tying sixth CIS title in the first 15 years of existence of the program.
The big difference this time around is the two rivals will battle on the Dinos’ home field, where they are 6-0 in 2011 and are undefeated in 11 straight dating back to last season.
History is also on the Dinos’ side. Since the inception of national semifinals back in 1967, Canada West teams are 17-2 in Bowl games played in their own venues, including 13 wins in a row in front of their fans dating back to 1973. Calgary is 16-2 lifetime at home in post-season action, including a 3-0 Bowl record at McMahon Stadium.
The Rouge et Or, meanwhile, are only 1-4 lifetime on the road in such contests, including a 29-27 loss in Saskatoon in 2005, the only time they ventured out west for a CIS semifinal. Friday’s game will mark the first time they compete more than one time zone away from home.
The 2011 edition of the Rouge et Or has perpetuated the program’s tradition of defensive excellence, leading the country in fewest points allowed (12.0 ppg) for the fourth consecutive year and for the sixth time in the past eight campaigns. The reigning nine-time conference champs – a CIS record – also had the stingiest run defence in the nation (53.7 ypg).
The Dinos, on the other hand, are known for their devastating rushing offence. Led by newly-appointed number-one running back Steven Lumbala, who averaged 8.1 yards per carry in conference play, and veteran Matt Walter, a Calgary Stampeders draft pick who last month became only the ninth CIS player to reach the 4,000-yard career mark, Calgary dominated Canada West and ranked second in the country with 264.5 rushing yards per contest.
The game will be a showdown between two of the best backs in the nation in Lumbala and Laval’s Sébastien Lévesque, who averaged 8.0 yards per run this fall and became the first Rouge et Or player in history to go over the 1,000-yard plateau in a single season (1,059). In their respective conference finals, Lumbala rushed for 194 yards on 22 touches in a 62-13 rout of No. 6 UBC, while Lévesque racked up 197 yards on 17 carries in a 30-7 triumph over No. 7 Montreal, including 40 and 85-yard TD romps.
-With files from the CIS
