Western University
CIS.ca Staff
OTTAWA — The Laval Rouge et Or top the Football Reporters of Canada – CIS rankings for the fifth time in as many polls this season. The reigning Vanier Cup champions survived their stiffest test of the young campaign this past weekend to remain the only undefeated team in the RSEQ conference at the midway mark of the regular schedule.
For the second week in a row, Laval (4-0) received 21 of 30 first-place votes and 290 points from the FRC panel, with the remaining first-place nods going to the second-ranked Western Mustangs (5-0). Western tallied 275 points in the new poll, up from 267 last Tuesday.
Rounding out the new Top 10 are the No. 3 Queen’s Gaels (4-0), No. 4 Montreal Carabins (3-1), No. 5 Calgary Dinos (4-0 ), No. 6 Guelph Gryphons (4-0), No. 7 Saskatchewan Huskies (3-1), No. 8 Bishop’s Gaiters (3-1), No. 9 McMaster Marauders (2-3) and No. 10 Manitoba Bisons (2-2).
The only change this week sees Bishop’s and Manitoba switching positions.
In the marquee matchup of the past weekend, Sunday in Quebec City, Laval overcame a 9-4 halftime deficit to edge archrival Montreal 16-9 in front of a packed house of 16,210 at TELUS-Université Laval Stadium, which will be the site of the 49th Vanier Cup final on Nov. 23. With the victory, the Rouge et Or extended their CIS-record streak to a phenomenal 60 consecutive wins overall on home turf dating back to 2004.
The Laval defence, which has dominated CIS football for over a decade, pitched its second shutout of the season against Montreal as the Carabins scored their nine points on a safety and a touchdown off a missed field goal return. The Rouge et Or had blanked Sherbrooke 20-0 on Sept. 7 and have held their opponents to a CIS-best 31 points in four contests so far in 2013.
Two more Top-10 battles were on the Week 5 schedule.
At Calgary, the five-time reigning Canada West champion Dinos doubled Manitoba 48-24 thanks in large part to quarterback Andrew Buckley, who threw for 512 yards in only the third start of his university career.
At Guelph, the Gryphons took a 24-13 lead into the fourth quarter and held off a late charge by defending OUA champ McMaster to prevail 24-22. The game was a rematch of last year’s OUA final, won 30-13 by the Marauders.
Other Week 5 results from Top-10 teams included Western 45, Laurier 24 (at Laurier); Queen’s 36, Ottawa 21 (at Ottawa); Saskatchewan 39, Alberta 17 (at Saskatchewan); Bishop’s 40, Concordia 18 (at Bishop’s).
| Week 5 Rankings | |||||
| Rank | School | Record | Points | 1st Place | Last week |
| 1 | Laval | (4-0) | 290 | 21 | 1 |
| 2 | Western | (5-0) | 275 | 9 | 2 |
| 3 | Queen’s | (4-0) | 232 | – | 3 |
| 4 | Montreal | (3-1) | 201 | – | 4 |
| 5 | Calgary | (4-0) | 188 | – | 5 |
| 6 | Guelph | (4-0) | 164 | – | 6 |
| 7 | Saskatchewan | (3-1) | 113 | – | 7 |
| 8 | Bishop’s | (3-1) | 69 | – | 10 |
| 9 | McMaster | (2-3) | 47 | – | 9 |
| 10 | Manitoba | (2-2) | 35 | – | 8 |
Other teams receiving votes: Windsor (20), Acadia (5), Sherbrooke (4), UBC (2), StFX (2), McGill (1).
