By Jon Roe
The University of Calgary Dinos football team utterly destroyed the Simon Fraser Clan 54-3 Sat., Oct. 20. The Dinos outgained the Clan 544 yards to 260 as two Dinos put up over a hundred yards rushing. Rookie Matt Walter lead the way with 127 yards and two TDs and Anthony Woodson put up 106 yards with one TD. The pair now ranks first and second in Canada West rushing yards.
“This was a game we needed to go out with a workman-like attitude,” said head coach Blake Nill. “We needed to go out and run our plays, make our tackles and take care of our special teams. For us, playoffs start right now.”
The Clan is 0-7 on the year and have now lost 24 games in a row in conference play. This year, the Dinos outscored the Clan 106-17 in two games.
Dinos quarterback Julian Marchand, in his second-straight game as the starter for the Dinos, completed 12 of 18 passes for 182 yards and two TDs.
“I thought I played very well,” said Marchand. “There are still some mental mistakes I have to fix before [the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds] next week. [It was] definitely a momentum-building game.”
The score was 24-0 for the Dinos at the half as it seemed like the Clan couldn’t get anything going on either sides of the ball. A 46-yard Marchand pass to rookie slotback Paul O’Leary in quadruple coverage set up the Dinos final touchdown of the half. Clan punter Aaron Hargreaves had an inconsistent game, consistently giving the Dinos good field position. Hargreaves averaged 29.8 yards/punt, had two punts go for 20 yards or less and was replaced in the second quarter.
It didn’t help as the Dinos dropped another 30 points on the Clan in the second half using their third-string running back, second-string quarterback and second-string kicker at times. The score finished 54-3.
The Dinos are now looking ahead to a Fri., Oct. 26 match up with the 3-4 UBC Thunderbirds. The two teams are currently tied for the fourth and final playoff spot in Canada West and whoever wins Friday’s match up will get a chance to play the nationally third-ranked University of Manitoba Bisons in the playoffs Sat., Nov. 3 in Winnipeg.
“We need to go out there, focus on UBC and get ready to play on Friday,” said Nill.