Dinos football fight off Thunderbirds

By Rhiannon Kirkland

Last Saturday the Dinos played the fifth game of their season on what was a beautiful summer day, especially by Calgary standards. The Dinos, much like the 25-degree weather, were doing pretty hot.

The Dinos drew first blood with a touchdown by Anthony Parker off a three-yard pass from quarterback Eric Dzwilewski that was caught despite a UBC defender deflecting the ball. The only other scoring during the first quarter was from a missed UBC field goal.

The Dinos scored a 41-yard field goal two minutes into the second quarter to lead 10-1. Then the Thunderbirds missed a second field goal attempt to score one point six minutes into the quarter. The Dinos responded with a touchdown by Matt Walter.

The Thunderbirds scored a touchdown during the last minute of the first half off a 13-yard run by Billy Greene making the score 18-9.

“I would have liked it to have been better on the defensive side,” said Dinos head coach Blake Nill. “Offensively I thought we did a good job. Special teams other than one play, I thought we did a good job. Defensively though, we’re just inconsistent right now. Sometimes we make outstanding plays, other times our focus isn’t what it needs to be.”

The Dinos were quiet during the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth, allowing UBC to score two field goals.

Walter scored three of the Dinos’ four touchdowns. His first touchdown was off a one-yard pass from quarterback Eric Dzwilewski and the second a one-yard run. Walter scored the last touchdown of the game with a 62-yard run 10 minutes into the fourth quarter.

“It was more a team effort on each of the touch downs, I just finished off drives,” said Walter. “We had three big plays which resulted in three touchdowns for me, but the big plays were the ones that got us that close to be able to get a touchdown. [A] catch by Nate Coehoorn and a run by Lumballa generally moved up the field for my other touchdown.”

Several field goals were missed over the course of the game. The Dinos missed two and the Thunderbirds missed three.

“Scoring opportunities, if you don’t make them it hurts,” said Nill. “Same thing when we missed ours. You have to capitalize on your opportunities and if you don’t it probably will come back to hurt you.”

The Dinos now have a record of 4-1 and are ranked second in the FRC-CIS Top 10. The Dinos play their next game on Oct. 15 against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.

“It’s a big game for us. It’s against our top rival we have to come out there and play our best,” said Nill.