Provincial rivals to slug it out for Alberta honours
More at stake for Bears than unbeaten Dinos as regular-season comes to an end
They’ve clinched home-field advantage all the way to the Vanier Cup. So what’s on the line for University of Calgary Dinos football club to close out the U Sports regular season?
Pride, for starters, against their provincial rivals, the Alberta Golden Bears. And momentum heading into the playoffs, when the Canada West Conference squads square off Saturday at McMahon Stadium.
Having clinched home field through to the Mitchell Bowl — one of two U Sports semifinal contests — with last week’s win over the Regina Rams, the Dinos look to keep things rolling into the Canada West playoffs in Saturday’s affair.
The Dinos record now sits at 7-0 as they continue to dominate their Canada West opponents.
It was yet another impressive showing last Saturday in Regina as they came away with a 42-30 win over the Rams. After jumping out quickly to a 24-3 lead after the first quarter, the Dinos were able to stave off a Rams comeback with a late touchdown in the fourth to solidify the win.
For their efforts, coupled with the then-No. 1 Montreal Carabins loss to the Laval Rouge Et Or, the Dinos earned the No. 1 national ranking for the first time since November 2015.
The Golden Bears kept their playoff hopes alive last weekend with a 49-23 home win over the Saskatchewan Huskies. However, their fate lies in the hands of the Manitoba Bisons, regardless of Saturday’s outcome. A Bisons win over the Huskies puts the Bears into the playoffs, win or lose. The plot thickens when it comes to a Huskies win — the Bears can still make the playoffs but would need to upset the Dinos and win by at least 14 points more than what the Huskies beat the Bisons by.
A Dinos win would complete an undefeated season for the third time in five years after previous 8-0 records in 2013 and ’15.
SHORT YARDAGE
Dinos QB Adam Sinagra is 19 completions away from breaking the single-season school record of 178, set in 1983 by Greg Vavra. To date, Sinagra has the fifth-best passing season with 2,272 yards and sits less than 100 yards behind Bob Torrance (2,360 in 1989) for third place … Dinos sophomore K Niko DiFonte is just nine points away from a 100-point season, which has only been done four times before by Dinos. Two of those were by kickers, with Johnny Mark pulling it off in ’12 and ’15 … With three sacks last week, Cory Robinson brought his season total to seven and his career to 14. He’ll need four more to catch the Dinos all-time leaders, Brian Shewchuk and Garrett Everson … As a team, the Dinos are just one sack away from the school record of 25 in one season.