Dinos dominate the hapless Golden Bears 71–3
By Ashton Chugh, September 6, 2014 —
In front of a Kick-off crowd of 5,534, the second-ranked University of Calgary Dinos stomped the University of Alberta Golden Bears 71–3 at McMahon stadium on Friday, Sept. 4.
The Dinos set the tone early by scoring two touchdowns within the first six minutes. The nine-touchdown, 734-yard offensive performance gave the Dinos their 11th consecutive win over the U of A.
“These games are tough to manage at times,” said Dinos head coach Blake Nill. “But we came out in the first quarter and said we wanted to just focus on our roles and our performance. I thought we did a good job with that.”
Reigning conference MVP runningback Mercer Timmis scored the Dinos opening touchdown, then added another for good measure in the second quarter.
“Mercer, in my opinion, is the best back in Canada,” Nill said. “He runs with such acceleration, has very good hips and can easily make the first guy miss. We want to keep Mercer healthy and want to be smart about it.”
Andrew Buckley — the quarterback that led the University of Calgary through the school’s first ever undefeated regular season in 2013 — threw for 313 yards and three touchdowns in the first half to give the Dinos a 43–0 lead over the Golden Bears.
“I thought Andrew did a terrific job,” Nill said. “I thought it was great that we got to play all three quarterbacks. That’s not going to happen every game, obviously, so we want to take advantage of those things when we can.”
Dinos QB Eric Dzwilewski, who was injured for the entire 2013 season and is competing for the starting job, threw for 114 yards on 7-of-13 attempts. Buckley said he was impressed by the play of his teammates and enjoys the competition for the top job.
“I think that it’s a pretty good situation as we’re both pretty competitive people,” Buckley said. “We’re both pushing each other to get better and it’s really bringing the best out of both of us. It was just a good game for us. Playing against U of A can sometimes be a trap game, but we really took advantage of it by executing as best we could.”
The only black mark on the Dinos win was an excess of penalties, which Coach Nill says they need to improve upon.
“Penalties are obviously something that just drives you nuts,” Nill said. “Last week in Laval, we did a great job. Then, to come out here and take what I thought was an excess of penalties, it’s something we can focus the kids on improving.”
On a final note, Kickoff was the first game to feature the Dinos 13th man, a lucky U of C student that gets to join the Dinos for one play. Students’ Union president Jarett Henry said it was a surreal experience.
“I was nervous all day,” Henry said. “I still had to work at the Students’ Union, but it was still really hard to focus on anything else other than my 10 seconds of glory here in the game. But once I got out and had the crowd — the crowd was wild, it kind of fired me up — it was more fun than anything.”
The Dinos have outscored the Golden Bears 370–41 over their previous six games. The loss now puts the U of A on a 26-game losing streak, having gone without a single win over their past three seasons. The Dinos are 39–2 in their last 41 games at McMahon Stadium.
The Dinos will take on the No. 7 ranked University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in Vancouver on Sept 13.