Box Score Different season. Same result.
The #8 Manitoba Bisons Football team went into #5 Calgary Dinos and were handed a 48-24 road loss on Friday, Sept. 20 evening at McMahon Stadium. With the win, Calgary moves to a perfect 4-0 while the Herd drops to 2-2 in the 2013 conference season.
Going back to last season's playoff game at Calgary, the Bisons have now been outscore 105-42 by the Dinos and have not beaten the five-time Canada West champions in ten consecutive games (dating back to the 2007 Vanier Cup Championship for Manitoba).
In a match-up of two Top 10 CIS teams, the home team started early and often in the first half. The hostsÂ
scored on their second possession of the contest as the Dinos starting quarterback Andrew Buckley found Brett Blaszko on a 91 pass and run play with less three minutes gone to start the scoring onslaught.Â
After a 13-0 first quarter lead, Calgary struck quickly for three straight TDs to end the half. Buckley found Rashaun Simonise on a 56 yard TD connection then followed by conference touchdown leader Mercer Timmis on a one yard and 32 yard TD runs – all in a span of less than five minutes. Manitoba finally found the end zone late when conference leading all-purpose yards leader Anthony Coombs caught a 21 yard TD pass from Bison QB Jordan Yantz.
At the half, the scoreboard was Calgary 34-10 and their offence racked up over 500 yards while Buckley was 18-25 for a staggering 400 passing yards in only 30 minutes.
The rest of the game saw the visitors keep pace as both teams scored two majors before the final gun.
Despite the loss, Manitoba generated 580 yards in offence and was led by Coombs with 2 receiving TDs and a combined 235 yards (22-120 rush yards; 6-115 receiving) plus Nic Demski had 5-103 receiving yards along with Yantz 25-47 for 450 yards (a new Bison record) and 3 TDs and 1 INT. The Bisons gave up a whopping 678 yards on offence (second most in team history only to Calgary racking up 776 last season in regular season 78-54 win).
Coombs commented after the game, "We were just doing everything wrong. Every time we come here they just seem to out-physical us and again I don't think we played like men, we played like boys….We've just gotta come out and start executing our stuff a lot better."
The next action for the Bisons will be at home as they host the Regina Rams at Investors Group Field on Saturday. September 28 at 1 p.m. CT as part of the annual Homecoming Game. Tickets available for all Bison Football home games at: ticketmaster.ca
