Bison Football wins 47-39 in Canada West Semi-Final playoff game on the road at Saskatchewan on Fri., Nov. 7. Manitoba with huge comeback from 19 point deficit in second half.

The BIsons (regular season: 4-4; playoffs: 1-0) defeat the #8 Saskatchewan Huskies (regular season: 6-2; playoffs: 0-1) for the second consecutive season in the Canada West semi-final. Plus, Manitoba wins a playoff game at Saskatchewan for the first time in team history.

Manitoba awaits the winner of the other Canada West Semi-Final game on Sat., Nov. 8 between #4 Calgary Dinos (6-2) and Regina Rams (3-5) to see if they play on the road or at home for the conference title on Sat., Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. local time. 

In a crazy, highly entertaining game at Saskatoon, Manitoba continued to battle back as they have during the up-and-down 2014 season. The Herd were down by as many as 19 points with three minutes gone in the third quarter. Queue the comeback music. The Bisons rallied despite being stuffed on the one yard line of the Huskies on the very next possession. Instead of being deflated, the defence picked up the offence as rookie Jayden McKoy stepped in front of Saskatchewan starting quarterback Drew Burko pass and ran back a pick six from 54 yards out to turn the tide for the visitors.

On the ensuing kickoff, Manitoba recovered a fumble that led to a 32 yard field goal by kicker Ryan Jones and then McKoy was at it again when he flew of the edge untouched and dove to block Denton Kolodzinski punt and halfback Jordan Linnen scooped up the ball for a 21 yard fumble recovery TD and the deficit was cut to two and reduced to zero after Sask. conceded a safety at the very start of the fourth quarter.

In a tense fourth, Manitoba drove eight plays on 52 yards and Jones added a 24 yarder for the first lead by the BIsons since starting the game at 14-0 midway thru the first. After the home side received a safety given up Manitoba. Some razzle-dazzle was in order on the insurance TD by the visitors when tailback Kienan LaFrance took the direct snap and handed off the ball to slotback Nic Demski who then threw to Bison starting quarterback Jordan Yantz in the back of the end zone for the final score and a 47-39 road playoff win. The last TD was directly set-up by a 98 yard interception return by Linnen after he snuffed out a late Huskies bid for a go-ahead touchdown on the Bisons' goaline. 

Bison football head coach Brian Dobie exclaimed after the game in the locker room, "Lots of our guys can make plays and we are a pretty good team that beat a very difficult team on the road tonight. At half, everyone was calm despite a 12 point deficit. We needed to respond after they scored on their first possession of the second half and our guys started to make big plays on both sides of the ball. We whittled away the lead and keep the pressure throughout the second half. I am proud of our effort and excited to go back to the Canada West Final."

Manitoba jumped out to a 14-0 lead to begin the playoff contest as Yantz found wide receiver Matt Sawyer for a 16 yard TD reception and then Demski on a 26 yard TD pass before the Huskies responded with 23 unanswered points. In the back-and-forth affair, Sask. had a 30-18 halftime lead on largely on the strength of running back Tyler Chow who had two TDs in the first half (added a third in the third quarter) and was close to 300 all-purpose for the game.

In team stats, Sask. led 37-18 in first downs, total offence was 562-420 for the hosts plus time of possession was slanted 36:31 to 23:29 for Sask. but where it matter on the scoreboard, the Bisons prevailed with a eight point victory.

Individually for Manitoba, Yantz led with 21-36 for 373 yards and two TD passers and also rushed for 33 yards and caught a nine yard TD pass. LaFrance finished with 36 rush yards and three catches for 25 yards. Demski had another monster game with eight grabs for game-high 155 yards plus one TD pass of nine yards. Sawyer ended up with four receptions and 78 receiving yards while Dustin Pedersen with two catches and 41 yards. 

On defence, McKoy had two interceptions for 54 yards and one TD while Linnen added two picks for 112 INT return yards. Defensive lineman Evan Foster was a beast on the line with 9.5 total tackles and two sacks while linebacker DJ Lalama added nine tackles in the road win.

Next up for the Manitoba Bisons football team is the Canada West Final on Sat., Nov. 15 at either Calgary or at home with kickoff scheduled at 2 p.m. local time.