Huskie Outsider

In a game many thought would be a Titanic showdown between two CIS powerhouses, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies showed that pre-season rankings mean little with a convincing 34 to 13 victory over the number one ranked University of Calgary Dinos.

Jeff Hassler scores on a long TD run (Liam Richards).

The Huskies started out strong, scoring a touchdown on the opening drive of the game when Jeff Hassler exploded through the line and the arms of some Calgary defenders for a 69 yard touchdown. The Dinos answered the drive with a touchdown on their eight-play, 70 yard opening drive, scored by quarterback Erik Glavic on a sneak.

That would be the last time these teams would be even, as the Huskies opened the gates, driving down the field for a Denton Kolodzinski field goal, followed one-drive later by an 87 yard bomb from quarterback Laurence Nixon to wide receiver Jade Etienne who turned on the jets to score a touchdown, which made the score 17-7 at the end of the first quarter. That touchdown was set up by a Nico Higgs forced fumble, taking the ball away from Glavic as he was going down.

The strong play from both sides of the ball continued in the second quarter, as Peter Thiel recovered a Nathan Coehoorn fumble on the Dinos first drive of the second half. A later drive was snuffed out as the Huskies’ defence held the Dinos on third-and-short, turning the ball over on downs and setting up a five-play, 70 yard drive that ended in an 11 yard touchdown pass from Nixon to Braeden George, making the score 24-7 mid-way through the second quarter.

After a Kolodzinski punt single, the Dinos were able to stage a couple of drives late in the first half, culminating in Aaron Ifield field goals from 33 and 42 yards. The Huskies entered the half with a healthy 25-13 lead, and would not surrender a point thereafter, battling through a wet, windy and scoreless third quarter to force the Dinos into surrendering a safety on the first play of the fourth quarter. Afer an unsuccessful Huskie drive, the defence came up big again, with safety Bryce McCall registering his first interception of the season.

“It was just overthrown due to some great coverage from the linebacker,” said McCall of his interception. “It seems to be happening a lot with our linebackers getting great depth in their coverages and it ends up just floating up to me. All the praise goes to the (linebackers) and d-line for making it tough on quarterbacks.”

Bryce McCall and Seamus Neary celebrate a pass knock down in the first half (Liam Richards).

After McCall’s 14 yard return, one of the few penalties of the night called on the Dinos moved the Huskies to the Calgary 23. One play later, the Huskies would score their final points of the night on Ben Coakwell’s 20 yard touchdown and Kolodzinski’s conversion. The defence then shut the door, allowing the Dinos to gain just 57 net yards and two first downs in the final 12 minutes, with defensive tackle David Rybinski’s recording his first sack of the season along the way.

Although there is plenty of football left this season, the Huskies are happy with the opening game win against the team that narrowly beat them for the Hardy Cup last Novemeber. “It feels great knowing that when they come back to our field, we have that win up on them,” said Hassler, who finished the game with 168 net yards rushing and one touchdown. “Now we just have to go out and do what we have to do.”

Nixon was happy with his team’s progress from the non-conference game against Western last week. “I think we did pretty well. The thing that we cleaned up from last week was our red-zone play. We punched the ball in there when we had to and we had some big plays when we needed them.

Ben Coakwell scores a TD late in the game (Liam Richards)

“Credit the defence for keeping us in it down the stretch, but we still moved the ball, our o-line played great, and it’s a big win coming out of here.” The Huskies dominated the stats sheet, with 591 yards of offence to 346 for the Dinos. The Huskies had 297 yards of passing to the Dinos 194, and 294 yards rushing to 152 for the Dinos, with both Hassler and Coakwell eclisping the century mark.

The Huskies didn’t come out of Calgary unscathed, as fifth-year centre Darren Hinds was helped off the field late in the second quarter. He was joined by Garrett Bolen in the second half, who absorbed a big hit to his hip after a reception. The status of both these players will be known later in the week.

The Huskies join the Alberta Golden Bears and Regina Rams in the win column and will move on to host the UBC Thunderbirds in the homecoming game, next Friday at 7:00 p.m. If you haven’t already, call 966-1111 or drop by the PAC to purchase your tickets for what is sure to be a packed Griffiths Stadium.

Filed under: Game Day, Huskies Tagged: | canada west, cis, dinos, Huskies