Friday night football: the Abbotsford Not-So-Classic and a Hamiltonian path to the record books

SFU 10, Manitoba 8 (OT)

Was it really last October that someone in the SFU athletics department went a little overboard with the "we'll get smoked by the Bisons" angle? Because the Clan are suddenly 4-2 now. After beating the Bisons.

Tied at 7 going into overtime (John Makie to Mike Mizerski for the Bisons, safeties and field goals for the Clan), SFU connected on a field goal but Manitoba missed their attempt. Only in Canadian football can the losing team score the last point in sudden-death overtime.

It looked like a pretty ugly game, based on the highlights available and only 221 first-half yards from both teams. And really, you know it's ugly when the winning team doesn't get a touchdown.

Laval 67, McGill 7

What is there to say? A ridiculously good defence meets an offence that doesn't do anything but throw short sideline passes.

McMaster 27, Toronto 19

Penalties, penalties, penalties. A record 375 combined yards, just edging out the seven-year record by 130 or so.

Mac's Joey Nemet picked up 106 rushing yards by himself (the Blues had just 37), the second time in two weeks he's hit triple digits against a team from Toronto. Aside from last night, U of T seems to be pretty good, yardage-wise, on offence, and David Hamilton probably helped his pass ranking with his 28-45, 342 night, but the yards haven't translated into many points so far.

It was 20-5 at the half, and 27-12 with two minutes left, so it probably wasn't as close as the score indicates. It is, however, an improvement over the recent meetings between these two teams: 64-13 in 2005 and 39-11 last year.