CW Football - Dinos destroy Alberta, Saskatchewan squads earn wins

The more things change, the more they stay the same when it comes to Canada West football. While the Calgary Dinos flexed their muscles in a dismantling of the Alberta Golden Bears to remain the only unbeaten team in the conference, the Saskatchewan Huskies and Regina Rams each earned wins proving yet again that nothing is a surprise when it comes to the 2011 Canada West season, as things head into the bye week.


#3 Calgary 61
Alberta 7

It doesn't get much uglier than this. The Calgary Dinos came out and ran roughshod over the Golden Bears thanks in large part to Matt Walter's historic day. The running back rushed for 178 yards and three touchdowns to take over the Dinos rushing record book in both career yards (3,788) and TDs (28). Those three TDs would've been enough in and of themselves to give Calgary the win, but the Dinos added two more TDs on the ground to go with two passing TDs from quarterback Eric Dzwilewski in the win.

Calgary's 624 yards of total offence dwarfed the Bears' output of only 142 yards that included three more interceptions from their quarterbacking tandem of Julian Marchand (2 INT) and Curtis Dell (1 INT).

There's not much to say about this game other than a rout was expected given the two teams' trajectories this season.

#9 Saskatchewan 36
#8 UBC 33

Huskies head coach Brian Towriss got his record-breaking 170th career CIS coaching victory the same way he got his first — against the UBC Thunderbirds.

With his team's win, Towriss became the winningest coach in CIS football history, surpassing Larry Haylor who had 169 wins with the Western Ontario Mustangs.

Despite 382 yards passing from QB Billy Greene — who threw his first interception of the season in the loss — UBC couldn't come back from a 20 point third quarter from Saskatchewan.

Ben Coakwell had a pair of rushing TDs in the third to put Saskatchewan up 22-18 heading into the fourth quarter, before the two teams went back and forth in a 36-33 final. Coakwell was the story of this game with 205 yards rushing and those two TDs to help the Huskies hand UBC their second loss of the season.

Apparently the T-Birds aren't quite as good as many (including myself) had thought. They've lost both their games this season to the conference's two perennial powers Saskatchewan and Calgary. While both losses have been in tight fashion — and on the road in both instances — losses are losses, and the T-Birds have work to do if they want to win a Hardy Cup title, because in all likelihood that game wouldn't be in Vancouver.

Regina 26
Manitoba 18

Don't look now, but the Regina Rams are a playoff team. After starting the season 0-3 and looking as though their season was a write off without Marc Mueller at QB, this team has turned it around and with the win this weekend took over fourth in the conference.

RB Adrian Charles brought his 'A' game at home racking up 186 yards that included a TD. Zach Oleynik kept his cinderella season at the QB position going for at least one more week, helping the Rams to victory with 179 yards passing and a TD, but most importantly no INTs.

Manitoba's Khaleal Williams only attempted 14 passes, completing six of those tries, but most importantly tossed a pair of INTs in the loss.

The Rams are now tied with Manitoba for fourth in the conference with a 2-3 record but, thanks to their win over the Herd, own the tiebreaker.

As much as Charles and Oleynik have been the reasons for the Rams' newfound winning ways, just as important has been their resurgent defence that has surrendered 32 points the last two weeks after giving up 95 the first three games. Regina held Manitoba to only 216 total yards of offence in their win.