Grey Cup Weekend has already had one of the dances on next weekend's dance card filled, as the Canadian University Football season is now but one game away from complete.
In two conference finals on Saturday, the final seeds for the Desjardin’s Vanier Cup have been decided with two University teams making their travel arrangements for next weekend in Toronto and Friday night’s University final.
The CIS will go almost as far east as it could go to send a team off to do battle with a rival from the west this year, as Halifax's, St. Mary’s University Huskies showing some dominant defence and a very effective offensive attack, surprised many by their easy handling of the Laval Rouge et Or, the powerhouse squad out of Quebec City that has been a fixture atop the Canadian football rankings in recent years. The Huskies claimed the Uteck Bowl on Saturday with a convincing 21-2 win over their Quebec conference contemporaries.
The Rouge et Or have been the most impressive team in Eastern University football these last few seasons, so it was a bit of a shock for those watching to see their much vaunted offense shut down completely. The Huskies forced five turn overs and allowed little in the way of opportunity for Laval to get untracked, setting the scene for the Quebec City university to suffer its first loss of the year. The game was a testimony to the Huskie's ability to stick to St. Mary’s head coach Steve Sumarah’s game plan. The Huskies having learned from a tightly played game earlier in the year, which saw Laval top them 29-22.
Saturday there was no question on the field about which team was the better one, Laval coach Glen Constantin acknowledging the impressive performance by the St. Mary’s defence.
The Huskies will now get ready for an encounter with the Bison’s of the University of Manitoba. The Winnipeg based university made quick work of the University of Western Ontario Mustangs on Saturday, taking charge from the early going and rolling the points along through the day. Manitoba punched their ticket eastbound for Toronto as they manhandled the Mustangs 52-20.
Ranked number three heading into the Mitchell Bowl, the Bisons controlled play on both sides of the ball. On offence they were a juggernaut hard to stop once under way, while defensively, they provided a smothering blanket which shut down most of the Western offence for a good portion of the game.
Manitoba was up 31-5 by the half, which must have given Western head coach Greg Marshall some flashbacks to his days as head coach with the Tiger Cats in Hamilton. The explosion of offence in the first, left little room for Western to launch a comeback, a short lived spurt saw the Mustangs put another fifteen points on the board, but it was too little too late, as Manitoba celebrated sending another football team off to Ontario.
The Bison’s last won a national championship back in 1970, while St. Mary’s has been a rather regular competitor from the late nineties and early years of this century.
The two teams will take the field as part of a festival of Canadian football, part of a bookend of Football games that will declare champions in two leagues of the three down game.
There are a few that feel that becoming part of the Grey Cup festival may detract from the importance of the University game, but realistically moving the game onto Grey Cup weekend seems like a natural move.
The players will find that the pressure to perform is even more pronounced than the Vanier Cups of the past, with thousands of football fans in Toronto for Grey Cup weekend, it seems that if properly marketed and made a part of the festivities and not just a sideline activity, than the interest in this final will begin to grow to a level that the game deserves.
Some fear that the Vanier Cup may get lost in the shuffle of all the Grey Cup excitement, but if handled in the right way, it could very well become one of the key elements of a great celebration of Canadian football.
We’ll have a better idea by next Friday night, but regardless of the hoopla and concerns, two pretty good football teams will set forward to do battle for the 43rd edition of the Vanier Cup.
Here’s hoping that Toronto and its visitors take a few hours out on Friday to see how the young up and coming class of football players are doing.
In two conference finals on Saturday, the final seeds for the Desjardin’s Vanier Cup have been decided with two University teams making their travel arrangements for next weekend in Toronto and Friday night’s University final.
The CIS will go almost as far east as it could go to send a team off to do battle with a rival from the west this year, as Halifax's, St. Mary’s University Huskies showing some dominant defence and a very effective offensive attack, surprised many by their easy handling of the Laval Rouge et Or, the powerhouse squad out of Quebec City that has been a fixture atop the Canadian football rankings in recent years. The Huskies claimed the Uteck Bowl on Saturday with a convincing 21-2 win over their Quebec conference contemporaries.
The Rouge et Or have been the most impressive team in Eastern University football these last few seasons, so it was a bit of a shock for those watching to see their much vaunted offense shut down completely. The Huskies forced five turn overs and allowed little in the way of opportunity for Laval to get untracked, setting the scene for the Quebec City university to suffer its first loss of the year. The game was a testimony to the Huskie's ability to stick to St. Mary’s head coach Steve Sumarah’s game plan. The Huskies having learned from a tightly played game earlier in the year, which saw Laval top them 29-22.
Saturday there was no question on the field about which team was the better one, Laval coach Glen Constantin acknowledging the impressive performance by the St. Mary’s defence.
The Huskies will now get ready for an encounter with the Bison’s of the University of Manitoba. The Winnipeg based university made quick work of the University of Western Ontario Mustangs on Saturday, taking charge from the early going and rolling the points along through the day. Manitoba punched their ticket eastbound for Toronto as they manhandled the Mustangs 52-20.
Ranked number three heading into the Mitchell Bowl, the Bisons controlled play on both sides of the ball. On offence they were a juggernaut hard to stop once under way, while defensively, they provided a smothering blanket which shut down most of the Western offence for a good portion of the game.
Manitoba was up 31-5 by the half, which must have given Western head coach Greg Marshall some flashbacks to his days as head coach with the Tiger Cats in Hamilton. The explosion of offence in the first, left little room for Western to launch a comeback, a short lived spurt saw the Mustangs put another fifteen points on the board, but it was too little too late, as Manitoba celebrated sending another football team off to Ontario.
The Bison’s last won a national championship back in 1970, while St. Mary’s has been a rather regular competitor from the late nineties and early years of this century.
The two teams will take the field as part of a festival of Canadian football, part of a bookend of Football games that will declare champions in two leagues of the three down game.
There are a few that feel that becoming part of the Grey Cup festival may detract from the importance of the University game, but realistically moving the game onto Grey Cup weekend seems like a natural move.
The players will find that the pressure to perform is even more pronounced than the Vanier Cups of the past, with thousands of football fans in Toronto for Grey Cup weekend, it seems that if properly marketed and made a part of the festivities and not just a sideline activity, than the interest in this final will begin to grow to a level that the game deserves.
Some fear that the Vanier Cup may get lost in the shuffle of all the Grey Cup excitement, but if handled in the right way, it could very well become one of the key elements of a great celebration of Canadian football.
We’ll have a better idea by next Friday night, but regardless of the hoopla and concerns, two pretty good football teams will set forward to do battle for the 43rd edition of the Vanier Cup.
Here’s hoping that Toronto and its visitors take a few hours out on Friday to see how the young up and coming class of football players are doing.
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