CIS Football Report (Week 9)
With the CIS Season officially over it is now time to start the postseason as next week will be the Semi-Finals weekend. The conferences are wrapped up with the semi-final games figured out as all of the teams that have made it will now work toward their conference titles. From there comes the road to the Vanier Cup as teams work towards being the best team in Canada. The OUA got out to an early start to the playoff with the OUA quarter-finals taking place this week. With the OUA being so big the top 6 teams make the playoffs with 4 teams being eliminated. The top 2 teams receive a bye into the Semi-Finals while the bottom four fight it out for a chance at the semi-finals. The Western Mustangs and the McMaster Marauders were the two teams earning the byes in the first round of the playoffs. Meanwhile The Laurier Golden Hawks would travel to Kingston to face the Queen’s Golden Gaels and the Windsor Lancers would travel to Ottawa to face the Gee Gees. Laurier and Queen’s faced off in the first quarter-final in a rematch of an earlier game in the season. In their first matchup Queen’s came away with the win by a score of 58-35 that launched a 6-week winning streak that launched the Gaels to the third spot in the OUA. The game featured the CIS’s top passer, Shane Kelly, and the CIS’s top rusher, Ryan Granberg. With two of the best offences in the CIS it was expected to be a shootout but the defences thought differently. Both defences shut down their opponents with the kickers scoring the only points in the game until the fourth quarter. Laurier came out to a lead in the 2nd quarter with a Rouge and then went ahead 4-1 after a field goal in the 2nd again. By the end of the half the game was tied 4-4 with both teams kicking field goals and earning Rouges points. In the second half Queen’s took an early lead kicking a Field goal in the 3rd quarter but it was answered in the same quarter by another field goal by Laurier. Throughout the game Laurier had looked to score a couple of TDs but all were called back because of penalties forcing field goals and giving Queen’s more opportunities. Ryan Granberg took advantage of these opportunities as he got some room and began running the ball in for a TD from the 1-yard line putting the Gaels ahead for good. The Gaels took the win and will move on to face McMaster in Hamilton for the semi-finals. While the Gaels took the first semi-final the Windsor Lancers took on the defending regular season champion Ottawa Gee Gees. The Gee Gees were in the 4th spot while the Lancers had surprised a lot of people by ending up in 5th place. Many thought that the Lancers season would end here but they had something to prove as the Lancers got out ahead and never looked back. Windsor struck first with a TD pass to go ahead 7-0 in the first quarter and they never lost the lead from that point on. The Gee Gees seemed to be outclassed by the Lancers who are one of the hottest teams in the CIS entering the playoffs. Ottawa made a few attempts at a comeback as they reduced the lead kicking a field goal in the 1st quarter to make the game 10-3 but after that the Lancers piled on the points. In the 4th quarter the score was 50-20 and Ottawa attempted to make a last-ditch effort to get back in the game. The Gee Gees scored two TDs in the 4th to reduce the lead to 50-33 but that was as close as they would get. Windsor will now travel to London to take on one of the best teams in the country with the Western Mustangs who are coming off of their first loss this year. With the first round done in the OUA they match up with the rest of the CIS as next weekend will feature their Semi-Finals along with the rest of the CIS.
The rest of the CIS finished off their season as the last week finished off with only one undefeated team left in the CIS. After 8 weeks the best teams had fallen with Laval and Western both losing a game after going undefeated most of the season. This left the Calgary Dinos alone at the top of the CIS with an undefeated record. Coming into week 9 the Dinos were guaranteed home playoff games throughout the playoffs with the CanWest conference won. They would play the UBC Thunderbirds who were playing for their chance at a home playoff game in years but had to win against the best team in the CIS. The Dinos would be trying to finish off a season where they would be the best team in the CIS and the only team to play a full undefeated season this year. UBC came out early as they scored two TDs in the first quarter shocking the Dinos by going ahead 14-0. Calgary came back though as they responded with two TDs of their own at the end of the 1st quarter and start of the 2nd quarter. At the end of the first half UBC took the lead again going ahead 24-21. The second half saw UBC come out strong again scoring a TD, a safety, and a field goal to go ahead 36-21 and from then they never looked back. Calgary could only manage a safety in the 4th but they could not muster a comeback losing for the first time this year. With the win UBC knocked off the best team in the CIS and took the #2 spot in the CanWest letting them host a playoff game this weekend. UBC is on the rise and could be making a run at the CanWest title if they continue to play this way. With the CIS season done the playoffs are set and next week will be the first step for many teams towards the Vanier Cup.
CIS Top 10:
1. Laval Rouge et Or (2)
2. Calgary Dinos (1)
3. Western Mustangs (4)
4. McMaster Marauders (3)
5. Sherbrooke Vert et Or (6)
6. UBC Thunderbirds (7)
7. Montreal Carabins (5)
8. Queen’s Golden Gaels (8)
9. Acadia Axemen (9)
10. Saskatchewan Roughriders (10)
Final Standings:
AUS:
1. y-Acadia Axemen (7-1)
2. x-Saint Mary’s Huskies (6-2)
3. x-StFX X-Men (2-6)
4. Mount Allison Mounties (0-8)
CanWest:
1. y-Calgary Dinos (7-1)
2. x-UBC Thunderbirds (6-2)
3. x-Saskatchewan Huskies (5-3)
4. x-Regina Rams (3-5)
5. Manitoba Bisons (3-5)
6. Alberta Golden Bears (0-8)
RSEQ:
1. y-Laval Rouge et Or (8-1)
2. x-Sherbrooke Vert et Or (7-2)
3. x-Montreal Carabins (6-3)
4. x-Concordia Stingers (4-5)
5. Bishop’s Gaitors (3-6)
6. McGill Redmen (0-9)
x-Clinched Playoff Spot y-Clinched Conference
Key Scores:
Regina Rams 31 – 22 Manitoba Bisons
– In the last week of the season both teams were looking for a win to get the last playoff spot in the CanWest and the spot went to Regina with their 31-22 win
UBC Thunderbirds 36 – 23 Calgary Dinos
– The last undefeated team in the CIS fell to the T-Birds who took over the 2nd spot in the CanWest and will host a home playoff game next week
Queen’s Golden Gaels 14 – 10 Laurier Golden Hawks
– Queen’s won the defensive battle in the quarterfinals of the OUA playoffs to advance and take on McMaster next week
Windsor Lancers 50 – 33 Ottawa Gee Gees
– Windsor surprised everyone blowing out the Gee Gees in the quarter finals and will move on to face the Western Mustangs next week
Semi-Final Weekend:
AUS:
StFX X-Men vs. Saint Mary’s Huskies (Nov. 5th; 1:00 pm AT)
– StFX has had a bad season this year but were just better than the Mounties and they will take on the Huskies who fell to Acadia and made them the 2nd place team in the AUS
CanWest:
Regina Rams vs. Calgary Dinos (Nov. 4th; 7:00 pm MT)
– Regina made the playoffs in their last game while the Dinos have been ensured of a spot for the playoffs for weeks but are coming off of their first loss of the season
Saskatchewan Huskies vs. UBC Thunderbirds (Nov. 5th; 2:00 pm PT)
– Saskatchewan lost out to the T-Birds for the home playoff game but this game will be a very close one with both teams very close
OUA:
Windsor Lancers vs. Western Mustangs (Nov. 5th; 1:00 pm ET)
– Windsor surprised many last week and look to continue surprising against the best team in the OUA in the Western Mustangs
Queen’s Golden Gaels vs. McMaster Marauders (Nov. 5th; 4:30 pm ET)
– Queen’s has won 7 straight now and are looking to make another improbable run at the Yates Cup but in their way is the Marauders who are one of the best teams in the CIS
RSEQ:
Montreal Carabins vs. Sherbrooke Vert et Or (Nov. 5th; 1:00 pm ET)
– Montreal has had a controversial season but still made the playoffs and will take on the second best team in the RSEQ
Concordia Stingers vs. Laval Rouge et Or (Nov. 5th; 1:00 pm ET)
– Laval has only lost once in the last two years and Concordia will have to take advantage of their first playoff appearance in years against the Rouge et Or
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