September 15 - On Saturday, September 15 at University Stadium, the #4 ranked Manitoba Bisons football team led throughout the game and came away with a 35-28 result over the Calgary Dinos. In front of over 4100 spectators at the annual Homecoming Game, the Bisons record improved to 3-0 while the Dinos fell to 1-2 in the 2007 season.

“We are happy with the win but now we need to start preparing for next week against Saskatchewan,” said Bison football head coach Brian Dobie.

The game was a back-and-forth affair until the fourth quarter when the Bisons, with the strong 30-40 km/h wind at their back, took over and secured their 12th consecutive regular season conference win. Manitoba established the second most rushing carries in team history with 58 and controlled the game clock with 34:18 time of possession.

After a rather uneventful first quarter and the score 1-0 for the Dinos, Manitoba seized the lead with the wind when running back Matt Henry found the end zone from four yards. Henry scored his second TD of the game from five yards and a Calgary field goal by Aaron Ifield was sandwiched in between and the score was 14-4 with less than three minutes left. Bisons’ Scott Dixon kickoff single was followed by Dinos’ quarterback Jordan Flagel terrific end around bootleg by from 43 yards and the score closed to 15-11 for Manitoba. The Bisons went into a hurry-up offense and were rewarded with a 25 yard field goal by Dixon with three second left in the half for a 18-11 lead.

Into the second half, Calgary had the wind and Flagel made a 26 yard TD run as he weaved his way through the Bisons’ defense. The Dinos capitalized on the wind by calling a timeout at the end of the quarter and Ifield boomed a 42 yard field goal and the visitors captured the advantage and led 21-18 after three.

In the final quarter, the Herd regained the momentum by quarterback John Makie orchestrating an eight play, 75 yard drive capped by a eight yard pass to receiver Simon Blaszczak. Calgary conceded a safety instead of punting from deep in their end and then Matt Henry swooped in for his third TD of the game from one yard. The ten play, 75 yard drive was the last scoring for the Bisons as there was only three minutes remaining.

Calgary made it interesting with an Anthony Woodson four yard run with one minute remaining but Calgary did not recover the on-side kick and ran out of time to score the tying points.

The #4 Bisons (3-0) host the #2 Saskatchewan Huskies (3-0) on Saturday, September 22 at 2 p.m. Winnipeg time while Calgary has the bye next week. The tilt of #2 and #4 teams will be broadcast live on Campus Radio 101.5 FM (UMFM).

Complete statistics...