Brian Swane, Special to Canada West
EDMONTON - Ultimately it was meant to be.
Round Three.
The rubber match: Calgary vs. UBC.
After one of the most competitive years in Canada West football history, it’s once again come down to the Dinos and Thunderbirds, who will square off for the Hardy Cup at McMahon Stadium in Calgary on Saturday with kickoff set for 1 p.m. MT, broadcast live on Sasktel maxTV, TELUS Optik TV, Bell MTS and streamed on Canada West TV.
“We always expect these to be tight games,” Dinos coach Wayne Harris said. “It’s a playoff game, one game on the line, anything can happen. There’s always all sorts of factors that can play into a game like this.”
This is third consecutive fall these rivals will meet to become best in the west. In 2015, UBC defeated the Dinos and went on to win the Vanier Cup before Calgary got its revenge last year at the 80th Hardy Cup.
“In 2015 we made big plays … all of that was just execution,” exaplined Blake Nill, UBC coach. “I don’t believe our level of execution was as high last year, whereas comparably, Calgary’s was at a high level of execution.”
The previous two match-ups have provided plenty of action and excitement, with each coming down to the final moments. Two years ago, Calgary trailed 34-26 and was driving for the tying score in the final minute before the T-Birds forced a fumble to secure victory. Last year’s game was the highest-scoring in Hardy Cup history, as the Dinos stampeded to a 36-10 lead at halftime, then withstood a fierce UBC rally to hang on and win 46-43. This time around, there is no reason to expect any less scoring nor any more separation.
"They’ve got some great athletes on both sides of the ball, and that is the way they play their game and we play a similar style, with as much speed on the field as you can get,” said Harris. “You want to be fast and physical at this time of year and hopefully you’re always in a position of having as many healthy bodies on the field as you can.”
Calgary and UBC, who finished first and second respectively in the 2017 Canada West standings, met once during the regular season, Sept. 29 in Vancouver. The Dinos won 31-17, scoring 21 unanswered points in the third quarter after trailing 10-9 at halftime, but UBC hasn’t dropped a game since.
“Did we take things from that loss? Yes we did,” says Nill. “And has it helped us? I believe so. We’ve just got to keep improving as a program and in the short-term come up with a best effort to compete with Calgary come Saturday afternoon.”
Not only has the victor of the last two Dinos/T-Birds playoff battles captured the Hardy Cup, they’ve also gone on to win their next game to advance to the Vanier Cup, where T-Birds beat Montreal 26-23 to become 2015 U SPORTS champions, while Calgary came up just short to Laval, 31-26, in last year’s national final.
“Our guys have been working hard since last Vanier Cup to get to this point,” Harris pointed out. “They have been excited all year, and we try to prepare ourselves the same way each week and make sure that we’re game ready. The guys know what this is all about.”
After surviving the ultra-competitive Canada West schedule with just three losses between them, the T-Birds and Calgary come into this title bout battle-tested. Already they’ve shown their post-season will in the Hardy Cup semifinals last weekend, when the Dinos beat Alberta in Calgary and UBC got past Regina at Thunderbird Stadium. Whoever emerges triumphant on Saturday will be more than a deserving champ.
“This is my 12th year in Canada West, and this is the tightest it’s ever been,” Nill said. “The reality with this conference is if you don’t bring your A-game on any given Saturday, you’re going to lose, and you’ve seen that all year.”