Bisons cruise to victory in season-opener
Herd gets revenge against Calgary
Sheri Lamb
Photo by Scott Stephens.
Ryan Zahara laid down the law in a lopsided win for the University of Manitoba Bisons in the opening game of the 2005 season.
The Bisons extracted a little revenge in their Sept. 3 home-opener, leaving the University of Calgary Dinos in the dust with a 51-10 win on a windy afternoon at University Stadium. The Bisons missed the playoffs in 2004 when the Dinos upset the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the final game of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) regular season.
With the score 37-1 at the half, Bison head coach Brian Dobie was concerned about how his team would react, starting the second half with the game seemingly out of reach of the Dinos’ claws.
“Football’s a very emotional and very physical game; it’s emotional because it’s so physical, and they were able to keep that emotion up and mostly stay focused and make some good plays (in the second half),” said Dobie. “I don’t think our second half was as good as our first half overall, but it was still a pretty good half.”
Zahara, the third-year quarterback and a law student, spent most of the pre-season living in the shadows of Shane Munson and Jon Hooton, but the surprise retirement of the former and the ineligibility of the latter moved Zahara up the depth chart and into the role of leading the Bisons into a playoff position.
It took until the second quarter for Zahara and the Bisons’ offence to get on track, but once they found their rhythm, the Dinos couldn’t stop them. Zahara passed for two touchdowns, while running 75 yards for a third through the Dinos defense, which was full of holes. Zahara was 15-for-26 with one interception as he racked up 217 passing yards.
“Our defense started out real strong and kept giving us the ball,” said Zahara on the Bisons first win in a season-opener in three years. “On offence it took us a little while to get clicking, but once we got going the wheels started rolling and it was a good feeling.”
Zahara spread the ball around all day as receivers Terry Firr (second-year) and Blair Atkinson (third-year) each recorded a touchdown, while third-year players Brad Black and Neil Fulgueras proved to be reliable targets. Fourth-year running back Darwin Thompson ran for 84 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.
Kicker Peter Scouras was 4-for-5 on the day, hitting field goals from 42 and 12 yards, and two from 37 yards.
The Bisons’ defense held the Dinos at bay in the first quarter, while the offence struggled to get on track, opening the scoring when Khari Joseph intercepted Charles Guedo’s pass and ran it back for the 7-0 lead.
“I was really happy with our defense today,” said Dobie. “Honestly, that was my biggest worry going into the season, particularly the defensive secondary.”
The only big play the Bisons’ defense gave up was a long bomb with the wind from Guedo to Scott McKenna late in the fourth quarter. Dobie said that on many nights last year, the Bisons’ own undoing was giving up huge plays on defense.
Eight of the Dinos’ 10 points came in the fourth quarter as the Bisons sent in John Makie at quarterback to get some playing time with the game already well in hand.
In other Canada West conference action on the weekend, the University of Alberta Golden Bears topped Simon Fraser University 40-18, while the number two-ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies easily knocked off their provincial rival, the University of Regina Rams, 44-7.
The Bisons’ next action is Saturday, Sept. 10 at University Stadium as they host the Huskies at 1 p.m..
