Winnipeg, Manitoba - Manitoba Bisons Football vs UofS Huskies CIS regular season action September 24. Jeff Miller Bison Sports ©2016
The Manitoba Bisons rallied to score 28 unanswered points in a 38-17 win over the rival Saskatchewan Huskies in the school’s annual Homecoming Game Saturday afternoon at Investors Group Field.
The victory, witnessed by 1,846 at IGF, improves the Bisons to 2-2 after an 0-2 start. The Huskies, meanwhile, have dropped two straight to fall to 2-2, meaning both teams are now tied for third in the Canada West Conference standings at the halfway point of the regular season.
The game shifted in the second half after the Huskies built up a 17-13 advantage and the Bisons regrouped to produce the only scoring in the second half with three touchdowns and a short field goal while shutting out Saskatchewan.
“All units played well,” said Bisons head coach Brian Dobie.
“We imposed our will in the second half and the team stepped up to win it.”
Coach Brian Dobie
The Bisons were led by another spectacular effort by Bisons quarterback Theo Deezar who threw for 447 yards – fourth highest in school history – including TD passes to Macho Bockru, Shai Ross and Marquise Thomspon. It was Deezar’s fifth 400-yard passing game in 12 regular season contests.
“We knew we had to score touchdowns in the second half,” Deezar said. “The offence picked it up and it’s hard to describe, but we really wanted the win today.”
Manitoba’s work at the line of scrimmage was big, as the offensive line did not surrender a sack against the Huskies, who came into the game with a league-leading seven, while the defence limited Saskatchewan to just 99 yards total offence in the second half.
The Bisons opened the scoring on the Bockru TD, only to have the Huskies claw back to score 17 of the next 20 on scores by Tyler Chow and a 20-yard TD pass from Kyle Siemens to Ben Getzlaf.
Deezar was officially 28-42 for 447 yards, slotback Jesse Walker had 120 receiving yards on six catches, while Shai Ross had his third consecutive 100-yard game with 113 receiving yards on five receptions. Alex Christie also chipped in with a rushing TD. Linebacker DJ Lalama had a game-high 8.5 tackles while Bami Adewale had 6.5 tackles and Quinton Bowles added two sacks.
The Bisons finished with 559 offence yards and led 28-20 in first downs.
Individually, Saskatchewan split the duties at the quarterback position. Siemens played for three quarters and went 18-for-31 for 161 yards and one TD, while Drew Burko finished 3-for-9 for 30 yards. Tyler Chow cranked out a game-high 153 rushing yards on 16 carries while Julian Lynch was top receiver for Saskatchewan with eight catches for 75 yards. On defence, defensive back Jacob Solie and linebacker Ben Whiting each had 6.5 tackles.
Game Notes:
Since the inception of the annual Homecoming Game in 1999, the Bisons are now 10-5 and have won all four games played at Investors Group Field (Oct. 2/15: W 34-19 over Regina; Sept. 20/14: W 20-10 over UBC; Sept. 28/13: W 34-15 over Regina).
At halftime, hundreds of University of Manitoba students helped celebrate a commitment of $15.9 million to the Front and Centre campaign, announced by University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) president Tanjit Nagra. The student support has propelled the campaign past the $400 million mark.
Up next in week five action, Saskatchewan (2-2) travels on the road to play at the Regina Rams (3-1) on Saturday, October 1. Manitoba (2-2) goes on the road to play the defending CIS champion UBC Thunderbirds on Friday, September 30 at 6 p.m. PT.
