CALGARY – Jet Zakrzewski scored a pair of touchdowns to help the University of Calgary Dinos to a 34-29 win over rival Alberta Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale from McMahon Stadium.
The Dinos finished the season with a 3-5 record. Alberta closes out Year 1 under first-year head coach
Stevenson Bone at 1-7.
Saturday's latest installment of the Battle of Alberta would have had a playoff berth on the line for the winner had Regina defeated UBC on Friday, but the Thunderbirds scored 15 points in the final 1:39 of regulation before winning in overtime to eliminate both the Dinos and Golden Bears from playoff contention.
The Golden Bears were the first in the end zone in this one, capitalizing on a nice drive that featured a handful of unique plays with a 23-yard pass from
Eli Hetlinger to
Brian Davies to give the visitors an 8-3 lead.
The Dinos responded nicely with a six-play, 49-yard scoring drive that was finished off on a two-yard plunge by Evan Smith to close the first with Calgary ahead, 10-9.
Seth Poelzer had a four-yard run for his third score of his rookie campaign, before Zakrzewski's first major of the day to knot the game up at 17-all at the half.
The difference in this one came late in the third. With Alberta leading 20-19, Zakrzewski once again capped off a nice drive with a one-yard scoring run. A two-point conversion from Evan Smith put the Dinos up, 27-20 with 3:31 left in the frame. Fast forward two quick possessions in the game, and Dinos' senior Joel Pipke sent a booming 55-yard punt to the Alberta goal line. The punt was muffed and recovered in the endzone by fellow senior Tyreese Bristol to flip a one-point deficit into a 14-point lead with one quarter to play.
Alberta made things interesting. Hetlinger had a one-yard scoring run of his own to continue the theme of the day, to pull within seven with 8:43 to play.
The Bears got the ball back with 4:14 to play and drove from their own 36 to the Dinos' 18 yard line, but Steen Rasmussen made a nice breakup to force a turnover on downs.
Calgary conceded a safety to play the field position game in the game's dying seconds to finish out the scoring in this one.
David Jordan had another strong performance, finishing with 217 yards passing for Calgary on 20-30 attempts.
Hetlinger went 22-40 for 236 yards and a touchdown for Alberta.
Kolby Hurford was the leading receiver in this one, racking up 101 yards on eight catches.
-UC-