Jack Gutek appeared to make an incredible sideline catch in the back of the endzone as time expired, but he was ruled out of bounds as the Manitoba Bisons escaped with a 22-17 win over the Calgary Dinos football team Saturday afternoon from McMahon Stadium.
Calgary (1-3) held a 17-8 lead through three quarters, but the fifth-ranked Bisons (4-0) found the endzone twice in final frame and held a five-point edge with 1:26 left to play.
Starting from their own six-yard line, the Dinos quickly moved the ball down the field and a nine-yard catch by Ben Britton put the ball on the Manitoba 18-yard line with time for just one more play. Dom Britton took the snap, rolled left and lofted the ball over the outstretched arms of the defender where Gutek hauled it in but was ruled out of bounds.
“What I saw was an offence that was starting to click a little bit when it mattered at the end of the game,” Calgary head coach Ryan Sheahan said postgame. “I thought our quarterback made a hell of a throw to the back of the endzone and we had an All-Canadian style play taken away from a very good player. He (Gutek) had a couple plays earlier in the game where he was not at his best, and then he comes in on the last play of the game and make an All-Canadian brand of catch. I can’t be too judgmental. It looked like he was in bounds. The video showed he was in bounds. Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way.”
The Dinos were first on the board with a pair of singles before an 18-yard run by Breydon Stubbs gave the Bisons a 7-2 edge after one.
Calgary responded with a pair of touchdowns of their own as Evan Smith plowed in from three yards out before Matthieu Clarke took a screen pass 40 yards to the house to make it 15-7 at the half.
The third quarter proved to be a field position battle before the Bisons were able to find their rhythm in the fourth. Jaxon Tachinski had scoring runs of 14 and four yards sandwiching a Ben George rouge to give the visitors a 22-17 lead and setting up that final Dinos drive.
D. Britton finished the day going 22-39 for 270 yards, one touchdown pass and one interception. He also was very efficient on the ground in this one, running the ball five times for 57 yards.
Clarke had a game-high 89 yards rushing on 13 carries to go with 44 yards receiving and the touchdown.
Luke Gutek led all pass catchers on the day with 87 yards on five catches, while B. Britton had 85 yards on seven receptions.
Calgary’s offence out-gained Manitoba’s 430-329 on the day, as the Bisons finished with just 132 yards through the air but churned out 237 on the ground.
“I thought we made some strides offensively,” Sheahan said. “That was another performance where we’ve got some things we can be proud of but also some things that we still need to work on.”
“I thought the difference in the game is we didn’t play well enough for three points at the end of the first half, and I take responsibility for that. And then we had a couple special teams’ errors that kind of cost us. But that’s about team – that’s not one player or one coordinator or the head coach, that’s about everybody. We’ll have to get back to work and roll up our sleeves because I’m sure UBC will be fired up to come back to Calgary.”
The Dinos welcome UBC to McMahon Stadium next Saturday for another 2 p.m. kickoff. Meanwhile, Manitoba returns home to take on Regina also on Saturday.