Queen's, Calgary to battle for Vanier Cup

The powerful Laval Rouge et Or could not handle the heat in the Kingston kitchen, falling 33-30 in the Mitchell Bowl to Queen's on Saturday despite a late rally.

With the upset, the fourth-ranked Golden Gaels advanced to the CIS Vanier Cup on Nov. 28 against the No. 2 Calgary Dinos.

Calgary was rarely threatened in a 38-14 Uteck Bowl win over Saint Mary's in Halifax. Matt Walter rushed for 235 yards and two scores to earn most valuable player honours.

The Vanier Cup will take place in Quebec City and pit two schools back in the big game after notable absences. Calgary hasn't been there since winning in 1995, three years after Queen's won in their last appearance.

No. 1 Laval was gunning for its second straight Vanier Cup and fifth in seven years.

The Mitchell matchup was set up as an offensive showdown between top quarterbacks Benoit Groulx and Danny Brannagan, but it was defence and special teams play that made the difference for the winners.

Queen's pressured Groulx en route to seven sacks, four of them credited to Shomari Williams. The Golden Gaels contained the high-powered Rouge et Or in what was a close contest until Jimmy Allin thrilled the Richardson Stadium crowd with a 120-yard touchdown on a missed field goal return in the third.

"That was electric," said Queen's head coach Pat Sheahan. "I thought if there was a backbreaker play, that was it."

On the ensuing kickoff, a gadget play backfired on Laval, resulting in a fumble. Brannagan made the opposition pay, finding Mark Surya for a touchdown and 33-13 lead.

Queen's was much too passive late in the game, however, conceding a safety and allowing Groulx to bring Laval back to within a field goal after touchdown throws to Maxime Beland and Julian Feoli-Gudino, with a successful two-point convert thrown in.

The home team needed a pair of third-down conversions and a key pass deflection from defender Ben D'Andrea to hold off Laval.

Fittingly, Groulx was pressured and stripped of the ball by Frank Pankewich to end all doubt in the final minute.

"I thought the better team won today," said Laval head coach Glenn Constantin, adding that Laval's running game never got on track. "We had our shots, but we didn't take advantage of all of our opportunities."

Laval was set up nicely early in the game when Maxime Berube intercepted a pass in Queen's territory. Chris Ioannides should have had the Brannagan pass, but it deflected off his hands and to the Laval defender.

The Gaels nearly turned the same trick on the next play, but couldn't come up with the interception. They settled for sacking Groulx to limit Laval to a Chris Milo field goal.

Brannagan was incomplete on his first four passes, but drove his side to a touchdown on the next drive. Devan Sheahan caught a pass within centimetres of the goal line, with Jimmy Therrien punching it in for a 7-3 score.

Control the clock

Groulx had been sacked three times by the end of the first, but he got untracked in the second. He hooked up with Beland on a 62-yard play to set up a short touchdown pass to J.S. Haidara.

Brannagan was unbowed, leading his team on a 90-yard scoring drive later in the quarter to retake the lead. Ioannides atoned for the earlier miscue by capping off the drive with a two-yard touchdown reception.

The Gaels then controlled the clock late in the second to set up a Dan Village field goal with no time left in the half for a 17-10 lead.

Queen's kept Laval pinned deep early in the third, leading to a conceded safety and 19-10 score.

Laval started to chip away, however, with a Milo field goal followed by Marc-Antoine Fortin's sack of Brannagan.

Just when it seemed Laval was poised to take over, Milo's field goal miss was returned all the way back by Allin, irrevocably changing the course of the game.

Uteck Bowl 

Calgary gashed the opposition for 426 rushing yards overall.

Walter rumbled 69 yards for the first of two touchdowns on the day to make it 19-0 for Calgary in the first quarter and the Dinos never looked back.

"Going to the Vanier Cup is an honour. It's amazing and it's going to be the greatest time in my life, for sure," said Walter after the game. "We've just got to focus on winning it."

Steven Lambala also ran for a score while racking up 155 yards rushing, while quarterback Erik Glavic connected with Richard Snyder on a 29-yard score.

Saint Mary's was never closer than a dozen points after that.

Glavic earned the Hec Crighton Award, as top CIS player, with Saint Mary's in 2007, but transferred last year to Calgary.

"We came into the week with everyone talking about Glavic and what he could do," said Calgary head coach Blake Nill. "We felt as a coaching staff that we could run the football and that's what we did.

"It was our opinion that they were going to focus mostly on Glavic and we thought maybe we'd better throw them a curve."

Jack Creighton threw a scoring pass to Jahmeek Murray for the Huskies, but also three interceptions. Wyatt Getty picked Creighton off twice, with Michael Lau grabbing the other interception.

Devon Jones, on a short run, scored the other touchdown for the Huskies.