Footballers destroyed

By Britany Bingham

Wow! Pretty much all I can say is wow. On a warm evening in Vancouver Fri., Sept. 30, at what’s known as the mud bowl or the University of British Columbia Field, something unbelievable happened: the last place UBC Thunderbirds (0-3) massacred the fourth place Dinos (2-2). The major upset ended with a score of 43-4 for the Thunderbirds.

“Football is an incredible game. Sometimes it’s so incredible, it’s unbelievable,” said defensive co-captain Scott Thompson. “Most coaches tell us you don’t necessarily have to win it, but just don’t lose it. We defiantly lost it this game. We fell apart.”

It was the first quarter that really killed the Dinos. If you take out the first quarter, it would only have been a 14-point game.

In the first 15 minutes of the game, UBC managed to score three touchdowns and kick a field goal, putting the score at 24-0. By the end of the first half, UBC had managed to score one more touchdown and another field goal. The only points for the Dinos were from safeties the other team gave them.

As an avid Dinos fan, all one can ask is what the hell happened?

Backup quarterback Mike McPherson started this game because starting quarterback Charles Guedo was injured. As a first-year player, McPherson performed fairly well–all things considered. He finished the game with four of 14 passes completed for 67 yards, with one interception. Unfortunately he was sacked five times.

“Getting down so early in the game made it almost impossible to follow the game plan the coaches set out for us,” said McPherson. “We had some mental break downs on both sides of the ball. I played okay. I missed some reads, but I’m going to chock it up to experience. I haven’t started in a game in over a year. It’s been a long time.”

Guedo made a quick guest appearance in the second quarter completing eight of 16 passes for 107 yards. Steven Hughes led the rushing again, however, was only able to accumulate 79 yards–far short of his 268 yards from previous game. Andrew Lunse led the receiving core with four catches for 52 yards.

“It was tough because they stole the momentum right away,” he explained. “It really changed the way we reacted. At that point all you can do is take it one play at a time and take after it. We took some shots; some worked, and some didn’t. We just couldn’t get the machine going. It was very disappointing.”

On defense, David Gruninger led the team with 10 solo tackles bringing his season total to 23.

“We had small breakdowns all over the field that resulted in big plays being made on us,” he said. “If we can fix those small errors, we might be able to take away those big plays next game.”

The Dinos get a chance to prove this was a one-time performance after a week off. Our provincial rivals the University of Alberta Golden Bears come to McMahon Stadium for a 1 p.m. game Sat., Oct. 15.