Rouge et Or build on Vanier Cup dynasty
Make fossil fuel out of Dinos en route to sixth title
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/11/2010 (5403 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
QUEBEC — The day before the Laval Rouge et Or won yet another Vanier Cup, head coach Glen Constantin was asked flat out if his powerhouse team would be better off playing in a U.S. college league? Constantin thought about it for a moment, sighed, then shook his head.
“Nah — I don’t think so,” he said Friday. “The only division that would allow a Canadian university team in the NCAA is Division II and there are limitations that would make such a thing very difficult. For one, all the teams at Laval would have to go, and that’s just not in our university’s philosophy.
“What I’d like is to see a day where the top teams in Canada could make a Division I,” Constantin added. “That would be more feasible.”
But would it be more competitive?
Competition wasn’t in the mix at the 46th Vanier Cup on Saturday as the top-ranked Rouge et Or played near-flawless football in a 29-2 victory over the Calgary Dinos before a sellout crowd of 16,237 on a snowy afternoon at Stade PEPS in Quebec City. It completed a perfect 13-0 season for the Rouge et Or, who became only the second team (joining Toronto) to win a Vanier Cup in front of a hometown crowd.
Calgary, the Canada West conference champions, rolled into Quebec City for a matchup that was expected to be one of the best in Vanier Cup history, with Constantin predicting it would be his team’s toughest test of the season. But that wasn’t the case as Laval rolled to its sixth Vanier Cup championship, led by tailback Sebastien Levesque — who rushed 30 times for 168 yards and a touchdown — and a stifling defence.
Calgary’s only two points came when Laval conceded a safety rather than punting from its own end zone.
“This is a dynasty,” said Laval quarterback Bruno Prud’homme, a fourth-year veteran from Lasalle, Que., who completed 10 of 13 passes for 163 yards and a touchdown. “We’re a big team with a big coaching staff in a big city. It’s tough to come in here and win.”
It was a record-setting fifth Vanier Cup as head coach for Constantin as the Rouge et Or extended their home winning streak to 44 games, dating back to 2004.
The Rouge et Or scored on six of their first nine possessions to roll to a 26-2 lead by halftime, including a 40-yard touchdown romp through the snow by Levesque at 4:27 of the first quarter. The third-year running back from Brossard, Que., earned the Ted Morris Memorial Trophy as Vanier Cup MVP.
“(Coach) told all the players before the game just to give their best today and I was ready to give all I (could),” Levesque said.
The Dinos returned home knowing they had been beaten by the best and realizing what has to be done to get better. “It just shows you their model has superseded the rest of the country,” Calgary head coach Blake Nill said. “Every now and then a team gets close and they lose (to Laval), but the consistency with which they win makes it difficult.”
— Postmedia News