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Canadians in the NCAA: Week 13

Canadians in the NCAA: Week 13

By Michael Preston

There were Canadian winners and losers in action as Central Michigan claimed the Mid-American Conference West Division for a second straight season with a 35-32 win over Akron.

Kito Poblah, Eric Fraser, Greg Woit and the Chippewas will now take on MAC East Division champion Miami on Saturday, December 1 at Ford Field, Detroit, kickoff 11am on ESPN2. But for record-setting Zips wide receiver Jabari Arthur, his impressive college career at Akron is at an end.

Redshirt freshman receiver Poblah (Montreal, QC) caught 2 passes for 34 yards, including a fourth quarter 30-yard touchdown that cut Akron’s lead to five points in a come from behind CMU victory. He made a tough catch at the goal line in traffic to score as the 6-1 (7-5 overall) Chippewas tallied 15 points in the final seven minutes.

Junior Woit (Mississauga, ON) started at right tackle for Central Michigan and sophomore Eric Fraser (Burnaby, BC) started at strong safety, making 4 tackles in the win.

Arthur (Montreal, QC), whose catch for 37 yards on a crucial third down contributed to what had looked like the decisive Akron scoring drive, had 8 catches for 111 yards in defeat. His Zips finished with a 4-8 overall record and 3-5 in the MAC.

Arthur set the UA career record for receiving yards with 2,653, but fell just 40 yards shy of the school’s single season record for receiving yards. He ended the season with an Akron record 86 catches for 1,171 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2007, while ending his career having set UA records for receptions (186).

Boston College ended a 15-game losing streak against Miami to head into the Atlantic Coast Conference title game in Jacksonville, FL, against Virginia Tech on December 1 as Kevin Challenger (Montreal, QC) caught a 5-yard touchdown pass.

Challenger finished the day with 2 grabs for 28 yards and the score on a pass from Matt Ryan, which opened up a 14-point lead in an eventual 28-14 win. The Eagles now have a shot at an appearance in the Orange Bowl.

As Buffalo closed out its MAC campaign with a 5-3 record, and a first place MAC East tie with Bowling Green and Miami, junior Ronald Hilaire (Laval, QC) started at defensive tackle and posted 7 tackles in a 30-23 overtime win against Kent State. Senior James Judges (Pickering, ON) also featured on the Bulls’ defensive line.

As Houston clinched a place in the Texas Bowl at nearby Reliant Stadium (opponent to be determined) sophomore linebacker Shomari Williams (Brampton, ON) recorded 3 tackles and half a sack in a convincing 59-6 win over Texas Southern. The bowl game will be shown on NFL Network at 7pm on December 28.

The Cougars finished the regular season with an 8-4 record recording back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in 17 years.

There was a surprise in the first round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs as Montana went down 23-22 to Wofford. Junior defensive end Mike Stadnyk (Regina, SK) made 2 tackles and recovered a fumble in the loss as 19,761 fans saw the Grizzlies lose for the first time this year.

Senior defensive tackle Keith Shologan (Edmonton, AB) started for UCF and made 2 tackles in a 36-20 win over UTEP that confirmed the Knights will play for the C-USA Championship game against Tulsa this weekend on December 1.

There was a tackle and a sack posted by Fernand Kashama (Toronto, ON) at linebacker for Western Michigan in a 16-3 win over Temple to end the season. Three other players closing out the year were Josh Bean (Calgary, AB), Andrew Woodruff (Victoria, BC) and Jon Gott (Lethbridge, AB) of Boise State, who lost the Western Athletic Conference championship to unbeaten Hawaii in a 39-27 defeat.

Tight end Steve Schmidt caught 3 passes for 33 yards as San Diego State went down 45-33 to TCU, while Joe Eppele played on the offensive line as Washington State won the 100th Apple Cup with a 42-35 over cross-state rival Washington.

As Kansas missed out on the chance to top the BCS polls for the first time with a loss to Missouri, junior Tang Bacheyie (Windsor, ON) saw action at safety and will now wait until December 2 to learn the Jayhawks’ bowl game opponents.