The Huskies are hoping that their luck on home turf continues Oct. 14 when they line up against the league-leading Calgary Dinos for their final home game of the season.

Saskatchewan has yet to lose inside Griffiths Stadium this year, but they will be greatly tested by the undefeated Dinos — earlier this year, the Dinos beat the Dogs 38-24 in Calgary.

“Certainly they are the most well-rounded and experienced team in the conference,” said Huskies head coach Brian Towriss, but “[w]e love playing at home and they don’t like coming here.”

In the previous meeting, Calgary’s offence totalled 523 yards while Saskatchewan only had 177 yards total. The Huskies lack of production on offence meant that Calgary’s offence had more time with the ball and more chances to beat the Huskies defence.

“Whether it was great defence on their part or that we just hung on to the ball too long, we made some mistakes on offence,” said Towriss. “Hopefully now that we’ve got some film on them we can correct it.”

He said that the Huskies will need to limit Calgary’s offensive opportunities.

“We’ve got to keep the ball out of their hands because they’ve got good athletes everywhere on offence.”

“If you miss a coverage or miss a tackle, they’ll make you pay for it,” added Huskies defensive lineman Steve Kovach.

Dinos quarterback Eric Dzwilewski, receiver Chris Dobko and running back Steven Lumbala dominated the Huskies in their last meeting and all three currently sit atop the Canada West leaderboards.

Dzwilewski completed 20 of 28 passes for 255 yards and three touchdowns against the Dogs and is third in the conference with an average 206.2 yards passing per game.

Dobko’s 32 receptions are the most of any receiver in the Canada West this season and he is tied with Lumbala for the most touchdowns in the conference with six. He had 121 yards receiving and two touchdowns the last time he faced the Huskies.

Lumbala, who has six rushing touchdowns this season, is second on the conference’s rushing list with 123.2 average yards rushing per game. He had 107 yards rushing and one touchdown against the Dogs.

“Calgary is just a really solid team all across the board,” said Kovach. “You have to be pretty good when you play them.”

Towriss believes that the Huskies will play much better against Calgary this time around, as they are carrying a lot of momentum from their last game — a 36-33 win over the University of British Columbia — and have a few key defensive players back in the lineup.

“We were a lot better against BC in terms of our execution,” said Towriss. “We’re coming off a much better effort offensively [and] we’re coming back rested and a little bit healthier, so we’re going to take a step forward.”

He said that the return of linebackers Peter Thiel, Tony Michalchuk and Nico Higgs, along with defensive lineman David Rybinski — who all missed at least an entire half against Calgary last time — will allow the Huskies to improve their pressure on the Dinos’ offence.

“Personnel wise I think we’ll be a little bit better,” said Towriss. “We’ve got to provide them with some pressure like we did with Billy Greene,” the quarterback of UBC.

Against UBC, the return of running back Ben Coakwell, who had two touchdowns in the game, combined with a strong performance from the offensive line, allowed the Huskies to total 311 yards rushing — their most all season.

Towriss said the offensive line will have to play much better than they did against Calgary if the Dogs want to have another strong running game.

“We’ll have to block their nose tackle this week, which is something we didn’t do all game against Calgary,” he said. “Those guys will have to be better.”

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Photo: David Moll/UC Athletics