SHAKEUP SATURDAY IN THE CIS

There's pages and pages of notes chronicling the blow-by-blow of the latest Queen's Golden Gaels gridiron schmozzle -- 34-13 on Saturday against the Ottawa Gee-Gees, who to be blunt, weren't any great shakes themselves. That's neither here nor here.

It was Shakeup Saturday in the CIS, with two of the top three ranked teams losing and No. 1 Laval surviving a scare from unheralded Bishop's. As predicted (full disclosure: this was about the only "tough call" that proved accurate), the Laurier Golden Hawks won on the road against McMaster, holding the No.3-ranked Marauders scoreless for the first 50 minutes in a 31-12 win with Jesse Alexander leading the defence and Ryan Lynch, one of 10 Hawks to carry the ball or catch a pass, gashing Mac for 162 yards rushing. Mac quarterback Adam Archibald completed 10 passes -- six by his own guys, four by the Golden Hawks -- before being pulled at halftime due to a concussion. Mac still has to play Western and an emerging Guelph team, and now Archibald and slotback Jon Behie, who often fills in at quarterback, both banged up.

Laurier, Ottawa and Mac are now in a 3-way tie for first in the OUA. No one swept the other two teams in the equation, so when you go to point differential, Laurier is first and Ottawa's second, with Mac in third and facing the possibility of losing out on a first-round bye in the playoffs.

The Hawks should finish on top, what with the University of Toronto and Windsor on their remaining sked. The Gee-Gees host Waterloo (2-4) on Saturday and finish up with, wait for it, the U of T. So Mac probably faces having to play that quarter-final game now.

Oh, and the Manitoba Bisons, the darkhorse in Canada West at the start of the season, is now in first place, one of only three unbeatens left in the country, along with No. 1 Laval and the Concordia Stingers, who should probably move up to No. 4 in this week's CIS rankings (Manitoba at No. 2 and Saskatchewan at No. 3 sounds about right).

Bisons QB John Makie had a great day throwing the ball in the rain (238 yards) and the Bisons rolled 35-23 over the Huskies, who were left to play catch-up all day after falling behind two touchdowns early in the second quarter.

Manitoba may end up No. 2 in next week's CIS poll when all is said and done. Brian Dobie's team doesn't have another tough game until the final regular-season tilt against Alberta. It looks like the U of S will have to be road warriors in the post-season if they wish to play in the Vanier Cup on their home field in late November. That's Canadian football for you.

It was a 9-4 week on the picks -- Manitoba beating the U of S, both Atlantic conference games (congratulations to Mount A, by the way) and the out-on-a-limb Calgary pick (Regina rolled 27-3) were the bugs that bit me in a fairly uncomfortable place, and no, that wasn't the back of a Volkswagen.

Very disappointing... thought long and hard about taking Saint Mary's and Mount Allison, respectively, against Acadia and St. FX, just as there was much thought given to saying Manitoba was ready to knock off Saskatchewan in its own backyard. Taking Calgary was just an impetuous thing. In the end, making the gutless picks won out, and yours truly was duly punished for it.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.