HAMILTON—Kyle Quinlan is Canada’s best college football player, a notion which should be confirmed next Thursday when he pockets the 2012 Hec Crighton Trophy.

On Saturday, the McMaster Marauders quarterback showed why.

Quinlan, the undisputed leader of the No. 1 Marauders, carved up Calgary’s third-ranked defence, throwing for three touchdowns and rushing for three more as McMaster overwhelmed the No. 3 Dinos 45-6 in the Mitchell Bowl, the national semifinal.

With the victory, McMaster’s CIS-record 21st straight, the Marauders advance to next Friday’s Vanier Cup at the Rogers Centre. They will meet the No. 2 Laval Rouge et Or.

The two teams met last year as well with the Marauders prevailing 41-38 in double overtime, one of the most exciting national championship games ever played.

“He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen at this level,” McMaster head coach Stefan Ptaszek said of Quinlan, who picked up game MVP honours. “He does it so many different ways.

“The bigger the game, the better he plays. That’s for his entire career, that’s not just once or twice. He comes up big on the biggest stages.”

Quinlan — who was also game MVP in last year’s Ontario final, national semifinal and Vanier Cup, leading McMaster to its first national title — was 25 of 35 for 412 yards through the air. He also ran 11 times for 50 yards.

“I don’t know the numbers,” Quinlan, a fifth-year player, said when asked about his own performance. “I’m proud of the whole team effort. We expect a lot of ourselves offensively but to see the defence fly around like that was really, really exciting.”

Calgary came in with the country’s top-ranked offence, led by quarterback Eric Dzwilewski. But the Marauders never allowed the Canada West MVP and Hec Crighton nominee to get any rhythm, chasing him in the third quarter after he went 10 for 21 for 114 yards. Backup Andrew Buckley was 10 for 15 for 66 yards and an interception.

Calgary had just 200 yards of offence on the day, compared to 486 for McMaster.

“We could not get any momentum established offensively and basically what happened was the defence hung strong for a while and eventually started to break a bit,” said Dinos head coach Blake Nill. “Quinlan had a great day. He was just too good for us.”

Earlier Saturday, Laval won its 58th straight home game, dismantling the No. 9 Acadia Axemen 42-7 in Quebec City. It’s the third consecutive appearance in the Vanier Cup for the Rouge et Or and fourth in five years. They won in 2010 and 2008.

Laval quarterback Tristan Grenon threw for 268 yards and three touchdowns, while running back Maxime Boutin scampered for 213 yards in the dominating victory.

Quinlan brought the sellout crowd of 5,442 fans at Ron Joyce Stadium to their feet on the final play of the first quarter with a one-yard run that put Mac ahead to stay, 7-3. He added another one-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter, then hit Brad Fochesato over the top for a picturesque 61-yard pass play to make it 24-4 at the half.

Any thoughts of a Calgary comeback were eliminated after Quinlan scampered 11 yards to cap the opening drive of the third quarter. He closed out the day with fourth quarter TD passes of 31 yards to Robert Babic and 16 yards to Mike DiCroce.

“He’s the best player in the country, hands down,” said Babic, who led the team with 10 catches for 156 yards. “He’s putting the ball exactly where it’s needed and that makes our job as receivers a lot easier. We rally around him every single game.”

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McMaster’s last loss was to the Western Mustangs in the second week of last season.

Ptaszek, a former CFL wide receiver who won the 1991 Vanier Cup with the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, said a win on Friday would set his team apart.

“No program has won two (consecutive Vanier Cups) and 22 straight,” Ptaszek said. “They could set themselves up for old guys like myself in the bar to talk about the greatest team ever. They deserve to be in the conversation.”

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