September 20, 2008
OUA FOOTBALL ROUNDUP
A showdown between undefeated teams will take place Sat., Sept. 27 in Kingston as the No. 2 Western Mustangs visit the No. 4 Queen’s Gaels on University Rush on The Score.
Western and Queen’s kept their aspirations for a perfect season alive with huge victories in the provincial capital. The Mustangs blanked the York Lions 71-0 while the Gaels crushed the Toronto Varsity Blues 58-14.
In other OUA scores, No. 5 Ottawa Gee-Gees easily handled the Waterloo Warriors 59-0; the McMaster Marauders pulled a rabbit out of their hat against the Guelph Gryphons, winning 32-31; and the Laurier Golden Hawks shut down the Windsor Lancers 33-18.
NO. 2 WESTERN 71, YORK 0
TORONTO, Ont. – Defensive back Cory Watson intercepted a long bomb York pass with four seconds left in the game to lift Western to a 71-0 win over the host York Lions on Sept. 20.
It was an exclamation point. An emphatic message to the rest of the CIS football schools that Western means business. And it was the 50th career regular season win for Western Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall.
Watson’s touchdown capped off an impressive shutout performance from the Western defence, their first since Western blanked Windsor 49-0 on Sept. 29, 2007, at Homecoming.
Michael Faulds (Eden Mills, Ont.) threw five touchdown passes and a total of 370 yards to lift the Mustangs to the victory. He also passed the 7,000-yard milestone, becoming the second quarterback in Western history to achieve the feat.
Running back John Leckie (Georgetown, Ont.) ran in two touchdowns and caught one Faulds touchdown pass for the trifecta, while Nick Pasic (London, Ont.) caught four touchdown passes in the victory.
It was a fast game, complete in just over two and a half hours - probably not quick enough for the Lions, a team which falls to 0-4 and is already in danger of missing the playoffs.
The Mustangs (4-0) scored on their first two offensive possessions and never looked back. Faulds handed off to Leckie on the opening possession from eight yards out to give Western the 7-0 lead. Then Faulds hit Pasic from seven yards out, the first of four connections between the two, and Western was up 14-0.
Faulds then threw a touchdown pass to Leckie from five yards out to make the score 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Early in the second, Faulds found Pasic again, this time a 17-yard hook-up, and Western extended the lead to 28-0.
After York conceded a safety to give Western the 30-0 lead, Pasic caught a 10-yard Faulds pass to make it 37-0, a score that stood up at the half. In the start of the second half, York conceded two safeties to extend the Western lead to 41-0 before Faulds found Pasic for their fourth touchdown connection of the day, a 54-yard catch and run to make it 48-0 Mustangs.
This ended the day for Faulds, and Donnie Marshall (London, Ont.) saw some action with the game already decided.
Marshall marched Western into the red zone and saw touchdown runs from Leckie, from one-yard out, and Eric Willson (LaSalle, Ont.) from two-yards out, to build a 62-0 lead.
York conceded another safety before Watson (London, Ont.) returned the York interception 48 yards for the score and the 71-0 final.
Source: Mustangs Athletics
NO. 4 QUEEN'S 58, TORONTO 14
The University of Toronto Varsity Blues (2-2) fell to the Queen's University Gaels 58-14 in front of a crowd of 1,851 at Varsity Centre on Sat., Sept. 20.
The Blues came out hungry for a touchdown, looking to score early. On the first play of the opening drive, Mark Stinson (Calgary, Alta.) took a hand-off from quarterback David Hamilton (Mississauga, Ont.) and threw to a wide open Drew Meerveld (Guelph, Ont.) for a touchdown. However, it was called back on a holding penalty.
On the ensuing drive, Gaels running back Mike Giffin (Kingston, Ont.) took full advantage of his opportunities, breaking tackles for a 74-yard dash down the field that would eventually result in a Queen's touchdown.
"I don't think we recovered from the penalty," said Varsity Blues football head coach Greg DeLaval. "It was our intention to try and score early, and we did, but we didn't recover mentally. Queen's ran the ball well, passed the ball well, and we just couldn't stop them."
Gaels (4-0) doubled their lead five minutes later when Giffin added his second major of the day on another crafty 35-yard run.
The Blues responded quickly when fifth-year co-captain Stinson capped off a 66-yard drive with a four-yard run to cut the lead in half at the end of the first quarter.
"We've not peaked as a team," said Queen's head coach Pat Sheehan. "We still have room to improve. If we are to be contenders, we've got to clean some things up."
The Dan Brannagan-Giffin duo each added another touchdown for the Gaels in the second quarter. Fifth-year receiver Scott Valberg (Kingston, Ont.) was on the receiving end of a 53-yard pass from Brannagan, putting the Gaels up 37-7 at halftime.
Giffin and Valberg would each add another before Hamilton connected with Earl Johnson (Baltimore, Md.) on a 33-yard pass for the Blues second score of the game.
"We came out flat," said Blues first-year wide receiver Johnson. "We made a lot of mistakes and you just can't do that against a good team like Queen's."
Source: Varsity Blues Athletics
NO. 5 OTTAWA 59, WATERLOO 0
OTTAWA, Ont. - Fifth-year all-star quarterback Josh Sacobie threw for a career-high six touchdowns over three quarters and third-year transfer receiver Ron Kelly (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) caught three scores Saturday as the No. 5 Ottawa Gee-Gees (3-1) ran roughshod over Waterloo 59-0.
The Gee-Gees improved to 3-1 without CIS leading receiver Ivan Birungi of Pickering, Ont. (foot), a fifth-year transfer, en route to winning a eighth straight regular season home game.
Sacobie, of the St. Mary's First Nation near Fredericton, now has 75 career touchdown passes to extend his Ontario conference record and move within 12 of the CIS all-time record set by Chris Flynn of Saint Mary's in 1990.
"It had nothing to do with running the score up," said Sacobie.
Three Gee-Gees receivers finished with over 100 yards - Kelly (6-128), third-year converted quarterback Cyril Adjeity (Ghana) (8-122) and fifth-year offensive captain Justin Wood-Roy (Morin-Heights, Que.) (8-111).
Sacobie, who finished 23-31 for 371 yards before giving way to backup Brad Sinopoli (Peterborough, Ont.) in the fourth quarter, opened the game with his 70th and 71st career scores on the Gee-Gees opening two series - 46 yards to wide open Kelly and a 25-yard strike to Adjeity.
Kelly caught a two-yard score on the Gee-Gees opening drive of the second quarter to go with third-year running back Davie Mason's (Brampton, Ont.) 39-yard touchdown rush and pair of conceded safeties as the Gee-Gees to built a 39-0 lead at the half.
Sacobie won for the 31st time in 41 career starts and continued to score seemingly at will in the third quarter with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Wood-Roy and from 11 yards to Kelly for his third score after returning from a two-game absence with an ankle injury.
"I pushed all week in practice," said Kelly. "I was able to do something today."
The Gee-Gees defence came up with three interceptions - including a Trevor Schroer (Richmond Hill, Ont.) end zone pickoff with under minutes left in regulation - and six sacks for the team's most dominant win against the Warrior's since a series-opening 50-0 victory in 1957. The Gee-Gees had 702 net yards to 188 for the Warriors.
'We haven't had our A-team together and playing yet," said Gee-Gees head coach Denis Piche. "Hopefully next week we get everybody back."
The Warriors (1-3), with nine rookies age 17, had open field to score with under two minutes left in the third quarter but fourth-year receiver Sean Cowie (Burlington, Ont.) fumbled on the Ottawa one-yard-line and the Gee-Gees recovered.
"They learned a valuable lesson about seeing what a good team looks like," said Warriors offensive coordinator Joe Paopao.
Source: Gee-Gees Athletics
MCMASTER 32, GUELPH 31
GUELPH, Ont. - McMaster quarterback Ryan Fantham (London, Ont.) threw four touchdowns including a clutch 52-yard bomb to Andrew Ross (Burlington, Ont.) with 58 seconds left in the game as the Marauders came from behind to defeat the Guelph Gryphons, 32-31 in front of 7,200 fans at Guelph's Alumni Stadium on Saturday afternoon as seen on University Rush on The Score. The win was McMaster's first of the season after dropping their first three contests. Guelph fell to 1-3 on the year.
Guelph kicker Rob Maver (Brampton, Ont.) missed a 45-yard field goal attempt wide to the right with 17 seconds left on the clock which would have put the Gryphons ahead of the Marauders in the dying seconds.
Fantham finished the game off going 24-for-42 for 283 yards while Ross caught seven of those passes for 125 yards and one touchdown.
In front of a boisterous homecoming crowd, Guelph quarterback Justin Dunk (Guelph, Ont.) got the game rolling late in the first quarter when he ran in a four yard touchdown on a bootleg play to put the home team up 7-0. McMaster answered the call four minutes later when Fantham hit receiver Josh Kreidl (Hamilton, Ont.) in the end zone for a 13-yard score.
Although it would seem that Guelph was going to get some momentum on their side after forcing a McMaster punt, things took a turn for the worst as sure-handed Sean Riley (Burlington, Ont.) dropped the incoming punt which was subsequently recovered by McMaster at the Guelph nine-yard line. Fantham would capitalize on the Guelph turnover finding wideout Matt Peressini (Hannon, Ont.) in the end zone for the touchdown. Before the half was over both teams would exchange field goals to put the Marauders up 18-10 heading into the locker room.
The second half saw a brighter offensive output for Guelph as late in the third quarter Dunk would find a streaking Jedd Gardner (Niagara Falls, ON) over the middle with a 22-yard pass. The Gryphon defence continued the momentum and stepped up a few minutes later as safety Jamie Shaw (Mississauga, Ont.) picked off a Fantham pass and returned it 27 yards for the score.
With the scoreboard reading 24-18 the Gryphons continued their success in the second half as Dunk once again found the speedster Gardner sprinting down the right sideline uncovered for a 58 yard pass-and-run touchdown. Gardner would finish the day with six catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns.
With a sizable lead of 13 points early in the final quarter it would seem as though Guelph was on its way to their second victory of the season. However, McMaster answered with 3:28 left in the game when Fantham threw his third score of the game, this time to Kevin D'Hollander (London, Ont.) from five yards out to lesson the gap to six points.
As Guelph got the ball back at roughly their 40-yard line, Dunk rolled out to the right, and with pressure in his face he threw an interception into the hands of a waiting Marauder reserve defensive back Harrison Jones (Aurora, Ont.) With the ball back in their possession and faced with a third-and-five situation, Fantham threw a bomb down the middle of the field to a wide open Ross to put the Marauders up by one.
The Gryphons proceeded to respond by marching their offence down the field into field goal range. The ensuing missed field goal attempt would sail wide right and a heart-broken Guelph squad left the field with their third loss of the year, dropping to a 1-3 regular season record.
The Marauder defence was led by Ryan Chmielewski and his seven solo tackles and five assists.
Source: Gryphons Athletics
LAURIER 33, WINDSOR 18
WATERLOO, Ont. – The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks compiled 481 yards of offence against the visiting Windsor Lancers defeating them 33-18 in front of a boisterous Homecoming crowd of 8,249 at University Stadium.
"We executed on our plan, and that was a huge key for us," said Manager of Football Operations and Head Coach Gary Jeffries. "We moved the ball on offence today and got the stops we need to on defence."
Luke Thompson (London, Ont.) threw for 302 yards and two touchdowns as well as running for another 47 yards. His primary targets were Josh Bishop (Mississauga, Ont.) and Shamawd Chambers (Markham, Ont.) who had 132 yards and 76 yards respectively as well as a touchdown a piece. Chambers also ran for 23 yards and a TD.
CIS record holder Daryl Stephenson (London, Ont.) was held to 61 yards on ten attempts by a stingy Hawk rush defence which only gave up 81 total yards on the ground. The Lancers attacked the Hawks secondary, with Jordan Brescacain (Tecumseh, Ont.) racking up 104 yards on four catches, including one 50 yard reception. Windsor (2-2) threw for a total of 262 yards.
The turning point of the game came when Laurier was down 15-8 with 1:31 before the half and Thompson engineered a 12-play drive into the end zone. The final two plays were a 21-yard reception to Chambers and a 29-yard catch for Bishop and the score to tie up the game.
In the second half, the Golden Hawks (2-2) continued to march the ball up field scoring twice on runs by Chambers and Ryan Lynch (Waterloo, Ont.). Then the Laurier defence stepped up and shut down the Lancers passing game.
Source: Golden Hawks Athletics
Western and Queen’s kept their aspirations for a perfect season alive with huge victories in the provincial capital. The Mustangs blanked the York Lions 71-0 while the Gaels crushed the Toronto Varsity Blues 58-14.
In other OUA scores, No. 5 Ottawa Gee-Gees easily handled the Waterloo Warriors 59-0; the McMaster Marauders pulled a rabbit out of their hat against the Guelph Gryphons, winning 32-31; and the Laurier Golden Hawks shut down the Windsor Lancers 33-18.
NO. 2 WESTERN 71, YORK 0
TORONTO, Ont. – Defensive back Cory Watson intercepted a long bomb York pass with four seconds left in the game to lift Western to a 71-0 win over the host York Lions on Sept. 20.
It was an exclamation point. An emphatic message to the rest of the CIS football schools that Western means business. And it was the 50th career regular season win for Western Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall.
Watson’s touchdown capped off an impressive shutout performance from the Western defence, their first since Western blanked Windsor 49-0 on Sept. 29, 2007, at Homecoming.
Michael Faulds (Eden Mills, Ont.) threw five touchdown passes and a total of 370 yards to lift the Mustangs to the victory. He also passed the 7,000-yard milestone, becoming the second quarterback in Western history to achieve the feat.
Running back John Leckie (Georgetown, Ont.) ran in two touchdowns and caught one Faulds touchdown pass for the trifecta, while Nick Pasic (London, Ont.) caught four touchdown passes in the victory.
It was a fast game, complete in just over two and a half hours - probably not quick enough for the Lions, a team which falls to 0-4 and is already in danger of missing the playoffs.
The Mustangs (4-0) scored on their first two offensive possessions and never looked back. Faulds handed off to Leckie on the opening possession from eight yards out to give Western the 7-0 lead. Then Faulds hit Pasic from seven yards out, the first of four connections between the two, and Western was up 14-0.
Faulds then threw a touchdown pass to Leckie from five yards out to make the score 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Early in the second, Faulds found Pasic again, this time a 17-yard hook-up, and Western extended the lead to 28-0.
After York conceded a safety to give Western the 30-0 lead, Pasic caught a 10-yard Faulds pass to make it 37-0, a score that stood up at the half. In the start of the second half, York conceded two safeties to extend the Western lead to 41-0 before Faulds found Pasic for their fourth touchdown connection of the day, a 54-yard catch and run to make it 48-0 Mustangs.
This ended the day for Faulds, and Donnie Marshall (London, Ont.) saw some action with the game already decided.
Marshall marched Western into the red zone and saw touchdown runs from Leckie, from one-yard out, and Eric Willson (LaSalle, Ont.) from two-yards out, to build a 62-0 lead.
York conceded another safety before Watson (London, Ont.) returned the York interception 48 yards for the score and the 71-0 final.
Source: Mustangs Athletics
NO. 4 QUEEN'S 58, TORONTO 14
The University of Toronto Varsity Blues (2-2) fell to the Queen's University Gaels 58-14 in front of a crowd of 1,851 at Varsity Centre on Sat., Sept. 20.
The Blues came out hungry for a touchdown, looking to score early. On the first play of the opening drive, Mark Stinson (Calgary, Alta.) took a hand-off from quarterback David Hamilton (Mississauga, Ont.) and threw to a wide open Drew Meerveld (Guelph, Ont.) for a touchdown. However, it was called back on a holding penalty.
On the ensuing drive, Gaels running back Mike Giffin (Kingston, Ont.) took full advantage of his opportunities, breaking tackles for a 74-yard dash down the field that would eventually result in a Queen's touchdown.
"I don't think we recovered from the penalty," said Varsity Blues football head coach Greg DeLaval. "It was our intention to try and score early, and we did, but we didn't recover mentally. Queen's ran the ball well, passed the ball well, and we just couldn't stop them."
Gaels (4-0) doubled their lead five minutes later when Giffin added his second major of the day on another crafty 35-yard run.
The Blues responded quickly when fifth-year co-captain Stinson capped off a 66-yard drive with a four-yard run to cut the lead in half at the end of the first quarter.
"We've not peaked as a team," said Queen's head coach Pat Sheehan. "We still have room to improve. If we are to be contenders, we've got to clean some things up."
The Dan Brannagan-Giffin duo each added another touchdown for the Gaels in the second quarter. Fifth-year receiver Scott Valberg (Kingston, Ont.) was on the receiving end of a 53-yard pass from Brannagan, putting the Gaels up 37-7 at halftime.
Giffin and Valberg would each add another before Hamilton connected with Earl Johnson (Baltimore, Md.) on a 33-yard pass for the Blues second score of the game.
"We came out flat," said Blues first-year wide receiver Johnson. "We made a lot of mistakes and you just can't do that against a good team like Queen's."
Source: Varsity Blues Athletics
NO. 5 OTTAWA 59, WATERLOO 0
OTTAWA, Ont. - Fifth-year all-star quarterback Josh Sacobie threw for a career-high six touchdowns over three quarters and third-year transfer receiver Ron Kelly (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) caught three scores Saturday as the No. 5 Ottawa Gee-Gees (3-1) ran roughshod over Waterloo 59-0.
The Gee-Gees improved to 3-1 without CIS leading receiver Ivan Birungi of Pickering, Ont. (foot), a fifth-year transfer, en route to winning a eighth straight regular season home game.
Sacobie, of the St. Mary's First Nation near Fredericton, now has 75 career touchdown passes to extend his Ontario conference record and move within 12 of the CIS all-time record set by Chris Flynn of Saint Mary's in 1990.
"It had nothing to do with running the score up," said Sacobie.
Three Gee-Gees receivers finished with over 100 yards - Kelly (6-128), third-year converted quarterback Cyril Adjeity (Ghana) (8-122) and fifth-year offensive captain Justin Wood-Roy (Morin-Heights, Que.) (8-111).
Sacobie, who finished 23-31 for 371 yards before giving way to backup Brad Sinopoli (Peterborough, Ont.) in the fourth quarter, opened the game with his 70th and 71st career scores on the Gee-Gees opening two series - 46 yards to wide open Kelly and a 25-yard strike to Adjeity.
Kelly caught a two-yard score on the Gee-Gees opening drive of the second quarter to go with third-year running back Davie Mason's (Brampton, Ont.) 39-yard touchdown rush and pair of conceded safeties as the Gee-Gees to built a 39-0 lead at the half.
Sacobie won for the 31st time in 41 career starts and continued to score seemingly at will in the third quarter with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Wood-Roy and from 11 yards to Kelly for his third score after returning from a two-game absence with an ankle injury.
"I pushed all week in practice," said Kelly. "I was able to do something today."
The Gee-Gees defence came up with three interceptions - including a Trevor Schroer (Richmond Hill, Ont.) end zone pickoff with under minutes left in regulation - and six sacks for the team's most dominant win against the Warrior's since a series-opening 50-0 victory in 1957. The Gee-Gees had 702 net yards to 188 for the Warriors.
'We haven't had our A-team together and playing yet," said Gee-Gees head coach Denis Piche. "Hopefully next week we get everybody back."
The Warriors (1-3), with nine rookies age 17, had open field to score with under two minutes left in the third quarter but fourth-year receiver Sean Cowie (Burlington, Ont.) fumbled on the Ottawa one-yard-line and the Gee-Gees recovered.
"They learned a valuable lesson about seeing what a good team looks like," said Warriors offensive coordinator Joe Paopao.
Source: Gee-Gees Athletics
MCMASTER 32, GUELPH 31
GUELPH, Ont. - McMaster quarterback Ryan Fantham (London, Ont.) threw four touchdowns including a clutch 52-yard bomb to Andrew Ross (Burlington, Ont.) with 58 seconds left in the game as the Marauders came from behind to defeat the Guelph Gryphons, 32-31 in front of 7,200 fans at Guelph's Alumni Stadium on Saturday afternoon as seen on University Rush on The Score. The win was McMaster's first of the season after dropping their first three contests. Guelph fell to 1-3 on the year.
Guelph kicker Rob Maver (Brampton, Ont.) missed a 45-yard field goal attempt wide to the right with 17 seconds left on the clock which would have put the Gryphons ahead of the Marauders in the dying seconds.
Fantham finished the game off going 24-for-42 for 283 yards while Ross caught seven of those passes for 125 yards and one touchdown.
In front of a boisterous homecoming crowd, Guelph quarterback Justin Dunk (Guelph, Ont.) got the game rolling late in the first quarter when he ran in a four yard touchdown on a bootleg play to put the home team up 7-0. McMaster answered the call four minutes later when Fantham hit receiver Josh Kreidl (Hamilton, Ont.) in the end zone for a 13-yard score.
Although it would seem that Guelph was going to get some momentum on their side after forcing a McMaster punt, things took a turn for the worst as sure-handed Sean Riley (Burlington, Ont.) dropped the incoming punt which was subsequently recovered by McMaster at the Guelph nine-yard line. Fantham would capitalize on the Guelph turnover finding wideout Matt Peressini (Hannon, Ont.) in the end zone for the touchdown. Before the half was over both teams would exchange field goals to put the Marauders up 18-10 heading into the locker room.
The second half saw a brighter offensive output for Guelph as late in the third quarter Dunk would find a streaking Jedd Gardner (Niagara Falls, ON) over the middle with a 22-yard pass. The Gryphon defence continued the momentum and stepped up a few minutes later as safety Jamie Shaw (Mississauga, Ont.) picked off a Fantham pass and returned it 27 yards for the score.
With the scoreboard reading 24-18 the Gryphons continued their success in the second half as Dunk once again found the speedster Gardner sprinting down the right sideline uncovered for a 58 yard pass-and-run touchdown. Gardner would finish the day with six catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns.
With a sizable lead of 13 points early in the final quarter it would seem as though Guelph was on its way to their second victory of the season. However, McMaster answered with 3:28 left in the game when Fantham threw his third score of the game, this time to Kevin D'Hollander (London, Ont.) from five yards out to lesson the gap to six points.
As Guelph got the ball back at roughly their 40-yard line, Dunk rolled out to the right, and with pressure in his face he threw an interception into the hands of a waiting Marauder reserve defensive back Harrison Jones (Aurora, Ont.) With the ball back in their possession and faced with a third-and-five situation, Fantham threw a bomb down the middle of the field to a wide open Ross to put the Marauders up by one.
The Gryphons proceeded to respond by marching their offence down the field into field goal range. The ensuing missed field goal attempt would sail wide right and a heart-broken Guelph squad left the field with their third loss of the year, dropping to a 1-3 regular season record.
The Marauder defence was led by Ryan Chmielewski and his seven solo tackles and five assists.
Source: Gryphons Athletics
LAURIER 33, WINDSOR 18
WATERLOO, Ont. – The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks compiled 481 yards of offence against the visiting Windsor Lancers defeating them 33-18 in front of a boisterous Homecoming crowd of 8,249 at University Stadium.
"We executed on our plan, and that was a huge key for us," said Manager of Football Operations and Head Coach Gary Jeffries. "We moved the ball on offence today and got the stops we need to on defence."
Luke Thompson (London, Ont.) threw for 302 yards and two touchdowns as well as running for another 47 yards. His primary targets were Josh Bishop (Mississauga, Ont.) and Shamawd Chambers (Markham, Ont.) who had 132 yards and 76 yards respectively as well as a touchdown a piece. Chambers also ran for 23 yards and a TD.
CIS record holder Daryl Stephenson (London, Ont.) was held to 61 yards on ten attempts by a stingy Hawk rush defence which only gave up 81 total yards on the ground. The Lancers attacked the Hawks secondary, with Jordan Brescacain (Tecumseh, Ont.) racking up 104 yards on four catches, including one 50 yard reception. Windsor (2-2) threw for a total of 262 yards.
The turning point of the game came when Laurier was down 15-8 with 1:31 before the half and Thompson engineered a 12-play drive into the end zone. The final two plays were a 21-yard reception to Chambers and a 29-yard catch for Bishop and the score to tie up the game.
In the second half, the Golden Hawks (2-2) continued to march the ball up field scoring twice on runs by Chambers and Ryan Lynch (Waterloo, Ont.). Then the Laurier defence stepped up and shut down the Lancers passing game.
Source: Golden Hawks Athletics
