October 20, 2012
Gee-Gees fall just short of post-season with 32-29 loss to Western
The uOttawa Gee-Gees football team needed a win against the nationally seventh-ranked Western Mustangs and some help to make the OUA playoffs. They got the help they needed as Waterloo beat Windsor 48-29, but the Gee-Gees lost on a last-second field goal to Western, 32-29. Ottawa would have made the playoffs as the fifth seed in the OUA, had they won.
“The guys came out and played hard. Western is a very good team but we played as hard as we could. But in the end, they got that last field goal on us,” said Gee-Gees assistant head coach Cory McDiarmid.
The Gee-Gees started strong on offence as fourth-year running back Brendan Gillanders had a 33-yard rush on the first play from scrimmage. However, it was the Western Mustangs who opened the scoring, five minutes into the first quarter, taking a 3-0 lead off a 17-yard field goal. But the Gee-Gees countered quickly with a 57-yard reception by fourth-year receiver Simon Le Marquand from fourth-year quarterback Aaron Colbon, bringing the Gee-Gees into the redzone. Fifth-year kicker Matthew Falvo was good from 18 yards out to tie the game at 3-3. With the field goal, Falvo broke the all-time OUA record in career field goals with 71 field goals made, surpassing former Western kicker Frank Jagas who played from 1990–94.
With a minute left in the first quarter, Western faced a third-and-goal situation from the Ottawa two-yard line and elected to go for it. However, third-year defensive lineman Andrew Randall made a goal-line stop to prevent a Mustangs touchdown. Western led 5-3 after the first quarter after scoring a defensive safety.
Western added to their lead with a 27-yard field goal early in the second quarter. The Gee-Gees responded with another field goal of their own on the next drive, in a truly back-and-forth game. The big play in the drive was a 24-yard pass from Colbon to rookie receiver Vincent Campbell. After Western kicker Lirim Hajrullahu scored his third field goal of the contest, the first touchdown of the game was scored by Gillanders on a 19-yard run. Ottawa took their first lead of the game at 13-11, with 4:55 left in the second quarter. Western scored a rushing score of their own on the ensuing drive, but Ottawa added two more field goals to take a slim 19-18 lead into halftime.
The Mustangs quickly scored four more points off of special teams play with a field goal and a rouge to take a 22-19 lead. Then it was Ottawa’s turn to score again, via a 23-yard touchdown catch from fourth-year receiver Simon Le Marquand.
In the fourth quarter, Falvo broke another OUA record with a 98-yard punt which pinned the Mustangs deep in their own end. Western did manage to march up field to score a touchdown to retake the lead at 29-26. But the game turned again on a 41-yard interception return by fifth-year defensive back Chris Daly. Falvo hit on his fifth field goal of the day to tie the game at 29-29. In the end, it was not meant to be for uOttawa as they allowed a 32-yard game-winning field goal with just 4.8 seconds left.
Source: uOttawa Sports Info
