KINGSTON, Ont. (October 19, 2013) – The No. 5 Queen’s Gaels exploded for 30 unanswered points to come from behind and defeat the No. 4 Guelph Gryphons 37-23 as the OUA football regular season concluded on Saturday.
The win catapulted the Gaels into second place in the OUA standings improving to a 7-1 record, earning the playoff tiebreak against the Gryphons who also finish 7-1. Queen’s will enjoy a bye next week while Guelph will host Windsor in the opening round of the OUA playoffs.
Billy McPhee (Burlington, Ont.) tossed three touchdowns and 294-yards in the win going 24-35 with an interception.
“Billy was good, he was really good,” said head coach Pat Sheahan on his quarterback. “I would go as far as to say that was Billy McPHee’s best game here as a Queen’s Gael.”
“The one contsant throughout the game was Billy, I thought that he played really well and good players make other players around you better and he did that today.”
The critical point of the game would come just before halftime with Guelph holding a 16-7 lead. Queen’s mounted a 76-yard, seven play drive with McPhee connecting with Aaron Gazendam (Kingston, Ont.) on a 16-yard pass to score with 52 seconds remaining. Fifty-one seconds later, Dillon Wamsley (London, Ont.) hit a 19-yard field goal to take a 17-16 lead into the half.
In the second half, Queen’s posted 20 more points to put the game out of reach for the Gryphons. Guelph tried to mount a late comeback, scoring a touchdown with 2:18 left in the game, but an interception with just over a minute to play by Yann Dika-Balotoken (Toronto) would seal the game for the Gaels.
Guelph’s Jazz Lindsey was 18 of 34 tossing 280 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Queen’s defence terrorized the Guelph quarterback sacking Lindsay three times and picking him off another three in the win. Leading the way on defence for Queen’s wasAndrew Lue (Markham, Ont.) who had two of the Gaels’ three interceptions.
Ryan Granberg (Sherwood Park, Alta.) rushed for 95-yards on 14 attempts for the Gaels while Scott Macdonell was Queen’s top receivier with 96 yards and a touchdown on the Gaels’ opening drive.
Guelph’s Carl Trivieri was the game’s top receiver hauling in 136 yards on six receptions with one touchdown in the loss.
NOTES: Home sweet home – Queen’s is riding a 13 game winning streak at Richardson Stadium since opening week of the 2011 season… Announced attendance at the second Queen’s homecoming game of the season was 9,037.
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Bishop’s out-foxes Concordia
Fourth-year receiver Alexandre Fox caught seven passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Bishop’s Gaiters to a 44-36 victory over the Concordia Stingers in university football action in Montreal on Saturday afternoon.
Fox scored Bishop’s first points at 8:05 of the first quarter when quarterback Jordan Heather connected with him on a 40-yard pass-and-run play.
Heather found his favorite target again at 11:47 of third quarter. This time they combined on a 60-yard touchdown.
Heather continued to dominate the RSEQ passing categories with another exceptional performance. He completed 29 of 47 passes for 465 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.
Overall the teams traded punches throughout the game and were evenly matched in the statistical categories. Bishop’s rolled up 29 first downs and a total offence of 532 yards. Concordia had 31 first downs and 536 yards of offence.
Standouts for the Stingers were: fullback Olivier Dupont with 102 yard and a touchdown on 16 carries; receiver Kris Bastien with seven catches for 169 yards and receiver Jamal Henry with four catches for 71 yards and two touchdowns.
Bishop’s win-loss record improves to 5-2 and the Gaiters can secure second place in the conference next week if they beat the McGill Redmen and the Montreal Carabins lose to the Laval Rouge et Or. Concordia’s record is now 0-7. The Stingers head to Sherbrooke next Saturday to play the Vert & Or.
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LONDON, Ont. — Quarterback Will Finch racked up a personal-best 547 passing yards as the nationally top-ranked Western Mustangs completed their first 8-0 campaign since 1998 with a convincing 50-10 victory over the visiting York Lions.
Finch, who threw for three touchdowns and three interceptions on the day, set a single-season CIS record with 3,047 passing yards, eclipsing the 3,033 yards amassed by Western’s Michael Faulds in 2009.
The sophomore quarterback also set an OUA season mark with a completion percentage of 69.7, slightly better than Kyle Quinlan’s 68.9 success rate with the McMaster Marauders last year.
Kicker Lirim Hajrullahu scored 20 points and was a perfect 5 for 5 on field-goal attempts, becoming the highest scoring player in CIS history with 422 points and 77 field goals over his five-year career.
Receiver Brian Marshall scored two touchdowns for Western, while George Johnson, Matthew McDougall, and Yannick Harou added the others.
Myles Gibbon was 18-of-33 passing for 232 yards and an interception for the Lions (2-6). Running back Charles Anderson had York’s lone touchdown.
The victory marked a CIS record-setting seventh 50-plus-point performance of the season for the Mustangs. They scored a total of 458 points through eight games, easily surpassing the previous single-season OUA mark of 424 set by Greg Marshall’s Marauders in 2003.
With the win, Western secured first place in the OUA standings.
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Axemen 27 X-Men 11
At Wolfville, N.S., Evan Brown completed 14-of-23 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown to lead Acadia (3-4) past St. F-X (3-4), while Ryan Begin made 3-of-4 field-goal attempts for the Axemen.
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Marauders 45 Ravens 3
At Ottawa, running back Kasean Davis-Reynolds ran for 105 yards and two touchdowns as McMaster (5-3) trounced the winless Carleton Ravens (0-8).
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Gee-Gees 45 Lancers 15
At Ottawa, the Gee-Gees (5-3) rushing attack dominated Windsor (4-4), getting touchdowns from quarterback Aaron Colbon and running backs Mack Tommy and Derek Wendel.
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Varsity Blues 50 Warriors 18
At Toronto, Simon Nassar threw 392 passing yards and five touchdowns as the Varsity Blues (3-4) thumped Waterloo (1-6).
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Carabins 28 Redmen 3
At Montreal, running back Manuel Crisi-L ran for 74 yards and two touchdowns and Montreal’s defence held McGill (3-3) to 159 total yards and one field goal as the Carabins (4-2) downed the Redmen.
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Thunderbirds 60 Golden Bears 0
At Vancouver, quarterback Greg Bowcott threw for 262 yards and two touchdowns while running in two more as UBC (4-3) crushed lowly Alberta (0-7).