The last time McMaster hosted a Mitchell Bowl 2012, the home side got to celebrate a big win over Calgary. Two years later and McMaster is again hosting a CIS semifinal as the ArcelorMittal Mitchell Bowl comes back to Hamilton with the Marauders clashing with the Mount Allison Mounties. Kick off is set for 4-pm
McMaster coach Stefan Ptaszek hopes to add to his program’s back-to-back Bowl wins in 2011 and 2012. The former was followed a week later by the first Vanier Cup triumph in school history.
“This has been a special season for us, as nobody considered us one of the favourites to win the OUA, but we have a tremendous group of senior leaders who wanted to end their careers in style. We set some goals at the start of the year and getting to the Mitchell Bowl was one of them,” said Ptaszek, who was a receiver with Wilfrid Laurier when the Golden Hawks beat Mount Allison 25-18 in the 1991 Vanier Cup. “Mount Allison has had a great season and presents a tough challenge for us. The Mounties have Bowl game experience and we will have to bring our best effort if we want to win. I’m very happy to be able to play this game in front of our McMaster fans and I hope that our 13th man can be a factor on Saturday.”
Ptaszek’s counterpart Kelly Jeffrey has led Mount Allison to their only undefeated regular season this fall, after guiding the Mounties to their first Bowl appearance since 1997 a year ago, a 48-21 home loss to Laval.
“We’re excited to be back in the Final Four with so many veterans who went through this experience last year. McMaster is exceptionally well-coached with great depth and balance all the way through their football team. We are looking forward to a great environment for the Mitchell Bowl against the Yates Cup champions three of the last four years.”
While the Mounties didn’t exactly light it up during their undefeated AUS campaign, averaging a middle-of-the-pack 29 points a game, their defence was second to none, finishing first in the nation with only eight points allowed per contest and ranking third in both total yards allowed (324.0) and against the run (98.1).
In their lone confrontation against a non-AUS opponent, in Week 4, the two-time Atlantic champs easily handled Bishop’s 26-3 in Lennoxville, Que.
The Mitchell Bowl could turn into a low-scoring affair since the Marauders have also excelled on the defensive side of the ball this year. Led by linebacker Nick Shortill, the OUA defensive MVP, McMaster ranked first in Ontario in points (17.8) and total yards allowed (333.5) and placed second against the pass (201.4) and the run (132.1).
With ball control always a key factor in the playoffs, it will be interesting to watch the battle of running backs between Mount A’s Chris Reid and McMaster’s Chris Pezzetta.
Reid, the AUS rookie of the year, led his conference and placed second in the nation with 987 yards in eight league contests. Pezzetta is coming off 143 and 144-yard performances in the Marauders first two post-season tilts, and was this week’s OUA offensive play of the week for his effort in the Yates Cup win over Guelph.
General admission tickets for the Mitchell Bowl are still available and online sales are available until 1-pm on Saturday atmarauders.ca or at the Ron Joyce Stadium Box Office, which will open at 2-pm.
The winner of the Mitchell Bowl will earn a berth in the 50th TELUS Vanier Cup, being played in Montreal on November 29th.
Photo credit: Rick Zazuliak
Source: Bill Malley, McMaster Marauders Sports Information
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