Gee-Gees ready for crucial matchup against Laurier Golden Hawks

The Gee-Gees football team will play host to the Laurier Golden Hawks on September 15 at Beckwith Park, in a matchup which could be characterized as “must-win” for both teams. Last week, Ottawa fell to 0-3 after losing against the nationally top-ranked McMaster Marauders 45-16, while Laurier earned its first win of the season against York.

“The biggest thing is that our guys needed to know that they could play with good football teams,” said Gee-Gees head coach Gary Etcheverry. “After the evaluation of the videotape from the McMaster game, I think that we’ve turned a real corner, moving forward.”

Against the Marauders, the Gee-Gees got off to a poor start and trailed 23-0 after the first quarter. Ottawa managed to battle back within 10 points midway through the third quarter but were unable to complete the comeback against a highly-talented McMaster squad. While the Gee-Gees defence did make some mistakes, Ottawa was also able to put some pressure on McMaster’s quarterback, racking up five sacks in the game.

“Our blitzing was solid against McMaster. Linebacker Tyler Sawyer (Metcalfe, Ont.) made some great plays and they had troubles with our blitzing. It was actually our non-blitzing stuff we had issues with, especially early, but we did settle down a bit,” said Etcheverry.

In terms of offence, third-year running back Franck Marvel Ngandui (Laval, Qué.) had a nice day on the ground, gaining 65 yards on just nine rushes, but two crucial interceptions took away uOttawa’s chances to put more points up on the scoreboard.

“Our passing offence is still lagging a little bit behind our running game. There’s two things we want from the passing game: number one is to protect the passer and number two is for our receivers to be unaccounted for [by the defence], or be covered by a trailing defender. We’ve consistently gotten the latter, but we need to be more consistent with the protection,” explained Etcheverry.

The Gee-Gees and Golden Hawks have had some memorable games in recent years, such as the 2010 OUA semifinals which Ottawa won 32-31, and the two teams look to be pretty evenly matched this time around as well.
“In Laurier, I see a solid football team and a team that is improving in many areas as we are. I think it’s going to be one heck of a game,” said Etcheverry.

Gee-Gees football tickets are now on sale for Saturday’s game and uOttawa student tickets, which includes your transportation, are only $6! Get your tickets now by contacting [email protected] or calling 613-562-5800 ext. 4337.