OUA RECAPS: Former #CFC100 Hobbs passing game propels Gaels, Lancers first victory, Hastings & Vandervoort power McMaster, quick start lifts Western, Guelph beats GeeGees [stats]

TORONTO (September 26, 2015) – The Queen’s Gaels (3-2) visited their Old Four rivals the Toronto Varsity Blues (1-3) and came away with a 37-18 win thanks to #CFC100 CLASS 2014 quarterback Nate Hobbs (Mississauga, Ont.) who threw for 401 yards and two touchdowns while adding 14 yards on the ground and another touchdown.

GAME FLOW
The game started out slow as each team looked to get their footing,Jesse Andrews (Arnprior, Ont.) continued to shine this season as he established the Gaels rushing attack picking up runs of 16 and 26 yards early but Queen’s couldn’t get deep enough into the Toronto end to put up any points. The two teams traded punts, at total of 10 straight, throughout the quarter and the score sat at 0-0 after one.

The second quarter saw the first point of the game go up as Gaels kicker Dillon Wamsley (London, Ont.) secured the Gaels a single point after Toronto couldn’t return a kick out of their endzone. Late in the frame the Gaels offence got moving with an 11 play 80 yard drive that culminated with a six-yard Peter Hannon (Toronto) touchdown catch. The Gaels kept the pressure on the Varsity Blues with their next possession as Hobbs found Curtis Carmichael(Scarborough, Ont.) who hauled in a highlight reel 52-yard catch at the Toronto one yard line. Facing a first and goal from the one yard line Hobbs fumbled the ball before breaking the plane and Toronto’s Marcus Grandison recovered. The Varsity Blues went two and out on their possession and the Gaels took over with 18 seconds left in the half starting at the Toronto 54. On the first play of the drive Hobbs threw a 54-yard bomb to Doug Corby (Burlington, Ont.) for a touchdown to put the Gaels up 15-0 at half. Corby made his return to the Gaels lineup after missing the past three games due to injury.

In the second half the Varsity Blues came out firing on their opening possession putting together a 10 play 65 yard drive resulting in a one yard touchdown run by backup quarterback Marcus Hobbs the older brother of Gaels quarterback Nate. Marcus took over for the Toronto short yardage situation and was able to punch in the touchdown on his second attempt. The Varsity Blues added a single point of their own and pulled to within a touchdown of the Gaels.

As the Gaels took over possession in the one score game Nate went to work for Queen’s. After finding Matteo Del Brocco (Leamington, Ont.) for 18 yards and Corby for 35 Nate rushed for 14 yards himself to put Queen’s in a first and goal situation from the Toronto three yard line. The Gaels gave the ball to fifth-year senior Justin Gleben (Barrie, Ont.) who made his way through for the major putting Queen’s ahead 22-8.

Toronto did not go away as they kept at the Gaels early into the fourth quarter. Dallon Kuprowski rushed for a five yard score and Anthony Iafrate hit a 14-yard field goal for 10 straight Varsity Blue points cutting the Gaels lead down to just four. Nate kept the Gaels offence rolling opening up the next drive with a 23 yard pass to Corby followed by a 34 yard pass to Del Brocco putting the Gaels quickly into the redzone. After a penalty set up a first and goal attempt Nate was matched his older brother and made up for an earlier fumble with a one yard rushing score putting Queen’s ahead by 11.

When Toronto took over the Gaels defence secured a win for Queen’s. Rahul Madan hauled in a completion for no gain but Jason Shamatutu (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) forced a fumble and as the ball bounced down toward the Toronto end zone it was Natu Myers (Ottawa) scooping up the ball and securing another Gaels touchdown.

The Gaels hung on from there for the 37-18 victory.

FINAL SAY?
“I would say that as a team we showed some great character today. There were times when the game got close, we really leaned on each other as a team and because of that we were able to pull away in the end.” – QB Nate Hobbs

BY THE NUMBERS
2 – Number of Hobbs brothers on the field today. Gaels QB Nate and his older brother Toronto QB Marcus. Each Hobbs brother rushed for a touchdown in the game
10 – Straight punts to open the game
401 – Number of passing yards for Nate Hobbs and the highway the team will take back to Kingston with a 3-2 record
1st – Career touchdown for Natu Myers
7 – Tackles for a loss by Toronto
Pair – Of interceptions for Queen’s, one from Frederic Kinkead and the other from Chris Mackey

UP NEXT?
The Gaels return home next Saturday October 3 as they welcome the Guelph Gryphons to Richardson Stadium. Kick-off is set for 1pm.

Source: Shawn MacDonald, Queen’s Gaels Sports Information

Queen’s vs. Toronto at Toronto 9/26/2015 at 1:07pm
Queen’s 37	Toronto 18

 

Lancers spoil Laurier’s Homecoming

WATERLOO, Ont. (September 26, 2015) – The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks men’s football team lost their third consecutive game on Saturday afternoon as they fell 22-18 to the Windsor Lancers at University Stadium.

Undisciplined play by the Golden Hawks proved to be their undoing on Homecoming weekend as Laurier took 20 penalties, costing them 166 yards, and wiping out what was a strong rushing performance from running backs Dillon Campbell of Whitby, Ont., and Eric Guiltinan of London, Ont.

“We’re an undisciplined football team and that starts with me,” stated head coach Michael Faulds after the game. “We’re going to work on that this week. It seems like we have a good play on offence and then we come back with a penalty. We have a 2-and-out on defence, and then we come back with a penalty. That needs to stop.”

“It& rsquo;s tough,” added fourth year receiver Greg Nyhof of Georgetown, Ont. “Obviously it’s a sick feeling we have in our stomachs right now. Definitely not the outcome we hoped for, definitely not the outcome we worked for, but that being said we’ve got to pick ourselves up and get working for next weekend.”

Despite posting 339 yards of offence to the Lancers 195, including a combined 213 rushing yards from Campbell and Guiltinan, penalties and mental mistakes by the Hawks allowed Windsor to stay in the game. Laurier held the lead on five different occasions throughout the contest only to see Windsor come back each time.

In the end, it was an unnecessary roughness penalty by the Hawks that set up Windsor on Laurier’s 1-yard line that was the final blow for the purple and gold. Terrance Crawford of Windsor, Ont., proceeded to punch the ball into the endzone on the next play to give his team a 22-18 lead, a scoreline that would hold up ove r the final five minutes of the game.

Crawford would finish the game with 59 yards on the ground and two scores to pace the Lancers offensively. Rookie quarterback Liam Putt of Caledonia, Ont., earned his first career win as he completed 9-of-26 passes for 148 yards while also rushing three times for 35 yards.

Outside of Campbell, who had 118 yards on 20 carries, and Guiltinan, who had 95 yards on 18 carries, the one bright spot for the purple and gold was rookie kicker Nathan Mesher of Waterloo, Ont. Playing in front of his first Homecoming crowd of 6,717, Mesher was a perfect 4-for-4 on field goal attempts, including hitting from a career-long 47 yards. He also averaged over 41 yards per punt, up almost eight yards per kick on his season average.

“He’s been exceptional for us,” said Faulds on his kicker’s performance this year. “He got a hold of one punt that went really far, so, again, he’s a little glimmer and bright spot fr om this.”

Defensively, Windsor’s Matt Chamberlain of Leamington, Ont., led his squad with 10.5 tackles while Kellen Leclair of Windsor, Ont., had 2.5 sacks.

For the Hawks, Nakas Onyeka of Brampton, Ont., continued his strong year with 7.5 tackles, giving him 28 for the season, while four different players recorded sacks.

Up next for the Hawks, they will prepare for the Battle of Waterloo as they travel across University Ave. to take on the Waterloo Warriors next Saturday, October 3. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Warrior Field.

NOTES: Laurier has now lost four straight games to the Lancers by a combined 11 points…the 2005 Vanier Cup team was honoured in a pregame ceremony after being inducted into the Golden Hawk Hall of Fame on Friday night

Source: Jamie Howieson, Wilfird Laurier Golden Hawks Sports Information

Windsor Lancers vs. Wilfrid Laurier at Waterloo, Ont. 9/26/2015 at 1:07 PM
Windsor 22	Laurier 18

McMaster dumps York in big Homecoming win

HAMILTON (September, 26, 2015) – The No. 7 McMaster Marauders rolled to their third win of the season rolling over the York Lions 67-10 at a sold-out homecoming at Ron Joyce Stadium.

Asher Hastings of Regina tossed four touchdowns, while receiver Danny Vandervoort of Barrie, Ont. caught two of those touchdowns, as the Marauders improved to 3-1 and moved into a tie for third place in the OUA football standings.

Hastings played two and a half quarters, finishing with 306 yards while making 20 completions on 25 attempts to go along with his four touchdown passes.

After a disheartening 32-23 loss to Guelph, the Marauders put up 586 yards in total offence to please the homecoming crowd.

“It was definitely a bounce back from Guelph,” said Hastings of Saturday’s performance. “We wanted to come out and re-establish that we’re one of the top teams in the OUA. It was a little sloppy, but we came out and did what we had to do on Homecoming.”

McMaster scored only 17 points in the first quarter, but exploded for 50 in the next three quarters, including 36 in the final half.

Head Coach Stefan Ptaszek was pleased with how his team responded in the second portion of the game.

“I’m especially proud that we came out of that locker room in the second half and started fast,” said Ptaszek. “We felt like if we had a decent first five minutes in that second half, it would be disheartening and hard for York to hang in, and our young men did that.”

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Vandervoort’s first-quarter touchdown reception was a record breaker, as the third-year Marauder hauled in his 20th career touchdown reception to become the all-time school leader.

Linebacker Jake Heathcote of Aldergrove, B.C. had the top defensive game, collecting two interceptions, including a 27-yard return for a touchdown in the first quarter. He also had six solo tackles and two assisted for a total of eight.

York would muster only 10 points with all of those coming in the first half. Brett Hunchak of Calgary connected with Ryan Dunaway of Burlington, Ont., in the first quarter, while Nick Naylor of Abbotsford, Ont., added a 27-yard field goal to round out the scoring.

Hunchak finished with 182 yards passing and two interceptions. Dunaway was York’s top receiver, bringing down 78-yards on three receptions.

McMaster running back Jordan Lyons punched in two touchdowns with the game in hand. His first came on a nine-yard run late in the third quarter, and he followed it up with a five-yard punch in in the fourth quarter.

THEY SAID IT: “We played a full four quarters in this game. In our other games we came out kind of slow in the first half and picked it up in the second. This was more of a full effort and I think it’s more indicative of what you’re going to see for the rest of the season.” – Linebacker Jake Heathcote.

“Four games into your third year, you shouldn’t be talking about career marks or all-time lists. He’s a special kid, and I say the best 50-50 guy I’ve ever seen. When you throw up a ball to him, it’s not 50-50.” -Head Coach Stefan Ptaszek on Dan Vandervoort’s record breaking catch.

BROTHERLY LOVE: Kingsley Amankwaa of Etobicoke, Ont., earned the sibling bragging rights, edging his brother Jessie who plays for York. Kingsley rushed for a touchdown and 13-yards, while Jessie tallied 83-yards on 20 attempts.

ATTENDANCE: McMaster faithful packed Ron Joyce Stadium with a capacity 5,427 fans taking in the Homecoming matchup.

NEXT WEEK: McMaster will travel to Windsor next Saturday to take on the Lancers. Windsor knocked off the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 22-18 today and pushed their record to 1-5. Next week York will take on Toronto (1-3) in the Red/Blue Bowl.

Source: Michael Grobe, McMaster Marauders Sports Information

York University vs. McMaster Marauders at Hamilton, Ontario 9/26/2015 at 13:07
York 10	McMaster 67

Western defeats Carleton in Homecoming showdown

LONDON, Ont. – The Western Mustangs jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back as they defeated the Carleton Ravens 70-14 in front of 10,291 fans on Homecoming Saturday at TD Stadium.

“A little bit,” said Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall when asked if he was surprised by the final score. “I was surprised by the bunches we scored in at the end of the first half but I thought we had a pretty good game plan.”

On a perfect day for football, the Mustangs were near perfect all afternoon as they were dominant in all three phases of the game. The pace of the Mustangs no huddle offence wore down the Ravens and finished with 765 yards of offence.

The Mustang defence gave up a couple explosive plays to Carleton but past that they were solid, limiting the Ravens to 405 yards of offence, including 267 yards passing from quarterback Jesse Mills. He completed 26 of 41 passes with one touchdown and one interception.

Offensively, the Mustangs had one of their best halves of the season in the opening 30 minutes of play. The purple and white put up 48 points thanks to big plays on almost every drive in the first half.

For the first time this season, coach Marshall called several deep shots through the air, and it paid off. Fourth-year quarterback Will Finch had four touchdown passes in the first half with none shorter than 28 yards.

“They bring so many combinations from so many different areas but the downside of that is that they leave guys open and they left guys open,” said Marshall. “They made some plays but Will found a couple guys they didn’t cover.”

Finch had another strong performance, finishing with 350 yards and four touchdowns after completing 20 of 33 passes.

“Anytime you put 70 points on the board, things have got to be going OK,” said Finch. “We were hot and cold and we had a couple penalties at crucial points in the game but ultimately we were good.”

Backup quarterback Stevenson Bone entered the game late in the third quarter to replace Finch and completed six of his nine pass attempts for a total of 72 yards. He also showed off his ability to run the ball with 16 yards rushing on only three carries.

In the backfield, Alex Taylor led the way for the Mustangs for the third game in a row, picking up 110 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. But that didn’t mean the other three backs didn’t make an impact on Saturday afternoon as Yannick Harou, Cedric Joseph and Adam Sinclair all found the end zone as the Mustangs run game racked up 349 yards on the day.

The Western defensive front was tasked with limiting the OUA’s second leading rusher Jahvari Bennett. Bennet came into this game averaging 126.8 yards per game but couldn’t find any traction against the physical Mustang front. Bennett finished the game with only 50 yards on 13 carries.

This after limiting the OUA’s leading rusher Jesse Andrews of Queen’s last week. If the Mustang defense can continue to eliminate the run game the way they have been they will be tough to top on any day.

Middle linebacker Jean-Gabriel Poulin lead the Mustangs with 7.5 tackles, while Malcolm Brown, Matt Gruniger, and Charlton Elliott each recorded interceptions.

The Mustangs wasted little time getting on the board as Taylor took the opening kickoff back 48 yards and seven plays later dashed 26 yards to the right corner of the end zone. On the very next Western play from scrimmage, Finch lofted a 59-yard touchdown pass to Harry McMaster. There was little doubt about the intentions of the Mustang offence on the afternoon: strike early and often.

“We have amazing players and they played very well early,” said All-Canadian offensive tackle Eddie Meredith. “We kind of took their momentum.”

Carleton had some jump early and strung together a nice drive to open the second quarter that closed the gap to 17-7. However, the Mustangs struck back right away with another deep ball from Finch to Tom Marshall, the first of two straight touchdowns from Finch to Marshall on virtually identical plays.

“A couple plays there Tom Marshall our fullback – no one picked him up in the middle of the field,” said Finch. “He just got open and I was able to find him”

After another Carleton touchdown, this one coming off of a 19-yard pass from Jesse Mills to London native Nathaniel Behar, a wide open Matt Uren hauled in a 32-yard touchdown pass from Finch and extended the lead to 41-14. The purple and white lead increased again less than 90 seconds later as Taylor record his second major of the day on a 26-yard run to make it 48-14 at the half.

The second half scoring consisted of a Harou punch in, Sinclair’s 6-yard touchdown dash, and an impressive 38-yard rush from Joseph along with a rouge from kicker Ben Kelly to make it a 70-14 final for the Mustangs.

Even though the Mustangs haven’t been in a tight game this year, Meredith says he and his teammates are not going to lose their focus.

“We have to keep challenging ourselves to get better,” he said, “teams are giving us their best shot and it only takes potentially one shot to end our season.”

The Mustangs move into a bye week that will help give some rest to players that are dealing with nagging injuries. Western will return to action on October 8th at Varsity Stadium as they take on the Toronto Varsity Blues.

Game time is set for 7 p.m. and fans can watch all the action live on OUA.tv, or listen on CHRW Radio 94.9 FM and on Newstalk 1290 CJBK with Tom McConnell and legendary Mustangs coach Larry Haylor calling all the action.

NOTES: Today’s game is only the second time that the Ravens and Mustangs have met on the gridiron. The first was in Carleton’s return to CIS football in 2013 that saw Western claim a 71-4 victory…Western’s first touchdown marked the third time in five games that the Mustangs have scored on their opening drive, also picking up a field goal against Windsor and a touchdown against York…

Source: Tony von Richter, Western Mustangs Sports Information

Carleton Ravens vs. Western Mustangs at London, Ontario 9/26/2015 at 1:00 PM
Carleton 14	Western 70

 

The mid-season clash between no. 5 ranked Guelph and no. 9 ranked Ottawa was not as close as many had hoped, as the Gee-Gees trip to the Royal City ended in a 46-28 Guelph win.

Guelph opened up the scoring with a touchdown on their first drive, which led to the opening of the floodgates. The Gryphons then scored again on their second drive and again on their first play of the third drive following a Derek Wendel interception. With a three-touchdown deficit in the early goings of the first quarter, the Gee-Gees needed to get in rhythm, something the highly touted Gryphons defence did not allow them to do until late in the first half.

“A few mistakes were exposed. Wrong coverage, bad tackling, that kind of thing. They were able to capitalize on that,” said defensive lineman Rashid Timbilla about being down early.

Linebacker Brendan Beaudry was one of the bright spots for the Gee-Gees as he finished with 13 total tackles including 6 solos, 7 assisted and 3 for a loss, one of which was a sack.

Beaudry seemingly found ways to get involve in plays or make stops when the Ottawa defence needed it the most.  Ty Cranston and Rashid Timbilla also contributed to some key stops for the Gee-Gees.

Despite the blowout, Timbilla still says there are some positives that can be taken away because other than the three touchdowns, the game was much more “controlled” and “In the second half they only scored one touchdown.”

Kalem Beaver provided occasional sparks for his team with huge returns. Beaver finished with 107 kick return yards but the offence never seemed to capitalize on the field position he obtained.

On paper the offence had a nice day; quarterback Derek Wendel threw for a season high 471 yards.Mitchell Baines and Ian Stewart finished with an identical 113 yards. However, Wendel only completed 58.5 per cent of his passes and most of the yards were gained in the late goings of the game when Guelph had a comfortable advance.

Timbilla said the defeat and frustrations couldn’t be attributed to only one side of the ball. “We’re one team. When it comes down to it. We made the mistakes. After the first quarter, realistically the game was more controlled and more in our favour.”

Due to the early deficit, the Gee-Gees all but abandoned the running game. Running back Bryce Vieirafinished with 11 rushes for 39 yards. Ottawa also had some self-inflicted wounds as they had 13 penalties for 106 yards – a season high.

With the loss the Garnet and Grey is back at .500 with a 2-2 record. They will look to get ahead in the win column as the next they return to the nation’s capital to face their rivals from the other side of the Rideau canal the Carleton Ravens in the much anticipated Panda Game.

Source: Ottawa Gee-Gees

 

Ottawa Gee Gees vs. Guelph Gryphons at Guelph 9/26/2015 at 1:00PM
Ottawa 26	Guelph 48