Aprile puts away Lions early in victory

ETOBICOKE – The Queen’s Gaels (1-0) opened their 2013 season with a 52-1 victory over the York Lions at Centennial Park Stadium in Etobicoke on Sunday afternoon. Giovanni Aprile (Scarborough, Ont.) got the Gaels started early in the first quarter with both rushing and receiving touchdowns. Queen’s never looked back from that point on and Aprile finished the day with four touchdowns, 176 yards receiving, 26 yards rushing and 147 total return yards.

BOXSCORE

 

Gaels receiver Giovanni Aprile finished with four touchdowns in a game for the second time in his career.

The Gaels scored 36 points in the first half, in large part to Aprile who scored on the ground through the air twice and via a 115 yard return on the day, without giving up any points to take a commanding 36-0 lead at half. Gaels starting quarterback Billy McPhee(Burlington, Ont.) connected with Aprile for both of his touchdown passes on the day and finishing with 311 yards passing.

“I’m pretty happy with how the day went, obviously we left a few points on the table,” said Gaels head coach Pat Sheahan after the game. “Overall a good first start, we had a lot of guys make a lot of good contributions so it was really a good team effort.”

“Aprile was outstanding it’s not too much of a stretch to say he could have had six touchdowns today. We could tell when he caught it (missed field goal) he was going to go a long way and he just outlegged everyone when he secured it.”

The Lions were led by Jason Charland (Quebec City) who finished with three catches and 42 yards receiving. York scored their lone point after a missed field goal went through the back on the endzone.

Gaels freshman running back Jonah Pataki (Wallaceburg, Ont.) contributed with his first career CIS touchdown, a one yard run to put the Gaels up 46-1 in the third quarter.

On the defensive side of the Ball Queen’s was led by 2012 CIS first-team All-Canadian T.J. Chase-Dunawa (Toronto) who finished with five tackles and an interception that he returned 34 yards. The Lions got strong production from James Tuck (Aurora, Ont.) who nabbed 4.5 tackles, 1.5 tackles for a loss and two breakups.

Gaels second-year kicker Dillon Wamsley (London, Ont.) had a strong day for Queen’s hitting five of six field goals with his long coming from 43 yards out.

It was the second time Aprile has scored four touchdowns in a game, repeating a feat he had previously accomplished against the Laurier Golden Hawks on September 17, 2011. Aprile missed out on the Gaels all-time record for points in a game by two (Connie Mandala 26 vs. Concordia, Oct. 18th, 1986). With the win the Gaels now improve to 16-0 all-time against York.

The Gaels are back in action on Labour Day Monday September 2 when they play host to the McMaster Marauders at 2pm at Richardson Stadium in Kingston.

 

Advocating for football prospects one story at a time.

2 Comments

Leave a Reply