Carabins get victory over Vert et Or, evens season series

Montreal – After two consecutive failures marked by an offensive lethargy, the Montreal Carabins raised its head and went on to defeat the Sherbrooke Vert et Or 30-24 Saturday afternoon in Sherbrooke .  With this win, the Carabins maintain their second place position in the RSEQ standings.

BOXSCORE

With two games remaining in the regular season, the Carabins have an identical record to the Bishop’s Gaiters with four wins and two losses. However, Montreal has the advantage over Bishop’s, who defeated their rivals earlier this season.

“We found our attack identity today as it was very effective on the ground and we distributed the ball well, said Carabins Danny Maciocia. “This is an important victory we achieved on the road before we enter the final stretch of the season. We are content with our key players. ”

Linebacker Antoine Pruneau (Health and Physical Education) returned to his cornerback position to cover the speedy Sherbrooke receiver Sherbrooke Sebastien Blanchard.

“It was a very physical game and both teams were desperate to win,” said Pruneau, who finished the game with 4.5 tackles, two knockdowns and an interception. “We had to get this win and everyone played a role today.”

Teammate Maiko Zepeda (Anthropology), who replaced him at linebacker, registered eight tackles, including seven solo tackles.

The Carabins attack did well with total gains of 467 yards against 291 for Sherbrooke.  In his second start of the season, quarterback Pierre-Luc Varhegyi (Administration, HEC Montreal) completed 13 of 18 passes for 226 passing yards.

“I was stressed at the beginning of the game, but game decisions gave me confidence and we often found ourselves in situations where we were a few yards in experiencing the second test of our ground game,” said Varhegyi.  “We had to remove the pressure off the shoulders of our defensive teammates and it worked well.”

The lead changed hands six times during the game.

Sherbrooke opened the scoring at the end of the first quarter when Jeremi Roch connected with Francis Lapointe seven-yard touchdown score. The Carabins got on the scoreboard early in the second quarter as the Vert et Or conceded a safety. The Carabins attack then began to come out as kicker Félix Ménard-Brière (Arts and Science) was successful on a 41 yard field goal attempt.

The very next play, Pruneau intercepted Roch’s pass.  Then, Varhegyi brilliantly capitalized on the opportunity.  After completing 23 and 37 yard passes to Philip Enchill (Teaching French as a second language) and Maxime Fournier Rioux (Arts and Sciences) respectively, Varhegyi ran seven yards. Sean Thomas Erlington (Health and Physical Education) completed the job with a three-yard run to give the Carabins a 12-7 lead.

The Vert et Or responded similarly to take a 14-12 lead into the locker room at halftime after Olivier Goulet-Veilleux intercepted Varhegyi  pass and then Roch connected with  Sébastien Blanchard for a 34 yard touchdown pass.

The game resumed after hostilities took place and Thomas Erlington found the end zone to give the Carabins a 19-14 lead.  It was his second touchdown of the game and his sixth since the beginning of the 2013 season. Towards the end of the third quarter, Sherbrooke regained the lead, 21-19 after Isaac Lauzon ran in for a 1 yard score.

Crisi-Lauzon averages 9.2 yards per carry:

When Thomas Erlington hurt his leg midway through the third quarter, running back Manuel Crisi-Lauzon (Arts and Sciences) replaced him and put on quite a show.  With several long runs, Crisi-Lauzon allowed to Carabins attack to spend more time on the ground and go get more points.  It included a one-yard quarterback sneak by Varhegyi for a touchdown. Ménard-Briere added a single and a 22 yard field goal. Maxime St-Onge scored the other points of the Vert et Or including a 10 yard field goal late in the game.

In his first season on the university circuit, Crisi-Lauzon had his career best game with 185 yards on the ground in only 20 runs for an impressive average of 9.2 yards per carry.

“I want to give a lot of credit to our offensive line as I just had to take advantage of the openings created by the guys in front of me,” mentioned Crisi-Lauzon, who is 5’9, and 235 pounds. “We are very happy that our attack has contributed once again.”

Next weekend will mark a break on the RSEQ circuit as all teams will enjoy a rest. The Carabins will be back in action Saturday, October 19 when the team visits the McGill Redmen.

With files from Mathieu Dauphinais