Lions head to Hamilton for season’s first road game

The York University Lions football team will travel to Hamilton, Ont., on Saturday (Sept. 14) to take on the No. 9 nationally-ranked McMaster Marauders in the Lions’ first road game of the season.

Kick-off is set for 1pm at Ron Joyce Stadium and can also be seen live online at marauders.ca.

Both the Lions and Marauders enter the game with one win on the season. The Lions are 1-1, having already had their bye weekend, while the Marauders are 1-2 and are riding a two-game losing streak.

The Lions will have a bounce in their step this weekend after a big win in their home opener last Saturday, where they knocked off the Laurier Golden Hawks for the first time since 2002 by a score of 33-20. The squad will be looking to get off to a quicker start against McMaster after they spotted the Golden Hawks 15 points and were down 15-5 at the half before a dominating 23-0 third quarter put the game away.

The Marauders are the two-time defending Yates Cup champions and also won the Vanier Cup in 2011, but they lost many players to graduation after last season and have struggled so far this year against a difficult opening schedule. They are coming off a lopsided 58-15 loss to the No. 3 Western Mustangs, the worst loss the team has experienced in years, and the week before that were defeated 31-24 by the No. 2 Queen’s Gaels. The loss to Queen’s ended McMaster’s 19-game winning streak against OUA opponents that dated back to Sept. 17, 2011.

McMaster began the year with a big 51-24 win over the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

On Saturday quarterback Myles Gibbon (Montreal) helped the Lions with his arm and his feet, accounting for 366 all-purpose yards with 211 on the ground and 155 in the air while posting three touchdowns. His 104.5 yards-per-game rushing average is the best in the OUA. His counterpart, McMaster’s Marshall Ferguson (Kingston, Ont.) is third in the OUA with 1123 passing yards and has already thrown six touchdowns, but has also thrown five interceptions compared to just one by Gibbon.
On defence, the Lions are currently ranked third in the OUA with 304.5 yards allowed per game, while the Marauders are seventh with an average of 413.33. York’s top defensive player has been defensive end James Tuck (Aurora, Ont.), who leads the team with 13.5 tackles and also has 1.5 sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and two pass break-ups.

Also strong on defence has been rookie cornerback Samir Boulazreg (Mississauga, Ont.), who is one of six players in the OUA with two interceptions on the year. He picked up both in the win over Laurier and is also tied for second on the team with six tackles.

McMaster’s leader on defence is defensive back Scott Martin (London, Ont.), who is tied for eighth in the OUA with 18 tackles.

The Marauders defeated the Lions 54-14 in their match-up last year as part of their 8-0 regular-season, and have won the head-to-head meetings every year since 1997.

After this weekend’s contest, the Lions will be on the road again on Saturday, Sept. 21, this time in Ottawa to face the OUA’s newest football team, the Carleton Ravens.

Photo credit:  Forster Chan