THE CANADIAN PRESS
KINGSTON, Ont. – The No. 4 Queen’s Gaels defeated the No. 9 McMaster Marauders by 32-6 Saturday to earn a berth in the 102nd Yates Cup.
Next week Queen’s will host the Western Mustangs, who defeated the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 26-16 in the other OUA semifinal on Saturday. The win earns Queen’s its first Yates Cup appearance since 2002 when McMaster stopped the Gaels 33-19. Next week’s game also marks the first time that Kingston has hosted the Yates Cup since 1978 – that year the Gaels were a perfect 10-0 and marched to one of its three Vanier Cup titles.
With the wind at their backs to start the game, the Gaels took full advantage, putting up 13 points on the Marauders. Six of those points came off of conceded safeties by McMaster after the Gaels defence pinned them deep in their end.
The defence also contributed to the Gaels first touchdown of the game as Matt Vickers picked off McMaster quarterback Kyle Quinlan at the McMaster 35-yard line midway through the opening quarter. Five plays later, Marty Gordon punched the ball in from one yard out.
The Gaels extended their lead to 20 when McMaster punter Michael DiCroce fumbled a snap and was forced to fall on the ball at his own 22-yard line. This time, the Gaels turned to running back Jimmy Therrien to get them across the goal-line.
Queen’s defence would continue to come up big for the remainder of the half as they twice stopped McMaster from finding the end zone. Holding them to a single field goal at the end of the second quarter, Queen’s took a 20-3 lead into the half.
Queen’s put the game out of reach early in the third quarter when quarterback Danny Brannagan rolled out and ran the ball in for a one yard score, despite McMaster having 13 men on the field.
Offensively, the Gaels were led by the running back duo of Therrien and Gordon who combined for 146 yards and two touchdowns.
Brannagan was 12-for-25 for 161 yards while Qulian was 12-of-36 for 185 yards.
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Montreal 40 Bishop’s 15
At Montreal, Que., Rotrand Sene ran for 236 yards, including two touchdowns, while quarterback Marc-Olivier Brouillette threw for 363 yards and a touchdown to lead the No. 8 Montreal Carabins to a 40-15 victory over the Bishop’s Gaiters in a CIS semifinal Saturday.
Montreal (6-3) advances to play the Laval Rouge et Or in the 2009 Dunsmore Cup final next Saturday in Quebec City.
Laval advanced by downing the Concordia Stingers 63-1 in the other Quebec University Football League semifinal.
The Gaiters took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, but the Carabins rattled off 37 unanswered points to book their place in the Dunsmore Cup final.
The Gaiters got off to fast start, as freshman quarterback Jordan Heather – starting in place of veteran pivot Jesse Andrews, who was out with a shoulder injury – led the visitors on a five-play, 58-yard drive, capped by a 15-yard pass to fellow rookie Dave Soucy to put Bishop’s up 7-0.
Four minutes later, a bad snap on a Montreal punt attempt gave Bishop’s the ball on the Montreal two-yard line, and Tim Cronk plunged over two plays later to put the Bishop’s up 14-0.
After a Pierre-Paul Gelinas field goal, Josh Maveety gave the Gaiters a 15-3 lead after the first quarter on a 46-yard single.
The second quarter saw touchdowns by Youssy Pierre and Sene, along with another Gelinas field goal and a safety touch, gave the Carabins a 22-15 lead at halftime.
The Carabins took advantage of the wind and better field position to stretch their lead in the third quarter on a pair of safety touches, a field goal and a single point.
Meanwhile, Sene put the game away with a 24-yard touchdown at 5:53, while the final Gelinas field goal, with 1:24 left, rounded out the scoring.
The Carabins outgained the Gaiters 639 to 191, and recorded 31 first downs, to the Gaiters’ 11. The Gaiters committed three turnovers, while forcing five by the Carabins, marking a rare loss when winning the turnover battle.
Brouillette completed 19-of-26 passes for 363 yards and a touchdown. Youssy Pierre made nine catches for 182 yards and a touchdown, while Francois Leclerc caught three for 76 yards.
For Bishop’s, Heather finished the day going 12-for-18 for 205 yards with an interception and a touchdown. Shawn Gore had his second 100-yard day of the season, with five catches for 114 yards. Matt Burke was the Gaiters’ leading rusher, with seven carries for 29 yards.
The Gaiters finish the season with a 4-5 overall record (4-4 QUFL).
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Laval 63 Concordia 1
At Laval, Que., running back Sebastien Levesque had 266 yards and scored two touchdowns in the first half to lead Laval over the Concordia Stingers, booking the Rouge et Or’s ticket to the Dunsmore Cup.
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St. FX 33 Acadia 30
At Antigonish, N.S., the X-Men rallied from a 30-16 deficit with consecutive fourth-quarter touchdowns and Anthony Alix topped it off with a 10-yard field goal with 19 seconds left in the game to lift St. FX in the AUS semifinal playoff game.
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Western 26 Wilfrid Laurier 16
At Waterloo, Ont., Nathan Riva ran for a record-high 42 times for 289 yards as the Western Mustangs booked a ticket to their third consecutive Yates Cup game with a 26-16 win over the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks.
The Mustangs will meet Queen’s, which defeated McMaster in the other OAU semifinal.
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Calgary 45 Alberta 13
At Calgary, Anthony Parker returned kickoffs for touchdowns in the first and last minutes of the game as the second-ranked Calgary Dinos defeated the Alberta Golden Bears 45-13 in Canadian Interuniversity Sport playoff action Saturday.
Steve Truzak hauled in three interceptions as the Dinos advanced to the Hardy Cup. They will face the Saskatchewan Huskies, who beat the Regina Rams 53-23.
The Dinos will attempt to defend their 2008 Canada West title and win back-to-back conference championships for the first time since 1992 and 1993.
Early big plays on special teams and defence compensated for a lacklustre performance by the high-flying Calgary offence in the first half, where neither team moved the ball particularly effectively through the first 30 minutes.
Parker set a school record with his 108-yard kickoff return just 16 seconds into the game, and a 70-yard Aaron Ifield kickoff single on the next play had Calgary up 8-0 with 14:44 still on the clock.
Truzak picked off Quade Armstrong on Alberta’s second offensive play, and two plays after that Nathan Coehoorn took a 34-yard carry into the end zone, putting the Dinos up 15-0 just 2:05 into the game.
Ifield and Hugh O’Neill traded field goals to round out the first half scoring, and Calgary took an 18-3 lead into the half despite just 50 passing yards in the first two quarters.
“It certainly wasn’t an exciting game and not our best offensive performance of the year, but we came out in the second half, persevered, and ran the ball well,” said Calgary head coach Blake Nill. “Our defence is also starting to play better. We did a better job against the run, and despite their last drive I thought we did a good job stifling them. Now we have to get ready for Saskatchewan.”
The Dinos didn’t record a first down in the second half until nearly nine minutes in. Backed up on their own 12 yard line, Calgary ate up 86 yards in just three plays to set up a 15-yard Ifield field goal.
On the next play, Truzak grabbed his third pick of the afternoon, giving the Calgary offence the ball right back. Three plays and 62 yards later, the Dinos were again unable to punch it into the end zone and settled for another short field goal – but the offence had emerged from
its funk.
The floodgates opened in the fourth quarter as Calgary scored two touchdowns in the first eight minutes on a 21-yard run by Matt Walter and a 37-yard scamper by Steven Lumbala.
The Golden Bears were able to muster only a late safety and a 24-yard touchdown pass from Armstrong to Make Wasylyniuk, followed by a two-point convert by the same pair with just 65 seconds left on the clock.
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Saskatchewan 53 Regina 23
At Saskatoon, quarterback Laurence Nixon threw 284 yards for five touchdowns as the Huskies defeated Regina to book their ticket to the Canada West final.
Cory Jones caught three TD passes and Jeff Hassler rushed for 113 yards for the Huskies, who will meet Calgary next Saturday in the Hardy Cup.
Marc Mueller threw 470 yards for two touchdowns to lead the Rams.
