Queen's at McMaster - 20120922
Photos of the Queen's Golden Gaels vs. the McMaster Marauders at Ron Joyce Stadium, Hamilton, ON on September 22, 2012.
All photos are by Jeff Chan. Jeff is past Chairman of the Vanier Cup - Canada's University Football Championship and the Premier University Event in Canada, and was a member of the Canadian College Bowl Board and Vanier Cup Organizing Committee from 1978-2000.
All photos are Copyright (c) Jeff Chan 2000-2012, and may be used for personal non-commercial applications including by Queen's University, the CIS and its member conferences, so long as photo credits are shown or the photos are otherwise attributed to Jeff Chan. All other rights, including for all corporate use, are reserved.
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QUEEN'S 20, McMASTER 33
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SLOW FIRST HALF DOOMS NO. 5 GAELS IN LOSS TO NO. 1 McMASTER
By John Edwards, Queen's Sports Information
A slow first half doomed the No. 5-ranked Queen's Gaels as they fell, 33-20, to the No. 1-ranked McMaster Marauders in OUA football action at Ron Joyce Stadium, Saturday. The Gaels trailed 26-3 after the first half, as the Marauders scored touchdowns on their first and last possessions of the half, sandwiching four field goals by Tyler Crapigna (Nepean, Ont.)
“The first half got away from us,” said Pat Sheahan, the Gaels' head coach. “But we opened it up in the second half and put up nearly 300 yards. We learned some things about our team, and what we have to do.”
McMaster opened the scoring at 1:48, as Robert Babic (Oakville, Ont.) caught a 35-yard pass from Kyle Quinlan (South Woodslee, Ont.), completing a five-play, 90-yard opening drive. The Gaels responded with a 42-yard field goal from Dillon Wamsley (London, Ont.), cutting the gap to 7-3. The Marauders stretched their lead throughout the half via the right foot of Crapigna on placements of 31, 21, 40 and 45 yards. The Marauders' other first-half major came with 21 seconds left, as Ben O'Connor (Kingston, Ont.) caught a 50-yard pass from Quinlan for his first career score. The Marauders held a wide edge statistically after the first half, outgaining the Gaels 408-122, and making 17 first downs to only six for the Gaels.
After a Quinlan run stretched the lead to 33-3 early in the third, the Gaels mounted a late comeback. A two-yard run by Ryan Granberg (Sherwood Park, Alta.) cut the margin to 33-10 late in the third, his seventh touchdown of the season. After a Wamsley single, Billy McPhee (Burlington, Ont.) hooked up with Justin Chapdelaine (Abbotsford, B.C.) on a nine-yard pass, cutting the gap to 33-18 with four minutes to go. Late, the Gaels had first and goal on the McMaster 7-yard line, but were unable to convert on three pass attempts. A Queen's safety touch on the game's penultimate play rounded out the scoring.
Queen's outgained McMaster in the second half, 306 yards to 109, and made 20 second-half first downs, to only nine for the Marauders.
Quinlan went 25-for-36 for 340 yards with two touchdowns. He also ran eight times for 76 yards. Kasean Davis-Reynolds (Mississauga, Ont.) led McMaster on the ground with 17 carries for 132 yards. The Marauders' leading receiver was Babic, with nine catches for 104 yards.
For Queen's, McPhee went 29-for-46 for 320 yards, his second 300-yard game in three weeks. Giovanni Aprile (Toronto, Ont.) led the Gaels' receivers with 103 receiving yards on six catches, while Chapdelaine has seven catches for 70 yards and Scott Macdonnell (Montreal, Que.) made seven catches for 74 yards. Granberg carried the ball 20 times for 103 yards.
Defensively, Ben D'Andrea (Calgary, Alta.) led Queen's with seven tackles, while Derek Wiggan (Toronto, Ont.) had six tackles and a sack. The Gaels sacked Quinlan five times, for 27 yards. Steve Ventresca and Aram Eisho (both Hamilton, Ont.) led McMaster with nine tackles each.
The Marauders finished the game with a 517-428 edge in total yards, and with 27 first downs to the Gaels' 26. The Gaels committed five turnovers, four on downs, while McMaster made none.
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GAELS FALL IN HAMILTON
By Claude Scilley, Kingston Whig Standard
Should the Queen's Golden Gaels be pleased to have put on their big-boy pads in the second half and thoroughly dominated the No.1-ranked university team in the land for the final 20 minutes of their football game Saturday?
Or should they be upset that it took them so long to convince themselves that they could, indeed, play with the McMaster Marauders that it was too late to avoid a 33-20 defeat?
"If you don't take encouragement from this game you're back to the drawing board with everything, and I don't think we're back to the drawing board," said Queen's quarterback Billy McPhee.
"We're still a very good football team. We can play with the best team in the nation.
"It's an encouraging feeling but it's not a good feeling, by any means."
Gaels coach Pat Sheahan agreed.
"We're close but not at their level just yet," he said of the defending Vanier Cup champions. "We know what the standard is. We've just got to take care of our business the rest of the season. We need to play better than that early in the game.
"The kids don't feel like they were out-classed, but they feel that at times they were out-played, and that's important."
On a sunny afternoon, in almost any dimension you'd care to name Queen's did not play well in the first half. McMaster quarterback Kyle Quinlan masterfully dissected the Gaels' secondary, and two touchdowns came on long plays where the coverage was badly blown.
McPhee was under siege and as a result, of his eight first-half completions, six were for eight yards or less. When McMaster scored twice in the final 79 seconds of the first half, the Marauders went into the break with a 26-3 lead.
Queen's ended the first half with just 122 yards of total offence and things got worse as the second half began. The Gaels failed on each of their first two possessions on third-and-short gambles, though McMaster failed to capitalize. The next time they had the ball the Gaels decided to punt, but a wobbly snap sent Dillon Wamsley scrambling and he came up short. McMaster took the ball on the Queen's 28-yard line.
Three plays later the Marauders were in the end zone again and with a 33-3 lead 10 minutes into the third quarter, it looked like Queen's was poised to suffer the same fate as McMaster's first three opponents this year ― a defeat by 40 points or more.
From a freshman, however, came inspiration. Doug Corby, a backup receiver from Burlington who missed his previous game with a hand injury, returned the subsequent kickoff 73 yards. Ryan Granberg's touchdown five plays later cut the gap to 33-10.
Over the final 20 minutes of the game, Queen's was as dominant of McMaster as the Marauders had been in the first half. In that time, the Gaels had 294 yards of offence and 20 first downs. In the fourth quarter, McPhee, completing 13 of 14 pass attempts at one point, threw for 165 yards.
The finish would have been much more interesting had Queen's not had three splendid fourth-quarter drives end in misadventure.
On the first, Queen's moved from its own 10-yard line to the McMaster 20 in 11 plays. On second down McPhee lost his footing when he tripped over one of his own lineman's feet. Then Wamsley missed a 33-yard field goal.
Queen's was successful on two third-down gambles on its next drive, but it stalled when Scott Macdonell fumbled after catching a pass at the McMaster 36.
After moving 60 yards in three plays for a Justin Chapdelaine touchdown at 10:58, Queen's got the ball back with 2:25 to play and marched from its own 40 ― succeeding on third down three times ― and was first-and-goal from the McMaster seven-yard line.
Three incomplete passes later, the Gaels' last breath was spent.
"I'd feel better about the whole thing if we'd scored there at the end," Sheahan said. "We had two chances, one where (Giovanni) Aprile had the guy beat and was wide open. Unfortunately we didn't connect. (The pass on third down to Curtis) Carmichael, it would have been a tough catch but it was the kind of catch that their guys were making today."
For the 408 yards McMaster gained in the first half, the Marauders had put remarkably little distance between themselves and Queen's, with just a 16-3 lead with less than two minutes to play. Then came a 45-yard field goal and, when Queen's couldn't at least kill the clock, a touchdown by Kingston's Ben O'Connor, on a 50-yard pass from Quinlan, with 21 seconds left in the half.
"That kind of shocked me," Sheahan said. "What I wanted to do was just be in it by halftime because we're kind of late starters. For whatever reason, this team comes alive in the second half.
"I thought we were going to go into the half down 16-3, which wasn't great, but it's better than 26-3. The good news is the kids didn't quit, they came out and played in the second half."
McMaster coach Stefan Ptasek lamented that his team didn't play a complete game.
"(Queen's) is a good football team. If you don't play at your top for four quarters they're going to get you."
The difference from the first half to the fourth quarter, Ptasek said, was the play of McPhee.
"Billy settled down, he started to hit his checks, he was patient and he was stretching the field very well horizontally," Ptasek said.
"That was impressive to watch. He found a rhythm. He got settled into that pocket and he was more comfortable. They started to move the pocket a little bit, which bought him some time.
"They're extremely well coached and they cleaned up some of their protection schemes at halftime and that's part of the reason he had more time."
McPhee said it wasn't necessarily that complicated.
"I think we just looked ourselves in the mirror," he said, "and realized, hey, we can play with these guys … it's just a matter of doing it, executing, finishing, and I think we came out realizing that, you know what? All it takes is one big play and we're rolling."
Notes:
Queen's: First defeat of the season for the nation's No. 5-ranked team comes despite touchdowns by Ryan Granberg and Justin Chapdelaine and a 42-yard FG by Dillon Wamsley
Marauders: TDs from Robert Babic and Frontenac Secondary School grad Ben O'Connor, on passes of 35 and 50 yards from QB Kyle Quinlan, who scores the other TD himself. Tyler Crapigna kicks FGs of 31, 20, 40 and 45 yards
The game: Unbeaten and No. 1-ranked McMaster thoroughly dominates the first half, and 10 points in the final 79 seconds gives Marauders a 26-3 lead at the break; it's 33-3 when Queen's comes alive and is as dominant of the final 20 minutes as Mac was of the first 40
Billy McPhee: Queen's QB throws for 320 yards, 223 of it in the final 20 minutes; completes 13 of 14 passes at one point in the fourth quarter
Kyle Quinlan: McMaster QB is 24-for-35 for 348 yards
Mike Sullivan: Queen's C leaves the game with an injured left leg midway through the first half; he spends the rest of the day on crutches
Tailbacks: McMaster's Kasean Davis-Reynolds carries 17 times for 132 yards; Granberg 20 times for 103 yards, the 12th 100-yard game of his career, the ninth in his last 11games
Read MoreAll photos are by Jeff Chan. Jeff is past Chairman of the Vanier Cup - Canada's University Football Championship and the Premier University Event in Canada, and was a member of the Canadian College Bowl Board and Vanier Cup Organizing Committee from 1978-2000.
All photos are Copyright (c) Jeff Chan 2000-2012, and may be used for personal non-commercial applications including by Queen's University, the CIS and its member conferences, so long as photo credits are shown or the photos are otherwise attributed to Jeff Chan. All other rights, including for all corporate use, are reserved.
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QUEEN'S 20, McMASTER 33
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SLOW FIRST HALF DOOMS NO. 5 GAELS IN LOSS TO NO. 1 McMASTER
By John Edwards, Queen's Sports Information
A slow first half doomed the No. 5-ranked Queen's Gaels as they fell, 33-20, to the No. 1-ranked McMaster Marauders in OUA football action at Ron Joyce Stadium, Saturday. The Gaels trailed 26-3 after the first half, as the Marauders scored touchdowns on their first and last possessions of the half, sandwiching four field goals by Tyler Crapigna (Nepean, Ont.)
“The first half got away from us,” said Pat Sheahan, the Gaels' head coach. “But we opened it up in the second half and put up nearly 300 yards. We learned some things about our team, and what we have to do.”
McMaster opened the scoring at 1:48, as Robert Babic (Oakville, Ont.) caught a 35-yard pass from Kyle Quinlan (South Woodslee, Ont.), completing a five-play, 90-yard opening drive. The Gaels responded with a 42-yard field goal from Dillon Wamsley (London, Ont.), cutting the gap to 7-3. The Marauders stretched their lead throughout the half via the right foot of Crapigna on placements of 31, 21, 40 and 45 yards. The Marauders' other first-half major came with 21 seconds left, as Ben O'Connor (Kingston, Ont.) caught a 50-yard pass from Quinlan for his first career score. The Marauders held a wide edge statistically after the first half, outgaining the Gaels 408-122, and making 17 first downs to only six for the Gaels.
After a Quinlan run stretched the lead to 33-3 early in the third, the Gaels mounted a late comeback. A two-yard run by Ryan Granberg (Sherwood Park, Alta.) cut the margin to 33-10 late in the third, his seventh touchdown of the season. After a Wamsley single, Billy McPhee (Burlington, Ont.) hooked up with Justin Chapdelaine (Abbotsford, B.C.) on a nine-yard pass, cutting the gap to 33-18 with four minutes to go. Late, the Gaels had first and goal on the McMaster 7-yard line, but were unable to convert on three pass attempts. A Queen's safety touch on the game's penultimate play rounded out the scoring.
Queen's outgained McMaster in the second half, 306 yards to 109, and made 20 second-half first downs, to only nine for the Marauders.
Quinlan went 25-for-36 for 340 yards with two touchdowns. He also ran eight times for 76 yards. Kasean Davis-Reynolds (Mississauga, Ont.) led McMaster on the ground with 17 carries for 132 yards. The Marauders' leading receiver was Babic, with nine catches for 104 yards.
For Queen's, McPhee went 29-for-46 for 320 yards, his second 300-yard game in three weeks. Giovanni Aprile (Toronto, Ont.) led the Gaels' receivers with 103 receiving yards on six catches, while Chapdelaine has seven catches for 70 yards and Scott Macdonnell (Montreal, Que.) made seven catches for 74 yards. Granberg carried the ball 20 times for 103 yards.
Defensively, Ben D'Andrea (Calgary, Alta.) led Queen's with seven tackles, while Derek Wiggan (Toronto, Ont.) had six tackles and a sack. The Gaels sacked Quinlan five times, for 27 yards. Steve Ventresca and Aram Eisho (both Hamilton, Ont.) led McMaster with nine tackles each.
The Marauders finished the game with a 517-428 edge in total yards, and with 27 first downs to the Gaels' 26. The Gaels committed five turnovers, four on downs, while McMaster made none.
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GAELS FALL IN HAMILTON
By Claude Scilley, Kingston Whig Standard
Should the Queen's Golden Gaels be pleased to have put on their big-boy pads in the second half and thoroughly dominated the No.1-ranked university team in the land for the final 20 minutes of their football game Saturday?
Or should they be upset that it took them so long to convince themselves that they could, indeed, play with the McMaster Marauders that it was too late to avoid a 33-20 defeat?
"If you don't take encouragement from this game you're back to the drawing board with everything, and I don't think we're back to the drawing board," said Queen's quarterback Billy McPhee.
"We're still a very good football team. We can play with the best team in the nation.
"It's an encouraging feeling but it's not a good feeling, by any means."
Gaels coach Pat Sheahan agreed.
"We're close but not at their level just yet," he said of the defending Vanier Cup champions. "We know what the standard is. We've just got to take care of our business the rest of the season. We need to play better than that early in the game.
"The kids don't feel like they were out-classed, but they feel that at times they were out-played, and that's important."
On a sunny afternoon, in almost any dimension you'd care to name Queen's did not play well in the first half. McMaster quarterback Kyle Quinlan masterfully dissected the Gaels' secondary, and two touchdowns came on long plays where the coverage was badly blown.
McPhee was under siege and as a result, of his eight first-half completions, six were for eight yards or less. When McMaster scored twice in the final 79 seconds of the first half, the Marauders went into the break with a 26-3 lead.
Queen's ended the first half with just 122 yards of total offence and things got worse as the second half began. The Gaels failed on each of their first two possessions on third-and-short gambles, though McMaster failed to capitalize. The next time they had the ball the Gaels decided to punt, but a wobbly snap sent Dillon Wamsley scrambling and he came up short. McMaster took the ball on the Queen's 28-yard line.
Three plays later the Marauders were in the end zone again and with a 33-3 lead 10 minutes into the third quarter, it looked like Queen's was poised to suffer the same fate as McMaster's first three opponents this year ― a defeat by 40 points or more.
From a freshman, however, came inspiration. Doug Corby, a backup receiver from Burlington who missed his previous game with a hand injury, returned the subsequent kickoff 73 yards. Ryan Granberg's touchdown five plays later cut the gap to 33-10.
Over the final 20 minutes of the game, Queen's was as dominant of McMaster as the Marauders had been in the first half. In that time, the Gaels had 294 yards of offence and 20 first downs. In the fourth quarter, McPhee, completing 13 of 14 pass attempts at one point, threw for 165 yards.
The finish would have been much more interesting had Queen's not had three splendid fourth-quarter drives end in misadventure.
On the first, Queen's moved from its own 10-yard line to the McMaster 20 in 11 plays. On second down McPhee lost his footing when he tripped over one of his own lineman's feet. Then Wamsley missed a 33-yard field goal.
Queen's was successful on two third-down gambles on its next drive, but it stalled when Scott Macdonell fumbled after catching a pass at the McMaster 36.
After moving 60 yards in three plays for a Justin Chapdelaine touchdown at 10:58, Queen's got the ball back with 2:25 to play and marched from its own 40 ― succeeding on third down three times ― and was first-and-goal from the McMaster seven-yard line.
Three incomplete passes later, the Gaels' last breath was spent.
"I'd feel better about the whole thing if we'd scored there at the end," Sheahan said. "We had two chances, one where (Giovanni) Aprile had the guy beat and was wide open. Unfortunately we didn't connect. (The pass on third down to Curtis) Carmichael, it would have been a tough catch but it was the kind of catch that their guys were making today."
For the 408 yards McMaster gained in the first half, the Marauders had put remarkably little distance between themselves and Queen's, with just a 16-3 lead with less than two minutes to play. Then came a 45-yard field goal and, when Queen's couldn't at least kill the clock, a touchdown by Kingston's Ben O'Connor, on a 50-yard pass from Quinlan, with 21 seconds left in the half.
"That kind of shocked me," Sheahan said. "What I wanted to do was just be in it by halftime because we're kind of late starters. For whatever reason, this team comes alive in the second half.
"I thought we were going to go into the half down 16-3, which wasn't great, but it's better than 26-3. The good news is the kids didn't quit, they came out and played in the second half."
McMaster coach Stefan Ptasek lamented that his team didn't play a complete game.
"(Queen's) is a good football team. If you don't play at your top for four quarters they're going to get you."
The difference from the first half to the fourth quarter, Ptasek said, was the play of McPhee.
"Billy settled down, he started to hit his checks, he was patient and he was stretching the field very well horizontally," Ptasek said.
"That was impressive to watch. He found a rhythm. He got settled into that pocket and he was more comfortable. They started to move the pocket a little bit, which bought him some time.
"They're extremely well coached and they cleaned up some of their protection schemes at halftime and that's part of the reason he had more time."
McPhee said it wasn't necessarily that complicated.
"I think we just looked ourselves in the mirror," he said, "and realized, hey, we can play with these guys … it's just a matter of doing it, executing, finishing, and I think we came out realizing that, you know what? All it takes is one big play and we're rolling."
Notes:
Queen's: First defeat of the season for the nation's No. 5-ranked team comes despite touchdowns by Ryan Granberg and Justin Chapdelaine and a 42-yard FG by Dillon Wamsley
Marauders: TDs from Robert Babic and Frontenac Secondary School grad Ben O'Connor, on passes of 35 and 50 yards from QB Kyle Quinlan, who scores the other TD himself. Tyler Crapigna kicks FGs of 31, 20, 40 and 45 yards
The game: Unbeaten and No. 1-ranked McMaster thoroughly dominates the first half, and 10 points in the final 79 seconds gives Marauders a 26-3 lead at the break; it's 33-3 when Queen's comes alive and is as dominant of the final 20 minutes as Mac was of the first 40
Billy McPhee: Queen's QB throws for 320 yards, 223 of it in the final 20 minutes; completes 13 of 14 passes at one point in the fourth quarter
Kyle Quinlan: McMaster QB is 24-for-35 for 348 yards
Mike Sullivan: Queen's C leaves the game with an injured left leg midway through the first half; he spends the rest of the day on crutches
Tailbacks: McMaster's Kasean Davis-Reynolds carries 17 times for 132 yards; Granberg 20 times for 103 yards, the 12th 100-yard game of his career, the ninth in his last 11games
