@ Queen’s (3-1 OUA) Saturday, September 29, 1 p.m. at Richardson Stadium
The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees football team will travel to Kingston on September 29 to take on the Queen’s Gaels who are ranked fifth in the country in the CIS Top 10 poll. This past week both the Gee-Gees and the Gaels suffered defeats, as Ottawa went down 35-27 to the Laurier Golden Hawks while Queen’s came up short in a 33-20 loss to the McMaster Marauders.
While the Gee-Gees’ loss was their fourth of the season, the defence played its best game to date, as Ottawa scored two safeties in addition to racking up five sacks, five forced fumbles, and 14 tackles for losses. Fourth-year defensive back Matt Bond-Lapointe had a key interception against Laurier, gaining 35 yards on the interception return.
“Overall, I thought our defence played really well. I believe we had six takeaways and that’s enough to win most football games,” said Gee-Gees head coach Gary Etcheverry.
The Gee-Gees led 25-17 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter, but ended up being outscored 18-2 the rest of the game which led to the loss. The defence, which was dominant throughout the first three quarters, looked a little bit tired by the fourth quarter as Laurier ended up having an advantage of almost 14 minutes in terms of time of possession. Fifth-year linebacker Tyler Sawyer did end up having a career day for uOttawa on defence, garnering nine tackles, three tackles for losses, three pass breakups, two sacks, and two forced fumbles.
“The defence was on the field for over 80 snaps, and any defence is going to be tired after that, but we were in the game until the very end,” said Etcheverry. “[Sawyer] played his best game of this year, as did a few other guys and that was really promising. Obviously, we’re working our tails off to build off of that.”
Offensively, fourth-year quarterback Aaron Colbon injured his hand in the second quarter of the game against Laurier but is expected to return in time for the Queen’s matchup. Colbon was 3 of 6 passing with 149 passing yards and a touchdown before leaving the game.
“All indications are that he’s okay. He’s out there flying around and throwing the ball so I think he’s ready to go,” said Etcheverry. “He’s incredibly vital to what we do on offence.”
Queen’s will provide another stiff challenge for the Gee-Gees as they were previously undefeated until suffering a loss to the top-ranked team in the country in McMaster.
“Queen’s is a really good football team. They’re arguably one of the best teams in the OUA. We really have to concentrate and keep our nose to the grindstone to prepare for them and to expect to defeat them,” said Etcheverry.
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