BY Earl Zukerman
Box Score
MONTREAL – O’Shane Daley, a fifth-year defensive back from Scarborough, Ont., kicked a fumbled ball into the endzone for a rouge with 11 seconds remaining as No.8-ranked Bishop’s outlasted McGill 30-29 in CIS football at Molson Stadium, Friday.
Bishop’s, which has won three of their games by a single point, improved to 4-2, while McGill dropped to 3-3.
With less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation time, McGill punted from their 14-yard line to Bishop’s return specialist Ryon McCalla, who fumbled after being tackled by McGill’s Simon Lamontagne. The loose ball was then kicked into the endzone by Daley and was ruled a single point after Redmen linebacker Chris O’Kill fell on it to end the play.
The game was overshadowed by a neck injury to Gaiters defensive back Jonathan Fortin early in the fourth quarter. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound freshman from Sherbrooke was injured while tackling McGill quarterback Jonathan Collin at the Bishop’s goal line. Fortin lay motionless on the field during a 28-minute delay but was conscious and able to speak, according to Bishop’s staff. Both teams huddled together at mid-field in prayer and he was put on a spinal board and sent to hospital, accompanied by his father, in an ambulance. According to a Bishop’s spokesman, initial tests from a CT scan indicated nothing broken and Fortin had no numbness in his extremities. He was to remain hospitalized overnight for further tests.
The two teams combined for 27 penalties, eight fumbles and two interceptions, to go along with 63 first downs and 1,023 yards of net offence, split almost evenly, in a wild affair that had the Gaiters leading 22-5 at halftime. McGill rallied in the second half to take a 29-22 lead on Collin’s one-yard plunge only 65 seconds into the fourth quarter before BU tied it at 29-29 with 2:15 remaining on a three-yard touchdown run by quarterback Jordan Heather of Oromocto, N.B.
It was a case of dueling quarterbacks, with Heather completing 27 of 43 pass attempts for 438 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Collin, a senior from Greenfield Park, Que., who had lost his status as a starter the previous week, was a surprise starter for the Redmen when freshman Pierre-Luc Dussault was deemed unable to go in the wake of an undisclosed injury.
Collin responded with a 22-for-38 performance, for 320 yards, one TD and two interceptions. He also rushed 10 times for 51 yards and a pair of TDs.
Heather hooked up with senior receiver Stephen Adekolu of Brampton, Ont., four times for 72 yards, including back-to-back TD strikes of 16 and 41 yards to put the Gaiters ahead 19-5 before the five-minute mark of the second quarter.
Mathieu Paquette of Sherbrooke then added a 10-yard field-goal, to go along with his previous ones from 43 and 38 yards, to send Bishop’s into halftime with a 22-5 lead.
Collin, however, boosted McGill’s offence in the second half. He engineered a nine-play scoring drive, capped by his own three-yard keeper to narrow the gap to 22-12 at 6:46 of the third quarter.
Less than three minutes later, McGill place-kicker Samy Rassy of Montreal connected on a 25-yard field-goal. Bishop’s fumbled on the ensuing kickoff, which led to Collin hooking up with Jean-Philippe Paquette three plays later for a 21-yard scoring major to knot the score at 22-22 heading into the final stanza. Paquette, a senior from Trois-Rivieres, led all receivers with 167 yards on eight receptions. He finished with an impressive 239 all-purpose yards on 14 touches.
Teammate Luis Guimont-Mota of Quebec City posted a game-high 168 rushing yards on 27 carries, going over the century mark for the fifth time in six games. He also caught two balls for 19 yards.
In other games around the RSEQ conference, Montreal (3-2) plays at Sherbrooke (2-3) on Saturday at 1 p.m., while Concordia (0-5) travels to Laval (5-0) on Sunday on Sunday (1:30 p.m.).
The Quebec league is entering a bye week, so Bishop’s is off until traveling to Concordia on Oct. 19, while the Redmen will host the Montreal Carabins in the McGill Homecoming Game the same day.
REDMEN RAP: McGill’s 48-man dresslist featured 29 players who were either in the freshman or sophomore year… Defensively, linebackers Zachary Lord and Jesse Briggs led the Redmen with 8.5 and seven tackles, respectively.
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