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HEADLINES

Gaiters face Stingers in Homecoming contest
Coaching staff looking for consistency

By Mike Hickey, Special to the Record
Lennoxville, Sept. 22, 2005 - The Bishop’s Gaiters football coaching staff is looking for more consistency from their squad when they take on the nationally ranked Concordia Stingers Saturday afternoon in the school ‘s annual Homecoming Game that will be televised by RDS beginning at 1:30 p.m.

That was the theme as head coach Leroy Blugh and coordinators Marc Loranger and Tony Addona met with fans at the weekly Gaiter Touchdown Club at the Old Lennoxville Golf Club.

“We want to be more consistent on offense and the problem that we are starting so many young players on both sides of the ball,” Addona said. “One of the questions we have to ask ourselves is ‘are we getting beat or are beating ourselves?’ In our first game against Concordia we play well in the second half and partially because we were moving the ball and had good field position most of the half.”

“It was nice to Jamaal (freshman running back Jamaal Lee) run for a 93-yard touchdown run against Laval last week and we would like to see more of that.”

That will mean getting the ball into Lee’s hands more often, something that Addona will try to do tomorrow.

“Certainly we would like to get him more touches and Leroy has been talking to me about that,” Addona said. “The problem is that we need a more consistent effort from our offensive line. They have done a good job at pass protection but they need to improve on pushing the defense off the line of scrimmage. They have to do a better job in opening up creases so the runners can find a hole.”

While Addona realizes the team needs to run more, he is wary of leaving rookie quarterback Joel Lefebvre is too many second-and-long situations against a team that loves to blitz. He also wants to build up the confidence on his 18-year-old quarterback, confidence that was shaken in last week’s loss to the Laval Rouge et Or.

Despite a rough outing in Quebec City Lefebvre has acquitted himself well since taking over for Kyle Williams in the first game of the season and is presently ranked 13th among the country’s quarterbacks.

Defensively the Gaiters are looking to continue to show improvement, improvement that was evident to Loranger in last Sunday’s game despite the one-sided score.

“We watch film with the players and they know that they can do better, much better,” Loranger said. “We can see the potential of these guys but right now we need more consistency.”

The Gaiters are facing a potent passing attack that features quarterback Scott Syrvet and the country’s leading receiver Dan Mott and Juan Scott.

“This is a team that likes to go vertical, they want to pas the ball downfield,” Loranger said. “We have to be patient and limit what they get on first down and force into second-and-long.”

Concordia’s speed presents problems for Bishop’s special teams but Blugh is confident that his units will be up to the task.

“They have one defensive back (Sammy Okpro) who has so much speed it presents quite a challenge,” Blugh said. “We have a core of 24 players on special teams and I think they are doing a great job. Our kick coverage has been very good. You watch someone like Kevin Mailloux on special teams and it is really something. He goes down and hits someone, gets back on up and gets hit, gets back up and then hits someone else. You gotta love it.”