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Football: Gaiters
head to Montreal for QUFL Semifinal matchup November 5, 2009
THIS WEEK: The Bishop’s Gaiters (4-4) visit the No. 8-ranked Montreal Carbins (5-3) in a QUFL semifinal game. FOLLOW, FOLLOW: Fans can follow all Gaiters action at http://www.ubishops.ca/gaiters or at http://www.twitter.com/BishopsGaiters. THE RECORDS: The Gaiters are 4-4, having rattled off three straight wins since the Thanksgiving break. The three-game winning streak is the longest for the Gaiters since their five-game run in 2007. Montreal is 5-3, having defeated Sherbrooke 14-9 last week to put an end to a two-game losing streak. LAST TIME OUT: Jesse Andrews’ seven-yard touchdown run with 26 seconds left gave the Bishop’s Gaiters a 40-38 victory over the Concordia Stingers at Coulter Field. The 1,973 wind-swept fans at Coulter Field saw a wild contest that featured 78 points, eight lead changes, and 972 yards of total offence. Andrews’ run was the culmination of a drive that started with 1:26 left on the Gaiters’ 33, with Bishop’s trailing by six. He finished 17-for-32 for 196 yards and two touchdown passes. He was also the Gaiters’ leading rusher, with six carries for 54 yards. Shawn Gore led Bishop’s with seven receptions for 84 yards. THE SERIES: The Gaiters-Carabins series is the second-longest-running of the Gaiters’ current series. The Gaiters lead the all-time series by a 17-6 margin. The first recorded meeting was a 35-1 Bishop’s win on October 16, 1926. After three years, the series went on a more than 30-year hiatus, before resuming on October 20, 1962 with the Gaiters winning 47-9. Since the Carabins’ re-launch in 2002, the Gaiters are 4-6 against Montréal (2-3 at CEPSUM). The Gaiters won this year’s only meeting, 21-16 at Coulter Field two weeks ago. This will be the first playoff meeting between the two teams. LAST MEETING: A six-yard catch by Justin Conn keyed the Bishop’s Gaiters to a 21-16 upset of the No. 4-ranked Montreal Carabins in Quebec University Football League action today at Coulter Field. The 1,573 in attendance saw Conn score on a perfectly-executed fake field goal, the highlight of a day that belonged to the Gaiters’ defence and special teams. A pair of Jesse Andrews touchdown passes (to Shawn Gore & Duraney White) rounded out the scoring. ALL HAIL THE ALL-STARS: The QUFL released its list of league All-Stars on Sunday afternoon, and two Gaiters were among the honorees. Kick Returner Steven Turner was named an all-star for the third time overall, and was a unanimous selection for the second straight time. Turner led the CIS with a an average of 20.4 yards per punt return. On defence, cornerback Nick Poloniato was named an All-Star for the first time in his career. Poloniato led the league with eight knockdowns this season. PLAYOFF TIME: The Gaiters are making their second playoff appearance in three seasons. Their last playoff game was a 34-18 loss at Concordia in 2007. Bishop’s has not advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs since 1994, when they won a pair of road games to advance to the Churchill Bowl. Overall, the Gaiters are 17-25 in the playoffs, and 10-9 in semifinals. Today’s game will mean that the Gaiters have faced every QUFL team at least once in the playoffs. WORKING THE POLL: After receiving a mere one point last week, the Gaiters moved up to 34 points in the most recent UFRC/CIS Top Ten poll. That put the Gaiters in 12th spot in the final poll, 35 points behind No. 10-ranked StFX. TAKEN UNDER CONN-SIDERATION: Gaiters linebacker Justin Conn was named the CIS Defensive Player of the Week this week, after he made ten solo tackles against Concordia on Saturday. He is a first-time winner of the award, and he is the first Gaiter to be a CIS Player of the Week since Jamall Lee won the award in September 2008. GORE RHYMES WITH SCORE: Fourth-year receiver Shawn Gore finished 2009 as the QUFL’s fourth-leading receiver, with 32 catches for 496 yards. Gore led the Gaiters with seven catches last week, and made two touchdown catches. He became the first Gaiter to catch two touchdown passes since Gilles Colon and David Delaby both scored twice on October 11, 2003 at Sherbrooke. Gore finished the season tied for second in the QUFL with five receiving touchdowns. Gore has 1154 career receiving yards in 28 regular-season games, and has caught at least one pass in his past 21 games. PICK SIX: The Gaiters’ two interception returns for touchdowns were their first since Kyle Jones scored on a 20-yard return on September 13, 2008 against Saint Mary’s. Saturday’s was also the Gaiters’ three-interception game since that SMU game. `TIS BETTER TO TAKEAWAY THAN TO GIVE: The Gaiters are currently at +5 in the takeaway / giveaway category. Last week, the Gaiters committed only one turnover but caused three Concordia turnovers (all interceptions). Since the bye, the Gaiters are + 9 in the takeaway / giveaway ratio. Since 2008, the Gaiters are 7-1 when winning the turnover battle, and 0-7 when losing it. In the Gaiters-Carabins game two weeks ago, Montreal committed seven turnovers, to the Gaiters’ one. ROUGE-O-RAMA: Today’s game matches up the two teams with the highest number of single points in the CIS this season, as the Gaiters and Carabins each scored nine. The next closest team was Queen’s, who scored eight singles. For Montreal, Pierre-Paul Gélinas scored all nine rouges, while the Gaiters’ Josh Maveety scored eight, with Justin Conn adding one. Five of the Gaiters’ singles have come on missed field goals, with two each on punts and kickoffs. TODAY IN GAITERS HISTORY: On November 7, 1964, the Gaiters shut out the Montréal Carabins 52-0 in an exhibition game at the old Bishop’s Field in Lennoxville. The Gaiters rolled up 576 yards offensively: 287 through the air and 289 by rushing, while the Carabins gained 175 yards, all by rushing. Mike Somerville and Al Gratias scored two touchdowns each, while Ross Milmine, Clem Chappel and Nils Bodtker scored one each. Gaiters’ quarterback Willie Mitchell was 8-for-10 passing, while the Carabins were 0-for-10. The Gaiters used this game to prepare for the OSLAA Championship the following week against the Ottawa Gee-Gees, which the Gaiters would go on to win 32-12—their first league crown since 1956, and the first of Bruce Coulter’s three championships. UP NEXT: The winners of the QUFL Semifinals will advance to the Dunsmore Cup, which will be played next Saturday. If Laval wins over Concordia, the game will be at Quebec City. If Concordia wins, the winner of the Bishop’s-Montreal semifinal will host the game. Kickoff is tentatively set for 12 noon. |
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