Thursday, November 12th 2009

By david koots

Six minutes into the first quarter, the Marauders football team conceded their first of four safeties on the day in order to prevent punting into a fierce, game changing wind.

The safety would give the Queen’s Gaels an early 2-0 lead, a lead they would never relinquish on route to defeating the Marauders 32-6 in their OUA semifinal at Richardson Stadium in Kingston.

The win advances the Gaels to the 102nd Yates Cup, in which they will host the Western Mustangs. Western defeated the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks in the other conference semi.

“The bottom line was we didn’t execute at a particularly high level on the offensive end,” said McMaster head coach Stefan Ptaszek. “That’s one of the best defences in the country. You cannot be average on offence and have any success against them, you gotta be very very crisp, and we were not.”

The Marauder defence was up against OUA All-Star quarterback Danny Brannagan (Burlington, ON) and a powerful Gaels offence, but the unit stood its ground and limited Queen’s offensive gains. Ptaszek praised his defences play on the day, expressing his belief that they are among the best in the province.

“I thought Mr. Brannagan who usually throws for three to four hundred plus looked a little uncomfortable today and our kids hung in and survived and we put them in a lot of bad situations so defensively I thought we were great.”

Brannagan accumulated 161 yards passing while running backs Marty Gordon (Kingston, ON) and Jimmy Therrien (Montreal, QC) added 57 and 89 rushing yards, respectively.

The McMaster offence had to contend with the wind all day and was held to a pair of Andy Waugh (Perth, ON) field goals, their second touchdownless game against Queen’s in 2009 after dropping the regular season matchup 8-7. Mac almost broke the touchdown drought when second-year quarterback Kyle Quinlan (South Woodslee, ON) found running back Jordan Kozina (Brantford, ON) open in the end zone on third down late in the first half, but Kozina could not hold on to the ball.

“Jordan’s going to make that catch 99 times out of 100, and it was the one time out of 100 he didn’t make the catch,” said coach Ptaszek after the game.

Turnovers proved to be critical for both teams as the Gaels first two majors of the day were created thanks to turnovers deep in Marauder territory. On the first of Quinlan’s three interceptions, the Gaels’ defensive front forced him out of the pocket and in desperation he threw the ball into double coverage where defensive back Matt Vickers (Stittsville, ON) came down with the ball at McMaster’s 35-yard line. In the second quarter, Waugh was set up to punt on third down but let the snap get away from him and had to fall on the ball, giving Queen’s the ball on the 22-yard line. Five plays later, Therrien would punch the ball in from a yard out.

Queen’s would turn over the ball twice in the dying minutes of the second quarter, as James Edwards (Hamilton, ON) would recover a fumble at the Gaels’ 28-yard line, setting up Kozina’s drop five plays later. After the turnover on downs, Brannagan and the Queen’s offence attempted to move the ball out of their own end, but a second late fumble would give the Marauders back the ball and lead to a 19-yard Waugh field goal.

“There were some mistakes in the ballgame, fortunately we made [fewer],” said Queen’s head coach Pat Sheahan. “In all honesty, today, we looked like the team that should be moving on. I don’t think that’s any slight on anybody, I think from the get-go we came out and came after it.”

The Queen’s defence came out fired up, and limited the Marauders all day long. McMaster, the second best rushing team in the conference, finished with only 130 yards on the ground while adding 218 yards through the air.

“That’s the irony of the difference between them and some of the other teams in our conference,” Said Ptaszek about the Queen’s defence. “Other teams in our conference, to shut down our run game, blitz and take chances and Queen’s is able to slow our run game down just sitting there and playing their base stuff so they’re not getting out of position to do what they need to do.”

First year receiver Matt Dicroce (Hamilton, ON) had one of the more unusual days in OUA football, catching five passes for 80 yards, rushing once for seven more, and passing twice for 25 yards. To cap things off, Dicroce also returned four kicks for 56 yards and punted twice for 66 yards.

“[Dicroce] is one of several first year kids that’s not playing like a first year kid anymore,” said Ptaszek. “Mike is an extremely talented athlete.”

The loss spells not only the end of Mac’s 2009 season, but also the end of the playing careers for several Marauder stalwarts. Edwards, Justin Vince (London, ON) and Matt Giordano (Hamilton, ON) are all in their last year, and chances are good that other players will not be returning for 2010.

“I hope they take some pride in the fact that they taught a young football team that they can compete with the top four in this conference and if they take a few more steps, maybe we won’t be done in the semi-finals in years to come, so they have set us up for success,” said coach Ptaszek about his veterans.

“The good news is that is a team that had 12 first year guys out there and that is very young and it’s not laden with fourth and fifth year kids like the team we played across the way. So the future is definitely bright, wanted to take our shot at someone who thinks the future is now for their program in the Queen’s Golden Gaels and we took our shot, we went down swinging.”

On Wednesday the OUA released its All-Star team, with offensive guard Justin Glover (Hamilton, ON) and linebacker Ryan Chmielewski (St. Catharines, ON) getting first team nods. Offensive tackle Matt Sewell (Milton, ON), defensive end Steve Cecchini (Thorold, ON), halfback Byron Metcalfe (Pickering, ON) and cornerback Cody Lynch (Stoney Creek, ON) were all named to the second team.

Tags: byron metcalfe, cody lynch, football, james edwards, justin glover, ryan chmielewski, Stefan Ptaszek, Steve Cecchini