Marauder men off to a flying start

Two games, two wins. So far, so good.

The McMaster football team opened their regular season with a 40-10 win over Canadian Interuniversity Sport no. 9 ranked Carleton, in front of a sellout crowd at Ron Joyce Stadium, most of whom were frosh students getting their first look at Marauder football. One week later, in a Labour day clash at Tim Hortons Field, Mac once again flexed their muscles in a dominating 32-5 victory over Toronto.

Mac’s balanced offence has looked impressive thus far.  Quarterback Asher Hastings has shown no signs of rust, leading the way with over 300 yards per game and five touchdowns.  Three of these touchdowns have gone to CIS first-team wide receiver Danny Vandervoort, who has registered over 100 yards receiving over the first two games of the season while making big-time plays (including a deep one-handed grab against Toronto) and making opposing defences helpless.

The excellent chemistry between the two has grown even more since the end of last season.

“We basically picked up where we started off,” Vandervoort said, after their victory over Carleton. “We had good chemistry at East-West [Bowl] too, we were actually roommates there. Hopefully it carries on for the rest of the season.

Chris Pezzetta – returning from an ACL injury that kept him out of the 2015 campaign – has balanced the offensive attack on the ground, rushing for over 100 yards against Toronto this past Monday behind a powerful offensive line.

Even after all these years (Pezzetta started in 2011, the same year McMaster won the Vanier), the team still relies on him to carry the load on his back.

“The o-line was big today, especially in the second half,” Pezzetta noted after the win on Monday.  “They created holes and made my job a lot easier.”

Perhaps more impressivehas been the dominance of the Marauder defence.  The defensive schemes created by Knox and co-defensive coordinators Joe Sardo and Mark Forsyth, have held teams to 54 rushing yards per game (2nd best in the OUA) and 15 points over two games (4th best).

“One thing that’s helped us has been playing with a lead, which allows us to be a little more conservative and make the offense move the ball in small chunks rather than over the top,” Knox said.  “Probably our biggest success has been limiting explosion plays, which are really the only things that will hurt us.  So [we are] making offenses work for everything they get.”

An improvement from the 2015 season has been the special teams, specifically the performance from first year kicker Adam Preocanin, who thus far has remained perfect in field goal attempts, tallying 15 and 20 points respectively in his first two games.

“He showed a great deal of poise for us for a young man,” Knox said.  “He’s stepped up, vand right now we have a lot of confidence in him.”

McMaster hits the road this Saturday for the first time this season against the 1-0 Ottawa Gee-Gees. While only two games in, all signs point to optimism for a successful season, and for Mac fans, hopefully a deep playoff run in November.