“So we were doing patchwork until halftime. We made about three changes in terms of where the guys lined up and that really set us down.”
The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees faced the University of Windsor Lancers at TD Place on a Saturday afternoon. Although they put in great effort, it wasn’t enough to secure the victory, as the Lancers triumphed with a score of 42-31.
The game kicked off with a decidedly one-sided first half. Windsor’s offense kept the Gee-Gees pinned in their own territory for most of this period. The Gee-Gees’ defense excelled in defending against the run, limiting the Lancers to an average of just 3.6 yards per carry. However, they struggled to contain the passing game, with the opposing quarterback completing 24 passes on 32 attempts, accumulating 286 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.
At halftime, the score stood at 32-10, seemingly indicating a lopsided contest. Yet, a positive shift in energy emerged in the second half.The team showed significant improvement in the latter half of the game, executing big plays to stage a comeback.
Running back Amlicar Polk picked up where he left off in Week 2, rushing for 109 yards and scoring two touchdowns, one of which came from a remarkable 49-yard run. Wide receiver Nicholas Gendron had a stellar performance, securing three receptions for 129 yards and scoring a beautiful touchdown on a perfectly-executed trick play.
The play unfolded as follows: Quarterback Ryan Licantro snapped the ball, then executed a backward lateral pass to his backup, Matt Mahler. Mahler, in turn, passed the ball to Gendron, who astonishingly covered 30 yards and created a 20-yard separation from the cornerback covering him in just five seconds. Upon catching the ball, Gendron accelerated into the endzone, leaving spectators in awe.
“Well, you know, we were kind of building up for that play the whole game,” Gendron said about the play. “And we saw that the DBs were pretty aggressive on the run. So, you just stutter a little bit, then you just take off and the DBs, they’re not sound when it comes to that. So we saw it on tape, we took advantage of it, and it was a beautiful ball with even better protection there.” It was a play that had to be seen to be believed.
Coach Bellefeuille discussed how the team improved its pass defense and their plans for the next game: “So what happened at halftime is we had two (safeties), we had a starter go out for a penalty, get ejected, and then we had the other safety get knocked out injury-wise.”
“We didn’t have a third safety, so we put someone in there just to get through the half, and then we had another starting halfback get hurt and now we had three starters go down. So we were doing patchwork until halftime.” Bellefeuille continued; “We made about three changes in terms of where the guys lined up and that really set us down. More importantly, it allowed us to call more different defense parts because we couldn’t call certain things with the guys all in position and all these young guys in the game.”
Despite the loss, the team aims to bounce back as they prepare to face the number one team at Western next Saturday. The game will be free to watch on OUA.tv.
