the game isn’t over till the last whistle
On Saturday, the U of O’s football team went face to face against the Windsor Lancers. The Lancers entered the game ranked sixth nationally, making the 14th ranked Gee-Gees underdogs. Windsor ultimately defeated Ottawa team 21-18, with a last-second win ensuring their four-game winning streak to kick off the season was safe.
The face-off started with a huge energy spurt for Windsor as Brady Lidster kicked off the game with a rouge-point kick, starting off strong with a one-point lead, which he would later repeat in the second quarter.
The rest of the first quarter continued Lancer’s conquest over the field with a team safety and Brady Lidster’s 30-yard field goal with 10 seconds left, making the score for the first quarter 6-0. Ottawa barely responded in the second quarter, with one impactful play in the whole 15 minutes. Zach Copeland scored a 31-yard field goal, creating the first three points for Ottawa on the scoreboard. The score at halftime was 7-3.
During the third quarter, Windsor continued showing up and did not let the Gee-Gees add more than one point on the scoreboard, which Copeland scored with just under seven minutes remaining on the clock.
However, with the defence acting so strong, the offence fired up, and Windsor scored a touchdown with a play by Cunningham from a pass by Skelton, adding 6 points to the already leading team and ending the quarter with Brady Lidster creating a 10-point difference between both teams with a kick.
The final quarter seemed to be when the Gee-Gees final showed up and took the Windsor’s touchdown as a wake-up call. Receiver Romeo Lussier caught a 12-yard pass from quarterback Josh Janssen, followed by a kick, shortening the point distance to 14-11.
Charles Asselin made a fantastic 13-yard run, with its respective kick, making all attendees grasp at their side and see the scoreboard switch teams, showcasing Ottawa in the lead with 18-14 points with under a minute remaining.
However, as everyone knows, the game isn’t over till the last whistle. The Lancers took a massive opportunity to rekindle their team’s energy and throw the audience for a loop in the last seconds of the game with a touchdown.
U of O surprised us immediately after that with an unexpected play. A long hail mary pass, which later resulted in two Gee-Gee’s fumbles, was unexpectedly caught by one of our own who landed in the endzone.
Unfortunately, the referees ruled that at least one of the fumbles was a forward pass, negating the touchdown and ending the game.
Gee-Gees head coach Marcel Bellefeuille expressed the team “overcame a lot of adversity to be in the position we were … there were many injuries that required the back ups to come in and play … the team showed grit and stayed very positive throughout the game.”
Ottawa’s next game, their last before the famous Panda, is 1 p.m. next Saturday at Laurier. Make sure to catch it online and show your support.
