Concordia Stingers Win Third Straight Shaughnessey Cup Over Rival McGill

Trenton Miller Records Three Touchdown Passes in Stingers Win

SportsMichael Boriero — Published September 3, 2016

The Stingers captured the Shaughnessey Cup for the third year in a row, leaving head coach Mickey Donovan applauding his team’s resiliency.

“The great thing about this team is that they’re very close to each other, they don’t give up and we have great leaders,” said Donovan. “Especially our quarterback, Trenton Miller, the guy is special and to be able to bounce back in the second half and to have a performance like he did is a special thing.”

The Stingers finished the first half down 13-7 after an uninspired performance on both sides of the ball. But the second half proved to be a completely different game as second year quarterback, and reigning Réseau du Sports Étudiant du Québec MVP, Trenton Miller seemed to be on a different level. Miller managed the game clock with expert precision and finished the game with 375 passing yards and three touchdown passes.

“I need to minimize mistakes, just go through my reads and trust my offensive coordinator, Matt Connell, because he draws up great plays,” said Miller. “As long as I play within the system and don’t force balls; we should win every game.”

Miller took control of the offense but the Stingers defense shut down first year McGill quarterback Frederic Paquette-Perrault. The defense suffocated the Redmen offense forcing an impressive nine turnovers.

Paquette-Perrault played well but was pressured by a relentless defense and an outstanding performance by first year Concordia linebacker, Samuel Brodrique, who finished the game with two interceptions and a fumble recovery.

“We stuck to the game plan and we knew we would have a lot of opportunities to make big plays,” said Brodrique modestly.

As for Paquette-Perrault, he seemed disappointed with his performance and confused at the coach’s decision to start both quarterbacks.

“You should ask the coach,” said Paquette-Perrault. “They wanted to try something new and we both did okay but we’ll see what happens next week.”

The Redmen head coach, Ronald Hilaire, saw some positives in his team’s performance but insisted they need to be more careful with the ball. Hilaire praised their effort on the defensive side of the ball after they managed to stifle Miller in the first half.

“We held Trenton Miller in check for three quarters and he’s probably the best quarterback in our league,” said Hilaire. “So it was a good showing from our young secondary but we need to keep the ball and make sure we don’t give it away.”

The Stingers will look to build off a strong start to their season. They will face a tough test next week against a formidable Université Laval Rouge et Or squad in their home opener at Stinger Stadium on September 10.