Football: Lost in Blue

Stingers Drop Regular Season Finale at UdeM, Will Face Laval Next Week

SportsJulian McKenzie — Published November 1, 2015 | Updated November 1, 2015 at 4:47pm

“It feels pretty bad,” said Miller, when asked about losing two games to the Carabins this season. “But the beauty of it is we’ll see them in two weeks in the same place, probably. We just got to take care of business against Laval and this is just good motivation to work harder this week.”

The Stingers lost to the Carabins, 22-17, at the CEPSUM. Concordia will end the season with a 4-4 record—good enough for fourth place in the Réseau de sport étudiant Quebec conference—and a date against the Université de Laval at Stade Telus in Quebec City next Saturday afternoon.

The Carabins led for most of the encounter until Miller threw a touchdown pass to receiver Daniel Skube with under three minutes left to play late in the third quarter. Concordia held onto their lead until late in the fourth when UdeM’s Sean Thomas Erlington scored on a two-yard touchdown run, again with under three minutes left to play.

“Took us a long while to get started,” said Carabins quarterback Gabriel Cousineau, who threw 17 completed passes for 116 yards, including a touchdown pass. “It’s not how you start, but it’s how finish.”

“Last drive was a tough one. We fought through but we came up 35 yards short.” – Stingers receiver Yanic Lessard

Concordia had to deal with a loud and boisterous Carabins crowd at the CEPSUM. The fans grew louder as the defence attempted to thwart the Stingers offence, but their roars fell to whispers—you could even hear fans try to shush and discourage each other from cheering—when the Carabins offence went to work.

The 3,790 fans in attendance made their presence known on the final drive as they attempted to distract the Stingers from executing their plays. Concordia even drew an offside call on the final drive as receiver Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren ran his route upfield, believing his quarterback had already began the play.

“It’s noisy here,” said Stingers receiver Yanic Lessard. “Last drive was a tough one. We fought through but we came up 35 yards short.”

“It’s crazy,” said Cousineau. “They make so much noise.”

Two weeks after guaranteeing the Concordia Stingers would make the post-season, Miller made another promise following the game. This time though, he vowed to meet the Carabins in the playoffs, likely at the CEPSUM, in what would be the Dunsmore Cup final.

“He’s a confident kid,” said Stingers head coach Mickey Donovan. “He’s a fighter, he’s a worker. He doesn’t look at things any other way.”

In order to get to the Dunsmore Cup final, however, the Stingers must eliminate the Laval Rouge et Or next Saturday.

“We’ve got to come out and execute offensively, defensively, and [on] special teams,” said Miller. “I think we have the best team in the nation hands down. We just have to play our game, and not worry about who we’re playing.”

As for the Carabins, the win gives them a record of 6-2 and a second place finish in the RSEQ. The men in blue will have a home playoff game next week against the Sherbrooke Vert et Or.

“We’ve got a lot of things to fix if we want to win next week,” said Cousineau. “We’re going to prepare ourselves next week, we’re going to [review game] tape on Monday, fix what’s got to be fixed and we’ll be ready on Saturday.”