Get On The Good Foot

Stingers Avoid Upset Against McGill in Shrine Bowl Thriller with Late Field Goal

SportsShane Wright — Published November 2, 2014 | Updated November 3, 2014 at 2:24am

The Stingers were down for most of their regular season finale, but were saved by the right foot of their kicker, Keegan Treloar, resulting in a 30-28 victory over McGill.

“It’s a good win for us coming out of a stretch of losses,” said Treloar. “It showed our team had the character and the determination to come out on top. That will help going into a tough game against Laval.”

Treloar won the game for Concordia with a 45-yard game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter with 27 seconds left to play.

“It was a tough kick but I just did my normal routine,” said Treloar. “Getting ‘iced’ by McGill didn’t get into my head as it let me focus and once I hit it, I knew it was good.

“It was great to help get the guys a win.”

The Stingers win means the team will end the season with a 5-3 record, finishing fourth in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Quebec standings. Concordia will meet the Laval Rouge et Or in the RSEQ semi-final playoff game on Saturday, Nov. 8 on the road.

The Stingers relied heavily on Treloar to put up points. He scored three field goals on Saturday while the Stingers could only muster one offensive touchdown, with a three-yard run from fullback Olivier Dupont in the second quarter. Despite the return of slotback Jamal Henry from injury, the Stingers’ offence didn’t produce enough points.

“We [had] some good drives, but it’s been the same story the entire year and it’s just us not finishing in the red-zone,” said quarterback François Dessureault, who completed 18 of his 38 pass attempts and was sacked three times on Saturday. “We mount good drives with great running and great passing, but we are just not finishing in the red-zone and we need to.”

“We need to continue doing what we are doing, but just finish,” added Dessureault. “We need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and play [Concordia] football.”

“We still had too many mistakes,” added head coach Mickey Donovan. “We have to execute more, become more disciplined and create more turnovers if we want to win more games.”

The Stingers began the game down 8-3 after the first quarter and faced a 13-point deficit in the second quarter before a safety and Dupont’s touchdown made it 18-14 with less than a minute before halftime.

Fortunately for Concordia, on the ensuing kickoff, Stingers first-year halfback Jordan McLaren recovered a loose ball that was fumbled in the end zone by McGill, resulting in a touchdown. Following a rouge kicked by Treloar in the final minute of the second quarter, the Stingers had a 22-18 lead heading into halftime.

The Stingers came out of the break and forced two huge interceptions by defensive backs Kris Robertson and Michael Asare that slowed McGill’s momentum, but the Redmen eventually retook the lead thanks to a one-yard touchdown run from quarterback Joel Houle. Following a safety, the Stingers were down 28-22 entering the fourth quarter.

In the fourth, Treloar hit the second of his three field goals before Concordia forced McGill into giving up a safety, putting the Stingers within one point of the lead.

Concordia began their game-winning drive on their own 35-yard line with 2:30 left to play with a balanced rushing and passing attack, before Treloar was called upon to win the game with his 45-yard kick.

The Stingers will now turn their attention to their playoff game next Saturday against Laval, a team that lost this past Saturday to the UdeM Carabins 13-9, their first regular season loss since 2012. In the Stingers’ previous meeting against Laval, the Stingers lost 32-16, but held the Rouge et Or to their lowest offensive output of the season at the time.

“We’ve just got to go to work and be a family and we’ll be ready go,” said defensive back Michael Asare. “This game showed us the character we’ve got and we need to use it against a team like Laval.”

“This game showed we have a lot of character and that we can beat any team, we just have to finish in the red zone and keep believing,” said Dessureault.