McGill Redmen Beat Stingers 21-8 At Concordia Stadium

Late Stinger Touchdown May Save Concordia’s Season

SportsHarrison-Milo Rahajason — Published October 23, 2016

In a battle of teams with 3-3 records, the Stingers and Redmen both knew that a win would be critical to their chances at making the playoffs. Early on, however, the road team asserted themselves, and gave Concordia very little opportunity to break through.

However, a late touchdown gave Concordia an advantage over McGill. With these late points, the Stingers are now winning their cumulative matchups 38-37—which is a tie-breaker in U Sports football.

Midway through the first quarter, already down by a field goal, the Stingers moved the ball all the way down the field, and looked poised to take a seven to three lead. Unsurprisingly, the main catalyst for that drive was Stinger quarterback Trenton Miller. With the wet conditions, Miller inflicted most of his damage with his legs.

With a third-and-goal from the one yard line, the Stingers opted to take the risk, and try for the touchdown. Their gamble, however, did not pay off.

“We’re down on the one yard line, we need to be able to push,” said Stingers head coach Mickey Donovan. “The [defensive line] is giving us a yard, we need to push it into the end zone. There’s no excuse for that.”

The Redmen, now back with the ball, marched the length of the field and scored a touchdown. Buoyed by timely third down conversions and bad penalties by the Stingers, the long scoring drive was a big hit to Concordia’s confidence.

“The defence in the first half, there were a couple mistakes,” said Donovan. “Backers [linebackers] weren’t filling their gaps and that hurts us.”

For the rest of the game, the Stingers saw very few of their possessions stretch beyond three plays, while the Redmen were constantly in Concordia territory. Despite only scoring one touchdown in the game, four successful field goal attempts by McGill kicker Findlay Brown gave them the cushion they needed to comfortably win the game.

Saturday’s puts the Stingers in a position where they have to win their game next week at Bishop’s in order to make the playoffs. The good news for Concordia is that the Gaiters lost to the Stingers 50-34 two weeks ago—one of their five losses this season.

“Entering this last game against Bishop’s, it’s a playoff” said Donovan. “If we win, we’re in. That’s the way it is.”