Rouge et Or 30, Stingers 10: Laval to face off against Carabins for Dunsmore Cup
This is Laval’s 18th consecutive RSEQ finals appearance
In a season filled with more parity than ever, the RSEQ football title—the Dunsmore Cup—will be decided between the Université de Montréal Carabins and the Université Laval Rouge et Or—just like every other year since 2012.
Concordia came into the Sunday afternoon game off the back of their best regular season—and first .500 record—since 2016, but facing off against a Laval side that had their number during both matchups.
The first quarter got off to exactly what the Stingers had hoped for; defensive, low-scoring football. Even with star quarterback Olivier Roy in the form of his life and looking like a favourite for the RSEQ MVP award, getting into a shootout with Laval is never a safe bet. That’s why a 3-2 score in favour of Concordia at the end of the first quarter should feel like a small, albeit important victory.
The second quarter treated us to more of the same. While Laval kept on piling on first downs, effectively doubling Concordia’s total in that half, neither team could get their offence to put up points. That’s when the defence took matters into their own hands. With 1:31 left in the half, Zach Philion intercepted a pass at the 33-yard-line and proceeded to score.
While Concordia should have gone into the half with that 10-6 lead secured, they allowed Laval excellent field position with way too much time left. It took them only seven plays and 1:11 to travel 52 yards and end the half ahead 13-10.
This is where things began to unravel. The last time Concordia travelled to Stade TELUS-UL, a 13-10 deficit at halftime was met with the Stingers being shut out while Laval comfortably got to work and secured the victory. This afternoon was no different.
Two touchdowns in the third quarter followed by a field goal halfway through the fourth sealed Laval’s victory in an eerily similar smackdown to the one that happened just under a month ago.
Head coach Brad Collinson has built a team that can contend with the giants from UdeM and Laval, now the task is to do it for four quarters.
