Stingers 27, Vert et Or 23: Concordia rallies to take down Sherbrooke

The Stingers kept their playoff hopes alive under the lights with a comeback performance

SportsSamuel Kayll — Published October 19, 2025 0 minutes

The victory improved Concordia’s record to 2-5 on the season, giving them the tiebreaker over Sherbrooke, who sit at the same mark. 

Head coach Brad Collinson praised the team’s resilience, noting their recent growth following a narrow loss to powerhouse Université Laval.

“We had some things we wanted to fix, but we also wanted to keep building on what we had against Laval,” Collinson said. “We wanted to finish the season strong.”

The teams traded field goals to open the scoring, but a Concordia special teams miscommunication saw Vert et Or running back Jonathan Martel-Joseph return a Stingers punt 75 yards for a touchdown and a 10-3 lead. Another field goal apiece saw the teams head to halftime with Sherbrooke ahead 13-6.

Sherbrooke extended its lead 20-6 early in the third quarter, when quarterback Jérémy Fyfe found Marc-André Shaw for a 50-yard touchdown. But Stingers quarterback Antoine Ouimet, stepping in for starter Xavier Tremblay, sparked the comeback for Concordia.

First, Ouimet connected with receivers Ely Rivest and Oriola Poirier to put the Stingers in the red zone. Receiver Gianni Casati then scored from 14 yards out to cut the deficit to 20-13. 

Rivest praised Ouimet for his poise, just three weeks after the quarterback suffered a brutal injury against the Université de Montréal. 

“He's a great quarterback—he came against Laval and did the same thing he did today,” Rivest said. “He's calm, cool and collected; he has everything.”

Another Vert et Or field goal pushed the lead to 23-13, but Ouimet led another long drive into Sherbrooke territory, capping it with a 17-yard scoring strike to running back Franck Cesar Tchembe. 

Then, with just 1:16 on the clock, Ouimet engineered the game-winning drive. On a crossing route over the middle, Rivest snagged Ouimet’s pass and turned it into a 67-yard touchdown run to put the Stingers ahead 27-23 with just 23 seconds remaining.

Ouimet, who finished with 14-for-17 with 220 yards and two touchdowns, shouted out the offence for their collective effort in the win.

“You never know when you're going to step up,” Ouimet said. “I needed to play like I was the starter. And I think as a unit we did a really great job.”

Rivest, who snagged three passes for 135 yards and the game-winning score, savoured the win as a message to the rest of the league. 

“We've been working our butts off. We've been overlooked,” Rivest said. “It felt good to win a game at home.”

With a playoff spot at stake, the Stingers now turn their attention to their bitter rivals, McGill University, for the regular-season finale. 

“McGill is another challenge—it's a rivalry for city pride and we want to go there and do what we did today,” Collinson said. “They're a really good football team, too, so we'll be ready for it.”

Concordia takes on McGill at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium on Oct. 25. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.