The Gryphons had luck on their side on Saturday
The Guelph Gryphons football team started their last regular season game on Sat, Oct. 22 with intense determination. Knowing that, to make playoffs, this game was a must-win, while out of town games in Kingston and Windsor also needed to go their way as both Queens and Windsor needed to lose for Guelph to advance.
The game also played host to the annual Gryphon Think Pink event, where all donations made were matched by the Gryphons and donated to breast cancer research. The crowd and the team were all decked out in pink to support the cause.
The Gryphons came out in the first quarter playing a faster pace game than the Lions who looked slow in comparison. Guelph drove the ball up the middle of the field into a prime position to score a field goal, taking the lead 3-0 early in the game. With momentum on their side, running back Johnny Augustine ran in a nine yard run for their first touchdown of the game and the Gryphons finished the first quarter with a 10-0 lead.
“We didn’t want our players to focus on anything but winning this game…”
In the second quarter, the Gryphons started to slowly hammer the nails into York’s coffin as Augustine added another touchdown, followed by a 73 yard pass from quarterback James Robert to Kade Belyk to make the game 24-0. Kicker Gabriel Ferraro kept his cool as he slotted another field goal to take the game to 27-0 at halftime.
York managed to get onto the scoreboard out of halftime, scoring a touchdown to make the game 27-8. After that, Guelph took no chances to allow the Lions back into the fold as they racked up point after point throughout the second half. The third quarter brought another touchdown thrown in by Roberts and a field goal from Ferraro.
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The fourth quarter brought high emotion to the game as fans kept a close eye on the score between Ottawa and Queen’s. At this point, Windsor was down and out, it was up to Ottawa to win for Guelph to have a shot at the playoffs. With a minute left on the clock, Ottawa tied the game to take it to overtime. Ottawa took the game by one point in a thriller in Kingston. As this was occurring, the score was kept hidden from the Gryphons in order to keep them focused on task at hand.
“We didn’t want our players to focus on anything but winning this game,” said Gryphon head coach Kevin MacNeill. “We just wanted to focus on one game at a time.”
Guelph took two team safeties in the fourth quarter, second-year running back Jamal Hooker took the ball on a 31 yard run with a cheeky spin move to score the Gryphons final touchdown of the game, and Ferraro capped off the quarter with a 14 yard field goal to win the game 52-8 over York.
“The victory was marred by the serious injury of York player Rossini Sandjong-Djabome…”
The victory was marred by the serious injury of York player Rossini Sandjong-Djabome who lay motionless on the field for a long period of time. Sandjong-Djabome was stretchered away with a serious neck injury. There has been no update on his condition. Guelph and York players came together on the field at the end of the game to pray for his recovery.
“It was very tough, but we understand that’s what the game is and it’s not easy,” said Augustine. “At the end of the day we can just focus on us and pray for them.”
The Gryphons used their efficient running game to their advantage on Saturday, patiently driving the ball past the Lions. Third-year quarterback James Roberts threw the ball only 16 times in the game, completing 10 of those passes. Meanwhile running backs Mack Jones (141 yards) and Augustine (133 yards) showed why the running game is so effective.
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“If I run for that many yards, or whatever it may be, whoever is in the backfield, it’s because of our big boys upfront. Because of them, that’s why we had a lot of room to run,” said Augustine.
“Things clearly haven’t been our way this year but this is what we needed,” he added. “We knew how much it mattered for us, we know that playoffs are next week but we viewed this as a playoff game, that’s what we were focused on.”
“…the Gryphons will head to McMaster on Sat, Oct. 29 to start their campaign to defend their Yates Cup…”
Despite the Gryphons putting themselves in a hard position to make playoffs this year, Coach MacNeill added, “I am happy for our fifth-year guys—happy that this wasn’t their last game and that they get an opportunity to live on.”
Having narrowly clinched the final playoff spot this year, the Gryphons will head to McMaster on Sat, Oct. 29 to start their campaign to defend their Yates Cup title. McMaster defeated Guelph earlier this season 27-15 and for the Gryphons to move on to the OUA semi-finals they will need to find a way to halt the momentum of Marauders running back Chris Pezzetta who has been carrying McMaster to victories all season.