QUEBEC CITY – Pascal Lochard of Montreal rushed 16 times for 83 yards and one touchdown as No.1-ranked Laval opened defence of their Vanier Cup national championship with a 32-8 victory over McGill in RSEQ university football before a crowd of 12,798, Saturday.

It was the 133rd season opener for the Redmen and marked the 60th consecutive home-field victory for the Rouge et Or at Stade TELUS-Université Laval. It also was their 18th consecutive victory over McGill since 2001 and improved their lifetime record to 24-5 against the Redmen.

Place-kicker Boris Bede, a senior from Toulon, France, led Laval's offence with 14 points, including a 4-for-4 effort in field-goals. He connected from distances of 21, 26, 14 and 12, respectively.

Laval led 11-0 after the opening quarter, 23-0 at halftime and 26-8 after three.

The Rouge et Or jumped into an early lead at the 72-second mark, when Maximilien Ducap of L'Islet, Que., intercepted quarterback Jonathan Collin on McGill's third offensive play and returned it 60 yards for a major.

McGill's offence conceded three safeties to round out the scoring for the Rouge et Or.

It was slim pickings for Laval's offence after halftime, however, as a pesky McGill defence limited Laval pivot Tristan Grenon to a 12-for-28 passing performance and only 163 yards. The Rouge et Or registered 21 first downs and 335 yards of net offence, compared to 23 and 251, respectively, by the Redmen.

The game featured 23 penalties for 200 yards, including a costly 14 McGill infractions for 130 yards of real estate.

"We're a young group and we got off to a terrible start but bounced back to play Laval very hard," said McGill head coach Clint Uttley, whose 48-man dress-list featured 15 freshmen. "Our kids battled and showed that they cared. Our running game was working and we probably should've run the ball more."

McGill's rushing attack was led by a strong performance from Luis Guimont-Mota, a sophomore from Quebec City, who rushed for 128 yards on 20 carries.

The Redmen racked up 181 yards on the ground, marking the team's highest rushing total against Laval since they became competitive in 1998. Over that 15-year span, McGill's previous single-game rushing high against the Rouge et Or was 101 yards in 2009.

The lone McGill TD came on an 11-yard toss from Collin to Devon Stewart, a freshman from St. Hubert, Que., at 11:48 of the third stanza to make the score 23-8.

Collin, a senior from St. Bruno, Que., completed 19 of 42 attempts for 157 yards. He was picked off twice. His primary target was rookie Damian Massey-Hirt, a Montrealer who amassed 88 yards on 11 receptions.

Laval's Guillaume Rioux registered a game-high 197 all-purpose yards, including 49 rushing yards on three carries, to go along with 55 on 11 punt returns and 93 on three kickoff returns.

Defensively, middle linebacker Alexandre Bernard, a McGill senior from Laval, Que., posted a game-high 7.5 total tackles. Redmen teammates Zachary Lord of Trois-Rivieres, Que., and Gabriel Poisson of Laval, Que., chalked up five tackles apiece, including Poisson's first career QB sack at the university level.

Vincent Plante and Mathieu Maseau led the Rouge et Or with 5.5 tackles apiece, while Dominic Boisvert was credited with 4.5, including a pair of quarterback sacks.

In other RSEQ action Saturday, the Montreal Carabins kicked off the Quebec conference schedule by overwhelming Concordia 48-3. Sherbrooke plays at Bishop's on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Laval (1-0) travels to Sherbrooke (0-0) on Sept. 7.

McGill (0-1) will host Concordia (0-1) on Sept.6 in the 45th annual Shaughnessy Cup game, named after the legendary Frank Shaughnessy, who coached McGill for 17 years, including Yates Cup championships in 1913 and 1919. A football innovator, he first introduced the forward pass to Canadian university football during a McGill-Syracuse game in 1921 and lobbied for 10 years before the Canadian Rugby Football Union revised the rules and adopted the forward pass in 1931.


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Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
514-398-1956 (Fax)
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E-MAIL: earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca