Box Score
MONTREAL -- Quarterback Gabriel Cousineau passed for 318 yards and a pair of touchdowns as the No.4-ranked Montreal Carabins routed McGill 42-2 in the RSEQ university football conference before a noisy, sold-out crowd of 5,100 at Stade CEPSUM, Friday. Both teams evened their record at 1-1.

It was the 17th consecutive win over McGill for the Carabins, who racked up 22 first downs and 517 yards of net offence, compared to 13 and 181, respectively, by the Redmen.

Montreal, which won the turnover battle 5-2, led 15-0 after the opening quarter, 25-2 at halftime and 28-2 after three quarters. McGill committed a plethora of costly turnovers, one on an interception returned for a touchdown, a pair on fumbles -- one led to a TD, the other to a field-goal -- and two more on downs.

It didn't take long for the defending national champions to get on the scoreboard. On just the second play from scrimmage -- after a prolonged pre-game ceremony to introduce the Vanier Cup champs -- Carabins linebacker Maiko Zepeda knocked McGill sophomore quarterback Joel Houle out of the game with what appeared to be a head-first tackle to the sternum. There was no penalty on the play and Houle, who appeared to be winded and was down for a lengthy delay, slowly walked off the field. After being examined on the sidelines, he was dispatched to hospital in an ambulance.

And just like that, the air in McGill's over-inflated tires after last week's season-opening victory over Bishop's, dissipated rather quickly. Seems like everyone thought that "Deflate-gate" was only about Tom Brady and the New England Patriots!

Zepeda was credited with a QB sack on the play, which led to a fumble by Houle and the ball was recovered by Carabins defensive lineman Emile Charron-Liguez. Three plays later, Cousineau found receiver Louis-Mathieu Normandin in the endzone for a 12-yard TD toss. Cousineau completed 18 of 25 pass attempts and had no interceptions before giving way to understudy Hugo Henderson in the final stanza.

"What killed us was the big plays," said McGill head coach Ronald Hilaire. "It was a great challenge for us to face a team like that in just the second week of the season. In all honesty, they're a great team and we wanted to measure ourselves to see how we stacked up. We hung in there after a very tough start and it was still within reach at 25-2 in the third quarter. We had some good offensive and defensive series but we needed to minimize those big plays against and we needed to capitalize on the chances when we got a break. If we did that, it would have been a much closer game."

Regis Cibasu, who caught six balls for 163 yards and one TD, led all players with 242 all-purpose yards, including 74 on seven punt returns. His 31-yard TD reception from Cousineau put Montreal up 15-0 at 14:14 of the first quarter.

Teammate Will Altema added a pair of TDs on the ground, rushing 11 times for 60 yards. Also registering a major for the Carabins was defensive back Zacary Alexis who returned an interception 15 yards to put icing on the victory cake with just over three minutes remaining in the game.

Kicker Louis-Philippe Simoneau accounted for 10 points with a 26-yard field-goal, five conversions and a pair of rouges, one on a missed 17-yard field-goal attempt, the other on a 47-yard punt that Louis Brouillette failed to get out of the endzone.

McGill avoided being shutout when Cousineau was sacked in the endzone by Anthony Couturier-Lagace for a safety just before halftime. The sophomore linebacker finished with four solo tackles, including two sacks, and a knockdown

There wasn't much positive news for McGill, other than the medical staff -- which really earned their pay -- and sophomore linebacker Karl Forgues, who forced a fumble and posted a game-high 9.5 tackles, eight of them solos.

An omen of things to come occurred in the pre-game warm-up when it was determined that kicker Justin Lavallee would be a late-scratch after suffering a quadriceps muscle injury in his leg. Then the game was halted 10 times due to injuries, including six to McGill players, three to the Carabins and even one to the officials, after an umpire was hurt in collision during a Carabins touchdown, which caused an eight-minute delay before the conversion attempt.

McGill's kicking chores were handed over to receiver Remi Bertellin, who averaged a respectable 36.2 yards over 10 punts, including a 47-yard effort. He also averaged 59.0 yards on a pair of kickoffs and was not called upon for any field-goal attempts. In addition, Bertellin made four receptions for a team-high 64 yards.

Nicolas English, a 20-year-old freshman, was thrust into the quarterback position after Houle went down. The six-foot, 200-pound southpaw completed 12 of 30 attempts for 156 yards, no TDs and one interception. He also rushed three times for eight yards and was sacked twice. His favourite target was Yannick Langelier-Vanasse, who pulled down five passes for 57 yards.

The Carabins (1-1) will host Sherbrooke on Sept. 19, while McGill (1-1) will play at Concordia Stadium on Sept. 19 in the 29th Montreal Shrine Bowl. Tickets are only $10 at the door for the annual charity game, which has raised $916,000 for the Montreal Shriner's Hospital for Children, since the event was initiated in 1987.

Other games around the RSEQ conference this week feature Concordia (0-1) at Bishop's (0-1) on Saturday at 1 p.m., followed at 2 p.m. by No.1-ranked Laval (1-0) at Sherbrooke (1-0), a game which will be televised live on the TVA Sports network

SEE RSEQ CONFERENCE STANDINGS & STATS

REDMEN RAP: McGill's leading rusher was Luis Guimont-Mota, who was held to 50 yards on a dozen carries... Also collecting a sack for McGill was Alexandre Lefebvre-Tardif... Junior cornerback Jean-Christophe Bouchard collected his first career CIS interception, a 15-yard pick
SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgill athletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
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www.mcgillathletics.ca/calendar.aspx