QUEBEC CITY — Quarterback
Hugo Richard passed for 376 yards and a pair of touchdowns as the No.3 ranked Laval Rouge et Or defeated McGill 34-0 in RSEQ football before a crowd of 11,057 at Stade Telus, Sunday. A stingy Laval defence racked up a whopping nine QB sacks which had the Redmen pinned in deep for much of the game and resulted in six safety touches conceded by the McGill offence.
Mathieu Betts led Laval's defensive unit with 4.5 tackles, including 3.5 QB sacks and one knockdown. The 6-foot-3, 250-pound junior rush end is now one shy of the Laval career sack record of 26.5.
It was Laval's 26th consecutive victory over McGill (1-4) since the Redmen last won in 2001. The defending national champs, who improved to 4-1 in the RSEQ conference, led 13-0 after the opening quarter, 24-0 at halftime and 26-0 after three. It marked the first time that McGill had been shutout since they closed out the 2016 campaign with back-to-back whitewashes to the Montreal Carabins.
"We were unable to sustain any drives, and were hurt even more by penalties," said McGill bench boss
Ronald Hilaire, whose troops were flagged 14 times for 138 yards of real estate. "That put a lot of stress on all areas of our game. You can't afford to take penalties if you want to win, especially against a strong team like Laval."
The Rouge et Or registered 21 first downs and 445 yards of net offence, compared to McGill, which had 10 and 84, respectively, including team losses of 127 yards (84 of those on safeties). The Redmen committed eight turnovers, one on an interception, one from a fumble and six on third-down attempts. Laval did not turnover the ball once.
Richard, who went the distance and completed 32 of 40 pass attempts, surpassed the 300-yard plateau for the fourth time in five outings. He also rushed six times for 31 yards. Richard hooked up with receivers
Etienne Moisan and
Alex Savard for TD tosses of 30 and 10 yards, respectively, in the first and second quarters. Moisan finished with 92 yards on five catches.
Kickers accounted for the remainder of the scoring with punter
Dominic Levesque contributing a 59-yard rouge and
David Cote collecting nine points -- a single on a missed 37-yard field-goal and a pair of conversions and fourth-quarter field-goals (32 and 15 yards).
Sophomore quarterback
Frederic Paquette-Perrault started for McGill, completing nine of 18 passes for 123 yards and one interception. He led the team in rushing with 26 yards on eight carries and was relieved in the final quarter by freshman
Dimitrious Sinodinos, who was 6-for-9 for 53 yards.
McGill's leading receivers were
Jeremy Sauvageau (4 rec., 71 yds) and
Emile Taillefer (4 rec., 49 yds).
"One of the few positives that we can take from this game was that we were the first team this season to hold Laval to under 100 yards rushing," noted Hilaire, who attributed part of that to the play of the entire defensive line, which was bolstered by the return of sophomore starter
Andrew Seinet-Spaulding, who missed the past 2.5 games after being injured against Laval in Week 2.
Next week, second-place Laval (4-1) visits fifth-place Sherbrooke (1-4) on Oct. 7, while McGill gets a bye. The fourth-place Redmen (1-4) will host third-place Concordia (2-3) in their annual Homecoming game for the 49th Shaughnessy Cup on Oct. 14.
REDMEN RAP: Starting freshman cornerback
Christopher Mbiya was a last-minute scratch as he had to be rushed to hospital after an allergic reaction... As a result, only 47 players suited up for the Redmen, who dressed 18 freshmen, 17 sophomores, eight juniors and only four seniors... Among the missing seniors was TE
Joel Houle -- the team captain who suffered an undisclosed injury last week -- and
Remi Bertellin, an all-purpose receiver-returner-punter who suffered a season-ending injury in the Week 1 victory at Sherbrooke.. McGill has now conceded a league-leading 15 safeties in five games... Leading a busy Redmen defence was freshman
Benjamin Carre with a game-high eight total tackles, seven of them solos...
Guillaume Beland had 7.5 tackles, with six solos... The team's only QB sack was credited to
Jean-Philippe Hudon.
LINK TO BOXSCORE
2017 RSEQ FOOTBALL STANDINGS
(updated after games of Oct. 1)
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
@EarlZukerman (twitter)
SEE COMPLETE McGILL VARSITY SCHEDULE ONLINE AT:
www.mcgillathletics.ca/calendar.aspx
