MONTREAL -- Quarterback
Alex Jacob-Michaud passed for 302 yards and a pair of touchdowns as the Sherbrooke Vert & Or defeated McGill 35-27 at Percival Molson Stadium, Saturday, to eliminate the Redmen and clinch the final playoff berth in the RSEQ football conference.
Sherbrooke finishes the regular season at 6-2, two points ahead of the Redmen (1-6), who will close out their 142nd season on Oct. 28 with a road game against the division-leading Montreal Carabins (5-1). Should McGill upset the Carabins and finished tied with Sherbrooke, the Vert & Or would hold the tie-breaker. The teams split their season series but Sherbrooke outscored the Redmen 51-45.
Michaud was 20-for-37 passing but was picked off three times and sacked twice. His favourite target was
Jeremy Braswell, who caught five balls for 103 yards and one TD, a 32-yard pass that put Sherbrooke ahead .24-0 Michaud also hooked up with
Jean-Raphael Moisan on a five-yard toss to make the score 14-0 before the game was eight minutes old.
The Vert & Or capitalized on a McGill fumble during the opening kickoff, scored on the next play -- a one-yard run by
Gabriel Polan -- and never looked back. The led 14-0 after the opening quarter and 28-0 at halftime before a sleepy Redmen squad woke up. McGill exploded for three touchdowns in the third quarter to take a 29-21 deficit into the final stanza. Had McGill lost by one point, they would have had the point-differential needed to make the playoffs as they had won the series first meeting 18-16.
After Sherbrooke place-kicker
Pierre-Antoine D'Astous nailed a 23-yard field-goal to give his side a 32-24 lead with 6:53 remaining, McGill remained in contention by marching down-field with a six-play drive that culminated in a 29-yard field-goal by
Findlay Brown, narrowing the gap to 32-27 with just under five minutes remaining.
Then lightning struck. Needing to score just four points to make the playoffs, McGill defensive back
Christopher Mbiya intercepted Sherbrooke's first play from the 35-yard line but a pass interference penalty erased what appeared to be a gift. That gave Sherbrooke a second life and they converted that into a 20-yard field-goal by D'Astous, his third of the contest.
In what what was arguably the longest non-televised game in McGill history -- one that took three hours and 19 minutes to play -- the teams combined for 30 penalties and 254 yards of real estate. Sherbrooke, which had a beneficial 5-4 advantage in turnovers, had a 25-19 edge in first downs and racked up 404 yards of net offence, compared to McGill's 332.
The game featured five players going over the century mark in all-purpose yards, three of them by McGill.
Redmen return specialist
Joshua Lucas collected a game-high 157 yards, while teammates
Jeremy Sauvageau and
Daniel Adesegun had 143 and 100, respectively. Adesegun a 19-year-old transfer from Calgary, led all rushers with exactly 100 yars on 13 carries. Savageau hauled in a game-high 143 yards on six receptions.
Sophomore
Frederic Paquette-Perrault started at quarterback for the Redmen and was victimized by numerous dropped passes, completing five of 11 attempts for 71 yards. He was redplaced in the second half by understudy
Dimitrious Sinodinos, a freshman who was 7-for-23 passing for 161 yards an one pick.He too suffered from a plethora of dropped passes. He also rushed six times for 55 yards and a TD.
McGill's other TDs were scored by sophomore running back
Anthony Deschamps -- on a one-yard plunge -- and
Benjamin Carre, a second-year defensive back from Trois-Rivieres, Que., whose 30-yard return cut McGill's deficit in half to 28-14 just 58 seconds after Sinodinos had scored on a 23-yard run to put McGill on the scoreboard at 28-7.
The Redmen (1-6) will close out their campainn against the Carabins (5-1) at Stade CEPSUM on Saturday, Oct. 28 in a game that will be televised on TVA Sports at 2 p.m.
REDMEN RAP: DB
Vincent Dethier led all tacklers with six total tackles... Linebackers
Dane Wagner (6 tackles) and
Alexandre Pare (4.5 tackles) each collected a QB sack... Aside from the aforementioned Carre, the two other McGill interceptions were by safety
Tristan Fleury and CB
Guillaume Beland.
LINK TO BOXSCORE
| 2017 RSEQ Football Standings • Classement de la saison régulière du RSEQ |
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