MONTREAL – Linebacker Marc-Antoine Dequoy scored the game's lone touchdown on a 66-yard interception return at 13:02 of the second quarter as the No.1 ranked Université de Montréal Carabins escaped with a 16-3 victory over McGill in university football at Percival Molson Stadium, Friday. It was one of two interceptions on the day for Dequoy, who added two tackles for the Carabins.
 
The result marked the 20th consecutive win over McGill for the omnipotent Carabins, who improved to 4-0 on the season while the Redmen dropped to 1-3. UdeM added eight points on four safeties conceded by McGill, a 31-yard rouge on a missed field-goal attempt by Louis-Philippe Simoneau and a conversion by Simoneau.
 
It was the first time that the McGill defence had held their opponents to no touchdowns dating back to the season finale last year, when the Carabins also struggled but came away with a 13-0 decision at Molson Stadium on Oct. 29, 2016.
 
Not much was expected from McGill in the wake of last week's shocking 68-16 setback at Concordia, but the Redmen showed the mettle to compete with the Carabins, a perennial contender for the Vanier Cup national championship. McGill racked up 410 yards of net offence and 24 first downs, compared to 316 and 17, respectively, by the Carabins.

"It was a testament to our hard work in practice over the past week," said McGill head coach Ronald Hilaire. "We wanted to bounce back from our embarrassing execution and errors against Concordia the week before. I just know that we can fight for four quarters and compete with anybody when were focusing on us and not on our opponent.

"So we were happy about our energy level and the way we played against the Carabins but ultimately we're not satisfied with the end result. We want to be able to execute a lot more in the red zone and be able to punch it in when we have a chance to win in the fourth quarter."

Montreal led 2-0 after the opening quarter, 13-0 at the half and 16-0 after three before McGill broke the goose-egg in the final stanza with a 27-yard field goal from sophomore kicker Findlay Brown.

McGill found themselves in a position to pull off a shocking upset but their red-zone woes continued. Trailing by 13 points with just under eight minutes remaining, the Redmen marched down the field with an impressive 18-play drive that finally fizzled at the Carabins five-yard line on a third-down pass for no gain.  A touchdown there would've narrowed the gap to 16-10 (or 11 with a two-point conversion) and could have made for a fantastic finish.
 
McGill quarterback Frederic Paquette-Perrault out-performed Samuel Caron, his Carabins counterpart, throwing for 343 yards compared to 159. The Redmen sophomore completed 31 of 46 passing but was intercepted three times, including the aforementioned costly pick near his right sideline that resulted in the TD. Caron was 19-for-28 passing and picked off once. Both pivots were sacked three times.

Paquette-Perrault utilized nine different receivers, led by sophomore Joel Soucy, who hauled in a game-high nine receptions for 101 yards, freshman Emile Taillefer (7 rec., 62 yds) and sophomore Jeremy Sauvageau (5 rec., 93 yds).

The only bright spot in the Carabins offence was running back Will Altema, a six-foot, 220-pound senior who rushed for 104 yards on 13 carries. The other UdeM player who stood out like a sore thumb was kicker Felix Menard-Briere, who averaged a whopping 73.5 yards on two kickoffs and an impressive 47.3 yards on 10 punts, many of which were intentionally kicked into the coffin-corner and out of bounds. The Carabins kicking game kept the Redmen frequently in poor field position, which resulted in the four safety touches that they conceded for better field position.

McGill (1-3) will travel to Quebec City next weekend for a rematch with No.2 ranked Laval (2-1). The Rouge et Or, who defeated McGill 50-14 on Sept. 1, will host Concordia (2-1) on Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. before welcoming the Redmen on Sunday, Oct. 1 at 1 p.m. The Carabins (4-0) are headed into a bye week and won't play again until Oct. 5, when they will confront Concordia at Stade CEPSUM.

REDMEN RAP: McGill DB Jean-Philippe Hudon registered a game-high 9.5 total tackles, seven of them solos, including one QB sack. The sophomore starter was all over the field and was also credited with a forced fumble... LB Antoine Mongeau, who has been converted from a DB because of his tackling ability, collected seven tackles, with four solos...
Other Redmen sacks were made by DL Xavier Bilodeau, who had 1.5, including a shared sack with DL Simon Aubin-Lavoie, giving the Redmen defence seven sacks on the season... LB Dane Wagner made the lone McGill interception, his first of the season and the team's fourth in four games.
 
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SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
McGill Sports Info Office
(514) 398-7012