MONTREAL -- Quarterback
Adam Vance threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns, including a pair of long TD strikes to
Jarryd Taylor, as Concordia rallied for a 33-26 victory over McGill in the 50th annual Shaughnessy Cup classic at Percival Molson Stadium, Saturday.
McGill led 9-0 after the opening quarter and 16-12 at halftime. The Stingers took a brief 16-12 edge midway through the third quarter but the Redmen clung to a 26-19 advantage after three. Concordia then came from behind again, with a pair of TDs in the final stanza.
It was a wild affair that featured four lead changes, 10 quarterback sacks -- including a team record eight by McGill -- and four lengthy touchdown plays, sparked by a blocked Concordia 39-yard field-goal attempt that was returned 64 yards into the endzone by McGill linebacker
Christian Mbiya of St. Hubert, Que., who had made the block, on the final play of the opening quarter.
McGill went ahead 16-3 at 9:15 of the second quarter when sophomore quarterback
Dimitrios Sinodinos found running back
Daniel Adesugun for a 10-yard TD toss. But the Stingers responded just 20 seconds later when
Quaysie Gordon-Maul returned the ensuing kickoff 107 yards into the endzone.
The Stingers took their first lead of the contest at 7:01 of the third when Taylor hauled in an 80-yard TD bomb from Vance. But McGill bounced back less that two minutes later to go ahead 26-19 when Sinodinos hooked up with receiver
Jacob Dwinnell for a three-yard TD reception. The Stingers tied it at 26-26 early in the final stanza when Taylor snared his second TD on a 26-yard toss at 1:01. Four minutes later, Vance hooked up with
Sam Nadon for the winning TD, a six-yard strike.
Rounding out the scoring for the Stingers was seven points from kicker
Andrew Stevens, who made a 33-yard field-goal, in addition four conversions. He also averaged 37.1 yards on seven punts, 53.3 yards on six kickoffs.
Redmen kicker
Findlay Brown scored six points, connecting on a 38-yard field-goal and converting three majors.
Both sides also registered one safety.
Vance completed 20 of 26 passes and was picked off once. His favourite target was Taylor who went over the century mark for the second straight week, with 160 receiving yards on five receptions.
Sinodinos went 13-for-30 passing for 167 yards, two TDs and no picks.
Jeremy Sauvageau, an All-Canadian from St. Augustine de Desmaures, Que., led six different receivers with 66 yards on three receptions. The only other McGill numbers that stood out was the game-high 174 all-purpose yards by return specialist
Joshua Lucas of Victoria, B.C.. The physical education junior collected 107 yards on six kickoffs and 67 yards on seven punt returns. He now ranks fourth among league leaders with an average of 103.7 all-purpose yards per game.
Leading a relentless Redmen defence was Montrealer
Joshua Archibald, a 6-foot-3, 218-pound defensive lineman who posted a game-high 7.5 tackles, including one QB sack. Other McGill sacks were produced by
Maxime Rouyer (2),
Jean-Philippe Hudon,
Vincent Dethier,
Andrew Seinet-Spaulding,
Phillip-Joseph Schembre and
Benjamin Carre, who also had his league-leading third pick of the season and finished with 3.5 total tackles.
The victory put Concordia into sole possession of third place in the RSEQ standings, two points ahead of McGill, which dropped to fourth in the five-team Quebec conference.
Next weekend, Concordia (2-1) will host the Montreal Carabins (2-1) on Saturday at 1 pm, while McGill (1-2) heads to Quebec City to face Laval (3-0) in the lion's den for a Sunday matinee at 1 p.m.
REDMEN RAP:The Redmen are 22-27-1 in 50 Shaughnessy Cup contests overall, including a 17-27 mark in 44 meetings against the Stingers and a 5-0-1 record in six matchups with the Loyola Warriors. The Cup is named after legendary coach
Frank Shaughnessy, a McGill Sports Hall of Fame inductee who introduced the forward pass to football in Canada during a 1921 McGill exhibition game vs. Syracuse at Molson Stadium. He lobbied for 10 years before the league formally adopted the forward pass in 1931. Shaughnessy was the first full-time head coach in Canadian university football and guided McGill for 17 years, including Yates Cup league championships in 1912, 1913 and 1919. Later, he coached at Loyola College, which eventually merged in 1974 with Sir George Williams University to form Concordia University. McGill is now 37-45 in 82 lifetime meetings against Concordia since the series began in 1975, including a 20-19 home-field record at Percival Molson Stadium. McGill's last home win over ConU was in 2013 when the Redmen prevailed 32-19. Since then, the Stingers have won five consecutive games on McGill turf,
LINK TO COMPLETE STATS
2018 RSEQ FOOTBALL STANDINGS
