MONTREAL – Eloa Latendresse-Regimbald threw for one touchdown and rushed for another as visiting McGill spoiled the Concordia Homecoming celebrations with a 21-17 victory in RSEQ university football, Saturday.
 
The result, before a crowd of 1,414 at Concordia Stadium, improved McGill's record to 2-2, while the Stingers dropped to 1-3. It also halted McGill's six-game losing streak to their cross-town rivals since a 23-17 road win on Oct. 26, 2019. Both of the Redbirds wins this season have come on the road, the team's highest total since winning three road trips in 2016. McGill improved to 41-51 in 92 lifetime meetings with ConU, including a 20-29 mark at the Loyola campus field.
 
After a scoreless opening quarter, McGill took an 8-0 halftime lead and silenced the crowd with a shocking a 21-0 advantage heading into the final stanza.  But the Stingers roared back with 17 points in the fourth quarter and suffered the heartbreak of three dropped TD passes in the final moments.

"That was a classic McGill-Concordia game," said Alex Surprenant, in his first season as Redbirds bench boss after four years as an offensive coordinator with the Stingers. "We lost some momentum and made a couple of mistakes in the fourth quarter but it's always nicer for the guys to have an opportunity to learn something in a tough win, rather than lose in a tough loss. So I'm happy that we now go into a bye week at 2-2, which is probably above the expectations of many people in our league. We spoke to the guys all week about showing up for 60 minutes. That Concordia team's a tough opponent, with veterans all over their depth chart... so to be able to win on their field, I'm really proud of the guys and I'm sure that will give us a lot of confidence for the second half of the season."
 
Trailing 21-15 with 74 seconds remaining, Concordia had what appeared to be an imminent victory at the fingertips of Concordia quarterback Olivier Roy, the conference's player of the year in 2023. The Stingers had possession with a first down at the McGill six-yard line. But Roy's pass to Tristan Mancini was dropped in the end-zone, a play broken up by rookie defensive back Victor Paradis, who paced the Redbirds with a game-high eight solo tackles, to go with a pair of knockdowns.

Two plays earlier, Mancini also dropped an apparent TD pass on a diving play in the end-zone when he didn't survive the impact with the ground. A pass break-up credited to linebacker Jahnai-Taj Copeland-Lewis on that play. Mancini finished with a game-high 146 yards on six receptions.
 
On second down, Roy was sacked by middle linebacker Ilan Barbaras for a loss of two yards. On the third down gamble, Roy's pass to Oriola Poirier was also dropped in the end-zone after he collided with defensive back Mathis Pilon.
 
McGill took possession on its eight-yard line with 30 seconds left on the clock and eventually conceded a safety. Concordia opted to take the ball on its own 35-yard line with 13 seconds left. Roy then connected with Poirier for 25 yards, followed by a Hail Mary pass as the clock expired but that was batted down by linebacker Ryan McNally.
 
It was McGill's seventh pass break-up of the contest, to go along with a third-quarter interception by McNally, who also registered 1.5 tackles.

"It feels amazing to this team, especially for the veteran guys who haven't beaten Concordia over the previous six games," said McNally, a 24-year-old economics senior from Laval, Que. "It's almost indescribable, so I'm really happy. We've been a pretty good bend-but-don't-break defensive unit this season and we're relentless too. I don't think that we've ever panicked in a big situation moment, especially like the last minute of the game today. We practice shoot-and-hook, playing the ball, being able to break and not look at the quarterback. Don't peek, make sure that you're stuck to the guy you're covering and then make a play on the ball. So I think that proper technique and being able to put into the game what we practice, is exactly what happened today."

For McGill, Latendresse-Regimbald conducted an offence that produced 18 first downs and 283 yards. He found eight different receivers and was good on 12 of 23 passing attempts for 235 yards, one TD and no interceptions. He even punted twice on quick kicks and rushed eight times for 52 yards, including a seven-yard TD romp to cap a seven-play, 90-yard scoring drive that put the Redbirds ahead 7-0 in the second quarter. The 6-foot-4, 197-pound pivot later found receiver David Kabwe for a 33-yard TD toss to put his troops ahead 16-0 at 3:33 of the third quarter. Kabwe led McGill with 123 all-purpose yards, including 25 on a punt return.
 
Roy led a Concordia offence that generated 22 first downs and 337 net yards. He finished with a 20-for-36 performance for 278 yards, one TD and one pick.
 
Trailing by 21, the Stingers offence finally ignited at 3:23 of the fourth quarter when Caleb Faulkner scored on a one-yard plunge. Then Roy hooked up with El-Andre Abbey for a six-yard TD pass at 8:29, that narrowed the gap to 21-15.
 
Rounding out the scoring for McGill was place-kicker Mario Delli Fraine, who added six points with a 20-yard field-goal, a pair of converts and an 85-yard rouge on a kickoff. Redbirds punter Isaac Marceau also added a rouge of his own, connecting for a 55-yard single.
 
Concordia (1-3) plays at division-leading Laval (3-0) next week. The Stingers, who were preseason favourites for a third-place finish, will have to win their rematch at McGill in late October by more than four points to gain the upper-hand between the fierce foes. Otherwise the Redbirds will be in position to finish ahead of Concordia for the first time since 2018.
 
McGill (2-2) now enters its second bye-week of the eight-game schedule and returns to play with a short road trip to home of the Montreal Carabins (3-1) on Oct. 4.

REDBIRDS RAP: Rookie Philippe Bouthot, who started at the weak-side linebacker position, was also credited with five solo tackles and four assisted tackles... McGill registered three QB sacks (Ilan Barbaras, Philippe Trudel and Gregoire Couture) and seven pass-breakups, which were credited to McNally (2), Paradis (2), Copeland-Lewis (2) and Pilon (1).

BOXSCORE

RSEQ STATS & STANDINGS

SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
CELL: 514-983-7012
E-MAIL:earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca