No.3-ranked Carabins rally to knock off Redmen

Photo credit James Hajjar - Montreal

MONTREAL - Rotrand Sené rushed 22 times for 202 yards, including a game-winning nine-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter as the No.3-ranked Montreal Carabins rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat visiting McGill 24-11 in CIS football before 4,631 rain-soaked fans at Stade CEPSUM, Friday.

It was the 10th consecutive victory for the undefeated Carabins (4-0) over their cross-town rivals since McGill swept a pair of games in 2002, their first year back in football after folding in 1972.

Sené, a 5-foot-9, 210-pound Montreal native who has reached the 200-yard plateau in all-purpose yards in each of his last three contests, leads the Quebec conference in rushing with an average of 176.8 yards per game.

The winless Redmen (0-4) had taken a 10-0 lead by halftime on a pair of safeties, combined with two Austin Anderson field-goals from 34 and 32 yards, respectively. But a bad snap over the head of punter Tomas Silva some five minutes into the third quarter gave the Carabins the break and field position they needed. On the next play, quarterback Alexandre Nadeau-Piuze hooked up with receiver Frank Bruno for a 28-yard TD toss to narrow the gap to 10-7 and the floodgates opened. Bruno, a senior from Montreal, ended up with 159 all-purpose yards, including 131 on seven receptions.

It marked the third consecutive week that McGill had frittered away a halftime lead. The Redmen missed another opportunity to put the Carabins on their heels early in the fourth quarter. Training 17-11, McGill marched 73 yards on 11 plays and found themselves first and goal from the Carabins two-yard line. They failed to come away with any points from inside the two for the third time in four games and any momentum that they had generated at that point vanished into thin air.

Silva booted a 48-yard punt single to give McGill an 11-7 lead at the 5:50 mark of the third quarter but it was all Carabins after that. Alexandre Sy, a 23-year-old citizen of France, kicked three field-goals - from distances of 15, 22 and 31 yards, respectively - and added a pair of rouges, one on a missed 27-yard field-goal and one on an 83-yard kickoff through the end-zone, to round out the scoring.

The Carabins finished with 452 yards of net offence after being held to just 117 in the first half. McGill countered with 301 net yards. Nonetheless, the Redmen held a 22-20 margin in first downs. Montreal was penalized 11 times for 65 yards, compared to the Redmen, who were flagged a season -low three times for 20 yards.

Neither quarterback threw an interception. Nadeau-Piuze, a junior from Repentigny, Que., completed 18-of-27 for 251 yards and one TD. For McGill, junior Ryne Bondy of Richmond Hill, Ont., made his fourth career start and was sacked four times, connecting on 26 of 48 attempts for 270 yards.

Bondy deployed nine different receivers but favourite target was Charles-Antoine Sinotte, a senior from Trois-Rivieres, Que., who hauled in eight passes for 69 yards. Sinotte, who upped his CIS career record total to 230 catches, moved into the CIS lead with 31 receptions in four games.

Running back Taylor Kuprowski of Kanata, Ont., led the Redmen in rushing with eight carries for 64 yards and added another 64 yards on four receptions.

Defensively, Renaud Collard-Seguin, third-year lineman from Bangor, Maine, led McGill with 6.5 tackles, while teammates Ben Thompson, a senior tackle from Fredericton and Montrealer Stephan Osman, a freshman defensive back, had six tackles apiece. For the Carabins, linebacker Jonathan Beaulieu-Richard was credited with 6.5 tackles, while defensive back Wandy Desir registered six tackles.

Montreal (4-0) plays at Bishop's on Oct. 2, while the Redmen (0-4) will host Sherbrooke in the annual McGill Homecoming game.

REDMEN RAP: The injury-plagued McGill lineup featured 15 first-year players, including five rookies who started on defence... Punter Tomas Silva of Kingston, Ont., was a shining beacon for McGill throughout the game, pinning the Carabins deep in their end of the field time-and-time again. A first-year transfer from the Western Ontario Mustangs, in his fifth year of eligibility, Silva punted 11 times for 510 yards and a 46.4-yard average, including a 55-yarder. His total was 28 yards short of the single-game school record set by Anand Pillai on Sept. 27, 2003. Silva leads the nation with a 42.9 average over 45 punts... Place-kicker Austin Anderson has connected on 9 of 11 FG attempts this season (81.8%) and is 26-for-30 (86.7%) in three seasons with the Redmen... The Carabins had five kickoffs but directed none towards return specialist Jeff Thompson who did manage four punt returns for 32 yards. Thompson leads the league with 367 kickoff return yards on nine runbacks. He needs 114 more yards to break the single-season QUFL record of 481 set by Gilles Colon of Bishop's in 2002.

Source:

McGill Sports Info