CIS football roundup: Laval rallies to defeat McGill 33-15

Source: McGill Sports Info / Photo credit Yan Doublet

QUEBEC CITY – Boris Bede, a native of Toulon, France, tallied 17 points, including a 5-for-5 performance in field-goal attempts as the No.2-ranked Laval Rouge et Or rallied from a 9-0 deficit to defeat McGill 33-15 before 12,273 at Stade PEPS in CIS university football action, Sunday.

It marked the 52nd straight victory at home for Laval, the nine-time defending RSEQ conference champions. They trailed 9-7 after the opening quarter, led 19-9 at the half and 24-12 after three quarters.

McGill, which officially kicked off their 132nd season, got all of their points from rookie kicker Samy Rassy, an engineering junior from Montreal who was also 5-for-5 in field goals in his CIS debut.  It marked the eighth time in McGill history that a Redmen place-kicker had made five in a game and it was one field-goal shy of the single-game school record held by Glenn Miller since 1984.

The game was a defensive struggle with McGill generating only 170 yards of offence compared to 318 by Laval.

Rassy staked the Redmen to a 9-0 lead on field-goals from 42, 18 and 26 yards before the Laval offence awoke. He added a 28-yarder in the third  and a 37-yard effort in the final quarter.

Rouge et Or quarterback Tristan Grenon of Quebec City completed 18 of 31 passes for only 160 yards. He connected for a pair of touchdowns, however, and was picked off once.

Grenon ignited the comeback by hooking up with Yannick Morin-Plante of Drummondville, Que., for a 24-yard TD strike on the last play of the opening stanza then found Maxime Boutin of Quebec City alone in the endzone for an 11-yard TD toss to put Laval ahead 17-9 with four minutes remaining in the first half.

A couple of safeties conceded in the endzone made it 21-9 for Laval early in the second half.

From then on, it was a was a kicker's delight with six consecutive field-goals to round out the scoring, including four by Bede, who had registered a 27-yard field-goal early in the second stanza. He also hit from distances of 39, 32 and 31, respectively, to make it 30-12., then added his fifth in the final minute of the game from 41 yards out.

Sophomore Dallon Kuprowski of Kanata, Ont., started at quarterback for the Redmen and completed 17 of 30 attempts for 145 yards. he was temporarily relieved by Jonathan Collin of Greenfield Park, Que., who was picked off on his first play from scrimmage and ended up 0-for-3 on the day.

The Redmen (0-1) will host Sherbrooke (0-1) in their home opener at Percival Molson Stadium on Friday, Sept. 7 at 7 pm. Laval (1-0) plays at Bishop's (0-1) on Sept. 8.