Gaels offence explodes for 57-10 Homecoming victory against York
The Gaels beat York 57-10 in front of a soldout 8,151 person Homecoming crowd in their last home game of the season in Kingston on Saturday afternoon.
The Gaels beat York 57-10 in front of a soldout 8,151 person Homecoming crowd in their last home game of the season in Kingston on Saturday afternoon.
In their final game in the tricolour at Richardson Stadium, fifth years Billy McPhee (Burlington, Ont.) and Alex Carroll(Victoria) got things started for Queen's under two minutes into the game. McPhee dropped back to pass, finding Carroll for an 84-yard score to put the Gaels ahead 7-0 early in the game.
At the end of the day, Carroll caught seven passes for over 200 yards and a career high three touchdowns. Still with a game to play, Carroll is eighth all-time at Queen's with 46 receptions this season. McPhee went 19-33 in the game, totaling 386 yards and four touchdown passes without a single interception. Now with 53 touchdown passes in his career, McPhee moves into third in Gaels history, trailing Tom Denison's 56 and Danny Brannagan's 77.
Jesse Andrews (Arnprior, Ont.) put the next Queen's touchdown on the board, punching it in to score after being brought down at the three yard line.
To close out the first quarter, Matt Pendergast (Kingston, Ont.) picked off a pass to set up a Dillon Wamsley (London, Ont.) field goal, which gave Queen's a 17-0 lead.
York scored their lone touchdown to start the second quarter, as Jahmari Bennett found Joey Ricottone from 17 yards out.
The Gaels had no problem responding, as Aaron Dowd (Gananoque, Ont.) blocked a punt to set up Andrews second touchdown of the afternoon from 13 yards out. With two scores, Andrews finished the game with 141 yards on the ground on 18 attempts.
Carroll got back into the action before halftime, scoring his second and third touchdowns of the game on 27 and 18 yard passes, respectively, from McPhee.
On another Wamsley field goal, the Gaels went into halftime up 43-7.
"I was especially pleased with the first half, I thought the team played well in that half," head coach Pat Sheahan said. "There were some big plays, some big strikes and quite a few first downs at the half. The running game was going, there were some great throws and some great catches so it was going pretty much our way from start to finish."
Doug Corby (Burlington, Ont.) scored the only major for Queen's in the second half, and Wamsley added two more field goals and a rouge as the Gaels have now beat York in all 17 meetings.
The Gaels kept a lid on York's offence, as the Lions only managed a single field goal in the second half to end the game with a 57-10 scoreline in favour of Queen's.
Defensively, rookie Nelkas Kwemo (Montreal) led the Gaels with six solo tackles, including a sack and a pair of tackles for losses. Pendergast added four solo tackles, two tackles for losses, and a sack to his interception, which he returned 10 yards. Derek Wiggan (Toronto) finished up his home career with a pair of sacks on the day as well.
The offensive line stood tall for the Gaels as they did not allow much pressure to quarterback McPhee who was not sacked on the day, the group included graduating senior Marco Ciallela (Ancaster, Ont.).
Scott Noivo had 5.5 total tackles to lead York on defence.
Team Stats
| Game Statistics | York | Queen's |
|---|---|---|
| Passing Yards | 204 | 389 |
| Rushing Yards | 118 | 219 |
| Turnovers | 3 | 1 |
| Time of Poss. | 28:28 | 31:32 |
