Gryphons win big over Warriors in season opener
Sunday night at Warrior Field, the Gryphons kicked off the 2015 OUA Regular Season with a convincing 78-7 victory over the University of Waterloo. Quarterback James Roberts accounted for four touchdowns (three passing, one rushing), running back Johnny Augustine ran for three while receivers Jacob Scarfone and A’dre Fraser hauled in two touchdowns apiece. The Gryphons will now return home to face Laurier (1-0) on Monday, September 7.
The Gryphons 2015 #QuestfortheCup has begun! pic.twitter.com/QQW8cbunSw
— Guelph Gryphons (@guelph_gryphons) August 30, 2015
Sunday night at Warrior Field, the Gryphons kicked off the 2015 OUA Regular Season with a convincing 78-7 victory over the University of Waterloo. Quarterback James Roberts accounted for four touchdowns (three passing, one rushing), running back Johnny Augustine ran for three while receivers Jacob Scarfone and A'dre Fraser hauled in two touchdowns apiece. The Gryphons will now return home to face Laurier (1-0) on Monday, September 7.
The first touchdown of the 2015 season for the Gryphons came from third year receiver Jacob Scarfone who hauled in a 53-yard touchdown pass from Roberts. That was the beginning of a career night for Scarfone as the London, Ontario native racked up a career high 201 yards on eight receptions. After Gabriel Ferraro split the uprights on a 38-yard field goal, the Gryphons would get a big play from senior James Ingram who came up with a great catch to set up the Gryphons with a first-and-goal inside the Waterloo 10-yard line. From there, third year running back Johnny Augustine (Welland, ON) would punch in his first of three touchdowns on the day as the Gryphons took a 17-0 lead to the second quarter.
The lead would only grow larger from there as Guelph would go on to score 29 points in the second quarter alone. After already having returned a punt for a touchdown in the first quarter only to see it called back because of a flag back, All-Canadian Ryan Nieuwesteeg was at it again in the second quarter. This time, there were no flags as Nieuwesteeg received the punt and blazed 79-yards for the score. He finished the night with 164 yards on 10 punt returns.
Is there a more dangerous returner in #CIS? @guelph_gryphons Ryan Nieuwesteeg has 155 yds and 1 TD. #QuestfortheCup pic.twitter.com/8KpfqKXTMG
— OUA (@OUAsport) August 31, 2015
Shortly after receiving that spark from the special teams, the Gryphons offence would go back to work as Roberts and A'dre Fraser would connect on a 38-yard touchdown to give Guelph a 32-0 lead. When halftime rolled around, the Gryphons went into the locker room leading 46-7.
Johnny Augustine's third touchdown of the game came in the form of a 43-yard run in the third quarter to put the Gryphons up 53-7. Augustine finished the day with 156 yards rushing on 14 carries, good for an average of 10.6 yards per carry. Quarterback James Roberts would provide an exclamation mark on his day by airing it out for OUA All-Star receiver A'dre Fraser for a 63-yard touchdown pass. Fraser had 114 yards receiving on just four catches. But the top stat line in the receiving corp belonged to Jacob Scarfone. In the fourth quarter, Scarfone would haul in a 67-yard touchdown pass from Laval transfer Alex Skinner to make it a 69-7 game. The Gryphons finished the game with over 700 yards of total offence.
Defensively, the Gryphons held the Warriors to just 111 yard passing and 93 yards rushing. Linebacker Andrew Graham accounted for two of the Gryphons four sacks on the day as the U of G defence suffocated the Waterloo attack for all four quarters.
The Gryphons will now return home for a Labour Day Monday matchup with the Laurier Golden Hawks on September 7. Laurier was also victorious in their week 1 matchup as they picked up a road victory over the York Lions. Kickoff is set for 1pm at Alumni Stadium and the game will be televised live on Rogers TV Cable 20 and streamed live online at OUA.tv.
There is just something about a @OUASport night game! #goblackgogld #WarriorField @WlooWarriors pic.twitter.com/p1TgdeapB4
— Steve Brooks (@steve_brooks) August 31, 2015
Source: Guelph Gryphons
Team Stats
| Game Statistics | Guelph | Waterloo |
|---|---|---|
| Passing Yards | 437 | 111 |
| Rushing Yards | 273 | 93 |
| Turnovers | 2 | 0 |
| Time of Poss. | 26:19 | 33:41 |
