Coming into Saturday’s game, the Varsity Blues knew they would have to fight hard to beat the undefeated Queen’s Golden Gaels. In front of a loudly cheering hometown crowd of 1,851, the Varsity Blues stormed the field looking to feed off the momentum of their huge 58-7 win over their cross-town rivals, the York Lions the week before.
Early on, it appeared that the Blues could hang tough with the fourth-ranked Gaels. On Toronto’s first offensive drive, quarterback David Hamilton handed off to slotback Mark Stinson, who then threw to a wide open Drew Meerveld into the end zone for the first touchdown of the game—except it wasn’t. With a flag on the play because of a holding penalty, the touchdown was negated.
On Queen’s ensuing drive, running back Mike Giffin broke for 74 yards, setting up quarterback Dan Brannagan for a one-yard run. Queen’s would double their lead when Giffin scampered into the end zone again, this time for a 35-yard run, making the score 14-0.
The Blues put themselves back into the game when Stinson scored on a four-yard run to cut the lead in half.
Although the Blues managed to close the gap at the end of the first quarter, Queens rattled off five unanswered touchdowns, including a 53-yard pass from Brannagan to wide receiver Scott Valberg, making the score 51-7 in the third quarter.
The only other touchdown for the Varsity Blues would come at the end of the third quarter when Hamilton connected with wide receiver Earl Johnson for a 33-yard run.
For head coach Greg DeLaval, the disallowed touchdown set the tone for the remainder of the game.
“We scored a touchdown early on and it came back on a hold. I don’t know if we ever really recovered from that play because we came out with the intentions of hitting them early and we did. We got a flag on the play and unfortunately that’s our fault. It was one break that cost us seven points.”
Despite losing 58-14, the Blues showed flashes of brilliance, both offensively and defensively. Some of the highlights were sacks from defensive back Derek Batchelor and defensive lineman Adam Fehler, a big interception from Cory Kennedy, and the tandem of Hamilton and Stinson combining for over 160 yards. The Blues definitely showed that they are playoff contenders.
With the game against Queens now in the past, the Blues are focused on their match against Guelph. The team expects to seriously challenge the 1-3 Gryphons.
But first, they’ll take a closer look at the lessons learned against the powerful Gaels.
“We’re going to have to figure out what went wrong today, and look at the film and fix it,” said receiver Mark Stinson.
Coach DeLaval echoed Stinson’s sentiments. “Every week we’ve got to get better. We’ll take a look at the film and see what we did right and what we did wrong. The main thing this week is that we made a lot of small mistakes and we didn’t make the plays that were there.”
DeLaval hinted that no major changes to the line-up should be expected in the upcoming game. “There are always changes every week, regardless of who you’re playing. You always have to adapt to every team,” he said. “Changes will be made, not necessarily to players, but system wise. I’ve watched Guelph play a little bit and they’re a good football team.”
Even though the Blues took the loss on Saturday, they’ve proven that they are a revitalized football team with a new outlook on their season. With a 2-2 record of and four games left in the season, the Varsity Blues are definitely a team to be watched.
