On a rainy Saturday afternoon, the Varsity Blues football team saw its 2013 campaign come to a promising close with a 50–18 win over the Waterloo Warriors. Coming into the game, the team was looking to reach .500 with a 4–4 record for the first time since 1993. Toronto came in hot off of two consecutive victories over the Carleton Ravens and York Lions.
When asked about the team’s late season surge, Blues head coach Greg Gary commented: “This team has started to gel. We’re disappointed about the veterans that we’re going to lose, but I think we have young guys coming up that will be able to replace them in time. The program is on the right track. We’re trending upward.”
While both teams entered the game with slim playoff aspirations, the game was far from meaningless. The Blues alone were on the cusp of three records, with receiver Paul de Pass only 128 yards short of surpassing the Blues’ all-time career receiving yards. Meanwhile, Toronto’s Alex Pierzchalski came in only 13 receptions shy of the all-time receptions record, and special teams standout returner Kevin Bradfield was looking to set a new all-time punt return yard record.
From the first snap, Blues quarterback Simon Nassar displayed his ability to head a confident and productive Blues offense.
In the first half, after the Toronto defense forced a Waterloo fumble, Nassar dropped back and heaved a deep ball to de Pass, who caught the ball in stride and stumbled into the end zone for a 67-yard touchdown. With that, he set a U of T single-season receiving yards record. With a four-yard reception shortly afterwards, de Pass became the record holder of U of T all-time receiving yards. Those were only his first accomplishments on the day, later recording three touchdowns, including a 103-yard strike from Nassar.
When asked about his record, de Pass commented: “It’s rewarding, first and foremost, and exciting. I’ve put a lot of time into the program since I’ve been here five years, so to break a record that’s been so longstanding is a really good feeling.”
The Blues were not the only team coming into the game with players hoping to achieve record marks. In the first half, Waterloo receiver Nick Anapolsky set a new Ontario University Athletics (oua) and Canadian Intercollegiate Sports single-season receptions record.
Football is a three-faceted game, and the Blues defense was not to be forgotten, maintaining consistent pressure on the Waterloo quarterbacks and recording six sacks.
As the game ticked away, with less than five minutes remaining, Toronto punt and kickoff returner Kevin Bradfield set a new U of T record for career punt return yards.
Bradfield later reflected on the record, asserting: “This entire year we’ve been working hard as a team. It’s amazing that I can say that I’ve broken this record in only two years here. I couldn’t have done it without the coaches and this amazing team. It’s not my record; it’s our record.”
Ending a football season with only four wins isn’t usually considered a successful year, but when your team has reached .500 for the first time in 20 years, the vast improvement isn’t difficult to recognize. Now the Blues’ next task is to extend this three-game winning streak into 2014.
Gary reflected on the strong finish to the season: “The way I viewed the last part of [the season] is that I thought that as a team if we could manage these games and actually show some improvement and also see if we had the opportunity to dominate a bit, it would say that maybe that bottom section of the oua, where we’ve lived for a while, that maybe we could move out of it and move into that middle section.
“It will take some work to get there, but I think this is a pretty good indicator that we’re moving the program along and will be more competitive in the oua than we’ve been in the past.”
