The Toronto Varsity Blues football team snapped a 15-game losing streak last Sunday in a blowout win against the Windsor Lancers in front of a full-capacity Varsity Stadium crowd. Quarterback Clay Sequeira was the standout player of the match, throwing for 464 yards, scoring six touchdowns, and boasting zero interceptions.
In the first drive of the game, the Blues drove down the field, but were forced to settle for a field goal. In Windsor’s ensuing drive, quarterback Sam Girard was sacked 1.5 yards from the goal line, and the Lancers opted to take the intentional safety to give the Blues an early 5–0 lead. After Toronto was forced to punt, Windsor scored a field goal to make the score 5–3.
In the second quarter, Windsor tacked on another field goal to take a 6–5 lead. The next drive saw Sequeira take his offence down the field, and complete it with a 39-yard touchdown pass to receiver Will Corby for the first touchdown of the game.
Windsor then came right back in the ensuing drive to score their first touchdown of the game, taking a 13–12 lead. With time winding down for the first half, the Blues marched down the field in their next drive, and with a 22-yard pass to receiver Michael Lehmann, made the score 19–13 at the end of the half.
Along with his brilliant passing performance, Sequeira also lead the team in rushing, going for 72 yards in nine attempts in the first half.
“We just took what they gave us,” Sequeira said in a post-game interview. “Our offence pretty much adapted to what they showed us all week. And so if they’re going to give us one thing, we’re going to keep adjusting. That’s the nature of our offence. We’ll adjust to whatever we get. So the reason why we ran football so much is because the looks were favourable.”
In the third quarter, Windsor sacked Sequeira and forced the fumble, and on the first play made a 38-yard pass down the field. Windsor made it to first and goal on the one-yard line, but Toronto’s defence came up big, forcing Windsor to settle for a field goal.
On the ensuing Toronto drive, the Blues offence went two and out. During the Blues punting play on third down, the snap went over the kicker’s head and was recovered by Windsor to give them the ball on Toronto’s 22-yard line. Toronto’s defence succeeded again, with defensive back Tolu Ahmed making an interception which stopped Windsor from scoring.
After these momentum-shifting plays by the defence, the floodgates opened for the Blues in the fourth. It started with a game-high 79-yard touchdown pass from Sequeira to receiver Nolan Lovegrove. Toronto never looked back, with Sequeira scoring three more touchdowns, and running back Liam Cousineau making a one-yard run for the final touchdown of the game, bringing the score to 54–26 for Toronto.
“I think people see now how exciting Varsity football is, and I’m expecting to see more and more crowds like this as the home games go on because, as you can see, we feed off it and hopefully we’ll see more [wins],” Sequeira said about the full-capacity crowd.
When asked how he felt about breaking the Blues’ long losing streak, Sequeira said, “It’s the best feeling in the world. There’s really nothing like it. I’m still really in shock. But honestly, we shouldn’t be content. We shouldn’t be satisfied with this. This is the expectation. Now we should put our best foot forward. We should continue to win. This should be the norm.”
