The Queen’s Gaels staged an offensive light show in their 55-17 victory over the Carleton Ravens at TAAG Park in Ottawa Saturday afternoon.
Gaels quarterback Alex Vreeken had a near-perfect day, completing 16 of 22 pass attempts and amassing 322 yards and four touchdowns with nary an interception nor tackle for a loss.
Vreeken’s numbers could have been even bigger. Wide receiver Logan Walton dropped one pass in the end zone in the second quarter.
With the game out of reach midway through the third quarter, coach Steve Snyder decided to give back-up quarterback Ashton St. Germain some game experience, albeit with fairly conservative play-calling direction.
Though the Gaels applied the air brakes in the fourth quarter, St Germain led the offence to two scores, including a 40-yard touchdown pass to Cedric Smith. Queen’s ran out the clock, with Vreeken coming back for a final snap, taking a knee at Carleton’s one-yard line as the clock ticked down to zero.
For his part, St Germain completed three of four tosses for 64 yards, including a 40-yard touchdown pass to Cedric Smith and managed to lead the Gaels to another scoring drive.
The ground game for Queen’s was just as relentless as the aerial attack. Jayce Baldwin led the way with 103 rushing yards in 12 attempts, while the other half of the rotation, Jayden Gurzi-MacDonald piled up an even 100 yards on 13 attempts.
The ball carriers’ numbers were all the more impressive, considering the Gaels’ ostensible backfield starter Ethan Dahl, missed his second straight game after a big hit in their season-opening victory over the University of Toronto at Varsity Stadium on Aug 31. Coach Snyder’s “running back by committee” approach only stands to improve with Dahl’s return.
With all other contributions factored in, the Gaels’ offence accounted for 623 yards.
Despite the lopsided score, Carleton briefly led in the game. After a 42-yard Tyler Mullan field goal on the Gaels’ first possession, Ravens running back Keyshawn Reid found a gaping hole at the line of scrimmage and raced 42 yards for a touchdown to put the hosts in front 7-3.
That, however, was as close as it would get to the stuff of an upset.
Form righted itself at the end of the first quarter when Vreeken found Walton on a deep sideline route, the rainbow thrown more than 50 yards in the air, hitting the receiver in the numbers in stride at the goaline.
For his celebration after an almost identical touchdown catch in last week’s triumph over Waterloo at Richardson Stadium, Walton acted out a theatrical routine, miming a long driver striping a 350-yarder off an imaginary tee while his teammates formed an admiring gallery. Against the Ravens, Walton opted for gymnastics, performing a cartwheel that led to a handspring and a backflip finish, cleanly sticking the landing. It will be tough to top.
Walton’s touchdown, his first of two for the day, made the score 10-7. Thereafter, Queen’s pulled away.
For all of its impressive athleticism, Walton’s routine Saturday might not have matched one improvised by Cedric Smith after the first of his two touchdowns on the day.
A toddler presumably still in diapers had climbed out of a wagon pulled by his father beside the endzone and was looking up at Smith who gave him a very low-five. The high-five for the kid’s father after the fact was an expression of good faith and working the room.
Walton had seven catches for 162 yards, all but one in the first half. Smith picked up 105 yards on four receptions.
The host Ravens had precious little to celebrate on the day. At least four starters had to be helped off the field during play. Out-manned from the get-go, the home team couldn’t afford any loss of manpower.
Though the game falls into the category of a rout, one defensive play was key to turning a relatively close contest into a runaway.
In the second quarter, with Queen’s up 10-7, Carleton quarterback Elijah Barnes led his team downfield on a drive and had the ball in the red zone. Barnes hit receiver Nash Macdonald on a short hitch pattern and it seemed like Queen’s defensive back Cordel Epale had tied him up for a solo tackle in the open field. At some point when Macdonald strained to gain an extra yard or two, Epale dispossessed him of the pigskin. It landed in the statistics as an interception only because the scorekeeping software used by the league doesn’t include a dropdown category for steals.
A few plays later, Jayce Baldwin cut through the Ravens’ defence for 39-yard touchdown catch-and-run, breaking three tackles en route.
While Epale’s single play would make the best highlight, the trench work fell to the Gaels’ veteran linebacking corps, James Gillingham and Brandon Spence both being credited with five solo tackles, good for the team lead.
Placekicker Tyler Mullan hit both his field-goal attempts and all seven converts to bring his career point-scoring total to 433, a school record. Mullan is a perfect 10 for 10 on field-goal attempts this season with a longest make from 50 yards. The fifth-year science major from North Bay has also made 14 extra points.
The victory in the capital raises the Gaels’ record to 3-0 for the season, while Carleton dropped to 0-4.
Next Saturday the University of Ottawa comes to Richardson Stadium for a 3 p.m. game that represents the stiffest test to this point for Queen’s in the defence of the Yates Cup. The Gee-Gees’ record stands at 3-1 after falling to the visiting University of Guelph Gryphons 24-13 Saturday.
gjoyce@postmedia.com
