Gaels "sluggish," drop Queen's homecoming game 31-28 to Windsor

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Published Oct 18, 2025 • Last updated 7 hours ago • 4 minute read

football Windsor Lancers’ Windsor running back Mombo Weabge runs for daylight, fighting through the tackles of Queen’s Gaels’ defensive backs Iain St Arnault (No. 6) and John Corscadden (No. 22) during the second quarter of the Queen’s University Gaels homecoming games against the University of Windsor Lancers, Ontario University Athletes action, at Richardson Stadium in Kingston, Ont. on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. The Lancers won 31-28 over the Gaels. Photo by Julia McKay /The Whig-StandardArticle content

The Windsor Lancers put a damper on the festive weekend in Kingston, coming for behind in the fourth quarter to beat the Queen’s University Gaels 31-28 in their homecoming game at Richardson Stadium Saturday afternoon.

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The game was a seesaw affair, Windsor taking a 14-8 lead into halftime and in the fourth quarter Queen’s taking a 25-21 lead on quarterback Alex Vreeken’s eight-yard desperation scramble into the end zone.

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The Gaels extended the lead to 28-21 on a Tyler Mullan field goal, but with less than three minutes left Lancers quarterback Nick Dimovski engineered a drive down the field and snuck the ball into the end zone from the two-yard line that, with the convert, tied the game.

On their next possession, Dimovski scraped together a short drive to set up Windsor placekicker Brady Lidster with a 49-yard field-goal attempt with 28.2 seconds left in regulation. It was no sure thing, but Lidster had kicked a 52-yarder in the first half. When the officials on the goal-line raced their arms signaling the last-minute kick was true, the crowd fell silent and a small roar from the Lancers’ sideline echoed around the stadium.

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No lead seemed safe Saturday, not even when time expired. With the clock down to zero, play was still live and the Gaels were on their second or third lateral, looking for a miracle finish. The play petered out at midfield.

At game’s end, the Lancers crossed the gridiron and taunted the Gaels and the homecoming crowd in the stands behind them, but the moment passed without incident. A minute later the teams lined up for handshakes.

On the day, the Lancers controlled play, leading the Gaels in first downs (27 to 16) and total yards of offence (423 to 330). Penalties were an absolute crusher for Queen’s—Windsor picked up eight first downs on flags thrown.

Going into the contest, the Gaels were coming off their bye week, while the Lancers were playing their second game on the road in a row, having won 30-24 in Ottawa last weekend. It looked like Queen’s had an advantage on this count, but that wasn’t how it played out.

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“We just felt a little rusty to start,” Queen’s coach Steve Snyder said. “We dropped our first pass attempt. Ultimately, though, we didn’t throw the ball well enough, we didn’t catch the ball well enough … the core fundamentals, we weren’t at our best today,”

It would have taken something approximating the Gaels’ best to beat the Lancers.

Snyder had talked up Windsor’s line play, ranking it among the league’s best and the big bodies in the trenches backed it up. Windsor’s line on both sides of the ball featured players pushing “three bills.” The offensive line, with centre Joe Fillion (350 pounds) and guard Brett Miller (380 pounds), basically threw the Lancers’ backfield into total eclipse for Queen’s tacklers. They drove Windsor big advantage in the running game (283 yards, compared to 129 for Queen’s). Leading the way for the Lancers’ ground game was running back Weabge Mombo, who picked up 148 yards on 16 carries.

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“When they needed it [late in the game], they drove down the field and they did behind their offensive line,” Snyder said.

In the coach’s opinion, though, the defensive line for the Lancers was the foundation of Windsor’s win—on the first Queen’s possession, the front four forced a Vreeken fumble and throughout the game pressured him. The final game states show four sacks for losses, but it seemed like hurries would have been about half of the quarterback’s drop-backs.

“Their defensive line really did a good job on us,” Snyder said. “It’d a force. You have to give them credit. They have a great system that allows them to be disruptive. Their defensive line was probably the main difference in this game.”

For his part, Vreeken was visibly disappointed during the game, shouting at teammates and coaches. “They got after me in the first half but we made some adjustments [at halftime] and did pretty well,” Vreeken said. “But when things weren’t going well, we needed to focus on each play, on play at a time, and just let everyone do their job. That was kind of a letdown today.”

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With the win in the last week of the OUA regular season, Windsor vaulted over Queen’s into third place in the standings. Both teams finished with 5-3 records, but the Lancers get the better seeding on the basis of the head-to-head tiebreak.

For the Gaels, it’s their third 5-3 season in a row. Even if the loss Saturday counts as a disappointment, it can hardly be called an upset—going into the final weekend of the season, U Sports national rankings had slotted Queen’s at No. 8 and Windsor at No. 10.

The fourth-place finish brings the McMaster Marauders to town next weekend for the first round of the playoffs—as far as the Gaels are concerned, they would probably prefer playing the Marauders, whom they rolled over in Week Two of the season in Hamilton, rather than the sixth-seeded Carleton Ravens, who will be heading to Windsor.

If the first round of the playoffs looks well set up for Queen’s, the second certainly does not—a win over McMaster would send the Gaels to Laurier, the defending OUA champions who steam-rolled Western, the No. 2-ranked team in the country, in stunning fashion Saturday, 60-13.

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Gaels “sluggish,” drop Queen’s homecoming game 31-28 to Windsor

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