Ravens, Gee-Gees to meet in first round of playoffs

Buckle up your seatbelts. It’s the Carleton Ravens and Ottawa GeeGees in the first round of the OUA football playoffs on Saturday.

As it turned out, this past Saturday afternoon’s regular-season closers had no impact on the playoff positioning for either team.

For the Gee-Gees’ opponent — the Queen’s Gaels — it meant everything.

The Gee- Gees stunned the hometown Gaels with a 42-41 overtime win, choosing to go for the twopoint conversion rather than the safer option of kicking the convert and playing a second overtime. Ironically, it was Mitchell Baines who hauled in the game-winning points after the ball was tipped into the air by a Queen’s defender.

Baines’s brother Riley is a linebacker with the Guelph Gryphons, who needed Queen’s to lose to get into the playoffs.

With a 38-9 Laurier win over Windsor and a 19-18 Western win over McMaster, the Ravens and Gee- Gees settled into fourth and fifth place in a tight OUA race. On Saturday, the cross-town rivals will meet again, at MNP Park (TD Place is booked for Fury FC soccer).

“Two years ago, we lost to them in the Panda Game, then we kicked them out of the playoffs with a win against (McMaster),” said running back Bryce Vieira, who scored two touchdowns for the Gee-Gees. “Now it’s head to head — it means a lot to us.”

The Ravens, who pounded the Gee-Gees 43-23 in the Panda Game earlier this month, beat Waterloo 43-15, with receiver Nate Behar getting nine catches for 154 yards.

The Gee-Gees were down 16-0 to the desperate Gaels, who got two touchdowns from Matteo Del Brocco and one each from Eric Dodwell, defensive back Nicholas Fraser-Greene and QB Nate Hobbs, who left the game with a leg injury and was replaced by backup Kyle Gouveia.

The Gee-Gees also got touchdowns from QB Derek Wendel and receiver Carter Matheson. Kicker Lewis Ward accounted for 16 points, including four field goals.

Even though the game meant nothing in the standings, the players didn’t let up.

Said Vieira: “Coach B (Jamie Barresi) said we had to represent, we had to play with pride because you need that momentum going into the post-season.

“So this game was huge, it was big.”

STEPH CROSIER Gee-Gees quarterback Derek Wendel, centre, scores a touchdown during Ottawa’s wild 42-41 overtime victory over the Queen’s Gaels on Saturday at Richardson Stadium in Kingston. The Gee-Gees will play the Carleton Ravens on Saturday at MNP Park.