Gee-Gees rally after trailing Hawks by 19

Ottawa head coach opts to have wind at team’s back in pivotal fourth quarter

Early in the fourth quarter of the Ontario University Athletics football game at Gee-Gees Field on Saturday, the last thing anyone thought possible would have been a victory by the home side.

Trailing 22-3 early in that final quarter, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees somehow put together 22 straight points for a miraculous 25-22 comeback win over the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks.

On a very windy afternoon, at halftime the Gee-Gees (2-1) elected to defer and allow Laurier (1-3) to get the ball to start the third quarter so they could have the wind at their backs in the fourth quarter.

Originally that appeared to be a bad decision, as Levondre Gordon put together a pair of six-yard touchdown runs to give Laurier a 19-3 lead.

Another drive by the Hawks with the wind in the third was interrupted by the end of the quarter. The drive immediately stalled against the wind to start the fourth, but enough damage was done to allow for a 30-yard field goal from Nathan Mesher and a 22-3 Laurier lead.

“It worked out, but I thought there for a while, the way that they were moving the ball, it looked like it was going to backfire, to be honest,” Gee- Gees coach Jamie Barresi said of his decision to defer.

“Our guys made it work for us, though. The thought was to play the second and fourth quarters with the wind, we decided at 10 o’clock (Saturday) morning. We thought about at the half and decided to stick with it.”

Good thing they did.

Following the Mesher field goal, Rashad Spooner was the beneficiary of some Laurier misfortune as he jumped on a loose ball in the Hawks’ end zone for a touchdown after Malcolm Thompson botched a punt return.

Following the Campbell Fair conversion, it was 22-10 with 12 minutes to play.

A couple of series later, Kalem Beaver returned a punt 48 yards for a touchdown, and after the conversion it was 22-17 with a tick under five minutes to play.

Then the offence, after doing very little all game, drove the field and completed the drive with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Ben Maracle to Tristin Park with 1:45 to play, but the two-point conversion failed, leaving the Gee-Gees with a 23-22 lead.

The Ottawa defence then forced a turnover on downs with a pair of sacks by Reshaan Davis and Michael Pezzuto, but the Gee-Gees offence was then unable to convert a third-and-one from the Laurier four-yard line.

On the next play, though, Davis dropped quarterback Connor Carusello in the end zone for a safety with 33 second left. It was 25-22 Gee-Gees and game over.

“It was long-awaited and overdue. I’m glad we got there and got it done,” Davis said of the safety before giving praise to the defence. “We played with heart for 60 minutes and we haven’t done that so far this year. The guys didn’t quit.”

Barresi had the same type of praise for the entire team, giving credit to his players for not slowing down.

“We talked to the players about being relentless, and I can’t say enough about them because that’s what they did. At the beginning of the fourth it looked pretty bleak, but those kids kept hustling and I have to give them credit for that. It’s not on me, I give it to them,” Barresi said.

Each team had a first-half field goal and the Gee-Gees conceded a safety rather than punting from their own end zone, giving Laurier a 5-3 advantage at the half.

The rest of the half featured seven first downs and 175 yards of offence for Laurier. The Gee- Gees put together three first downs and 111 yards of offence. There were also a combined 13 punts, including one that was blocked, four fumbles and a bad snap on a field-goal attempt that ended in a turnover on downs.

The Ottawa Gee-Gees will be on the road at York and Guelph over the next two weeks before returning to host the Carleton Ravens in the annual Panda Game at TD Place on Oct. 5.