Marauders overcome their scoring Blues
And lo, on the 15th day of the ninth month in the year of our Lord 2018 as the scorching lateafternoon sun was beginning its lugubrious descent toward its western home, the event our forefathers told us would eventually happen, did. McMaster scored a touchdown. When the maroon-wearing receiver crossed the goal line with the ball safely in his arms, the clouds parted, a blessing of unicorns appeared above the stadium and a heavenly host began singing the Hallelujah chorus in a ...
OK, things may not have happened exactly as described. But when Mac finally punched the ball into the University of Toronto’s end-zone — part of a 37-3 Homecoming Game victory — after an epic 168-minute touchdown drought stretching over four games that saw the Marauders’ offence reduced to little more than a rumour, the moment was pretty sweet.
“It was awesome,” says quarterback Andreas Dueck. “To finally get the floodgates open and to get the offence working was a good feeling for sure.”
“We just needed someone to break the ice,” says Blake Reason, who caught the pass. “It feels awesome.”
Under most circumstances, an otherwise run-of-the-mill eightyard TD pass to a wide-open receiver late in the third quarter against the worst defensive team in the province wouldn’t be all that big a deal. But these weren’t most circumstances.
The once-mighty Marauder offence — it was just three years ago, you’ll recall, that Asher Hastings set a national record with 31 touchdown passes in a single season — had all but vanished in 2018. A school whose team was once known for overwhelming opposing defences had become as dangerous as a machine gun shooting cotton balls.
Now and then it would show some flashes but nothing really ever came of it. Blame injuries, blame execution, blame youth but that was the situation.
So as Saturday afternoon began to move along, the strain of this accumulating dry spell was becoming obvious. Exacerbated by the fact that the Blues are horrible. So far this year they’ve offered all the resistance of a balsa wood shack in hurricane Florence en route to posting the worst defensive numbers in the province.
This should’ve been the elixir for Mac to get things untracked. Yet for nearly three quarters, the home side couldn’t find the end zone. It faked a punt to keep a drive alive. Didn’t work. Another time it used a surprise onside kick to get the ball back. Didn’t work. On third-and-less-than-ayard it went for it. Didn’t work.
Early in the third quarter they were second-and-goal from the two-yard line. Here we go, it’s gonna finally ... nope. Fumbled the snap and had to kick a field goal. At that point, coach, do you start to wonder if it’ll ever happen? “Yeah,” admits Greg Knox. “You really can’t let that creep in but ...” You’re human.
“Yeah. And so you look at it and you have to take a step back and be analytical. Mistakes happen.”
But eventually, joyously, euphorically, the curse was broken. And what followed was nearly miraculous. They did it again. Then again after that. After wandering in the Sahara for a month, they got three long, cool sips of cold water in roughly 10 minutes. “Hey, we know we can do this but we finally did it,” Dueck says he was thinking after the first. “So let’s go do it again and again.”
Dueck, who began last year as the starter only to lose the job to Jackson White — but who now appears to have stolen it back — ended up throwing for 372 yards and those three TDs. By the waning stages of the fourth quarter, he was running a good-looking offence and lofting gorgeous parabolas to his receivers.
Mind you, this didn’t ingratiate him or the Marauders’ coaching staff to Blues’ coach (and onetime Ticats’ defensive co-ordinator) Greg Marshall who was red hot after the game that Mac was still going deep when the game was clearly out of hand. The quickest way to create friction in sports is to try to run up the score on a badly beaten opponent.
Knox says that wasn’t the intent. With the offence finally showing signs of life — and with a really tough Laurier team waiting
for his side next weekend — he was simply trying to use every second of the game to get better.
“Everyone’s got their take on how it should look,” he says. “We can’t be focused on that.”
No, they can’t. They have to carry the momentum of the impressive fourth quarter into next week’s game against the Hawks, who have one of the stingiest defences in the league and will be sour after an upset loss to Waterloo on Saturday. They have to somehow make sure they don’t start a new dry spell. One hundred and sixty eight minutes was more than long enough.