Sporting Madness

I'm settled in here at Richardson Stadium and have a press box seat this time,so the live blog is a firm go and will start in about 15 minutes. Here's a quick preview of what I'm expecting from the game: Storylines: - The absence of Mike Giffin : It's been confirmed that Giffin will start on the sidelines, and it doesn't sound like he's likely to play at all. It will be interesting to see how that affects the game. As I've mentioned before, Marty Gordon and Jimmy Therrien are very capable backups, and Gordon in particular could probably start for several OUA teams. Neither is as threatening as Giffin, though: all year long, defences have been forced to stack the box to stop Giffin, opening up passing lanes for Dan Brannagan . That's not too likely to happen with Gordon and Therrien in there, which may lead to some big rushing gains for them, but will make the passing game more difficult. We'll see how this plays out over the afternoon. - Dave Mason...

Yes, more happened in sports yesterday than just the continued resurrection of the Boston Red Sox [ Marcel Mutoni , Deadspin ]. For example, there's the Gaels' football win [ Neate Sager , Out of Left Field ] over the Waterloo Warriors [this blog], which gave them a perfect regular-season record of 8-0... The score: Queen's 38, Waterloo 22 (CIS box score is here ) How I saw heard it: On the CFRC radio broadcast. The Good: -Danny Brannagan: Our Queen's Journal Athlete of the Week from last week turned in another solid performance, completing 23 of his 39 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns without being picked off. The early injury to Mike Giffin (see below, also here ) meant that the Gaels had to take to the air more frequently than normal. As Neate noted , that's a season-high in pass attempts for Brannagan. He was up to the challenge, though. The zero picks is particularly impressive given his number of attempts (although it sounded like he threw...

Breaking down Queen's win over Western [myself, Queen's Journal ]... The score: Queen's 46, Western 13. How I saw it: In person. The Good: - Queen's defensive line: The Gaels put tremendous amounts of pressure on Western quarterback Michael Faulds all day long, sacking him four times and forcing him to throw the ball away several other times. Dee Sterling and Osie Ukwuoma were particularly effective, recording one sack each and seven solo tackles between the two of them. I particularly liked Neate 's take , evoking memories of Grantland Rice : You could almost write of the Queen's D line, "In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Osie Ukwuoma, Kyle MacDonald, Dee Sterling, and Neil Puffer and they formed the crest of the Kingston cyclone." - The turnover ratio: Queen's forced 11 Western turnovers (four interceptions, three fumble recoveries and four more turn...

Today’s football game between the 3-0 Gaels and the 2-1* University of Toronto Varsity Blues, which will be live-blogged right here (kickoff at 1 p.m.), should be an interesting clash. It’s a great matchup for Toronto, as the vast majority expects them to be beaten to an unrecognizable pulp, so the weight of expectations on the Blues is reduced to a single feather. *It still feels weird writing Varsity Blues with a number other than zero in front. For Queen’s, the situation’s approaching Kobayashi Maru-like levels of difficulty, as there’s almost no way this game can improve their standings. Everyone expects a big win, so even a superlative performance will be shrugged off with a “aw, it was against Toronto.” A closer game would lead to intense questioning, while a loss would lead to calls for heads, perhaps displayed John the Baptist-style on a platter. Very little good can come from this game, and there’s the potential for a lot of negatives to arise. Looking on the bright side of li...

It was an impressive week for Queen's sports, which resulted in two Gaels taking OUA Athlete of the Week honours. I've already covered defensive tackle Dee Sterling 's superlative performance in Saturday's football game against Laurier both here and at Out of Left Field , and will have more on his win in tomorrow's Journal , but his stats deserve repeating again: five solo sacks, one assisted sack, six solo tackles, four assisted tackles and six tackles for a loss, leading to a net loss of 37 yards. He broke the all-time Queen's record of four sacks, jointly held by Jim Aru and Marc Mitchell , and there's a good chance he'll earn CIS Defensive Player of the Week. I didn't write about Jackie Byers yet, though, so she deserves some play here as well. The first-year lacrosse player turned in an incredible nine-goal, two-assist performance in Queen's three games over the weekend, leading the Gaels to a 3-0 record with wins over the University of T...

Breaking down Queen's win over Laurier this afternoon (which you may have missed while pondering that the U of T Varsity Blues are now 2-1 [Varsity Blues Sports Information]...) The score: 41-7, Queen's. The recap: Here [My recap, Out of Left Field ]. How I saw it: In person. The Good: - Dee Sterling: Defensive tackle Sterling had a monster game for the Gaels, recording five solo sacks (a Queen's record) and adding a shared sack with Osie Ukwuoma . He also led Queen's with six solo tackles, four assisted tackles and six tackles for a loss (which added to a total loss of 37 yards). As a result, Sterling was named the Boston Pizza Player of the Game.* *I don't normally use corporate names for awards, but I make an exception in this case because I worked at Boston Pizza for two years (as a delivery driver) and loved it. Very, very good pizza. Also, they gave plenty of pizza to the press box at halftime, which was awesome. - Queen's defensive line as a whole: ...