Campus Corner: Top 10 Gaels' moments poll is live

After much ado and Internet wrangling, my poll of the Top 10 Gaels' moments of the year (a collaboration with the Athletics Department) is finally live. Unfortunately, only part of the explanatory text made it into the Journal post on the matter, so I figured I'd just post the whole thing and the survey link here as well. Check it out and vote for your favourite! If you feel I left out any key moments or just want to talk about the list, post a comment here or e-mail me at andrew_bucholtz[at]hotmail.com.

Here's the full release on the matter:

VOTE ONLINE FOR QUEEN’S TOP SPORTING MOMENT OF THE 2008-09 SEASON

Kingston, Ont. (March 19, 2009) – The Queen’s Journal invites
fans of the Queen’s Gaels to vote online for the top sporting moments
of the 2008-09 season.

Fans can visit the Journal website at www.queensjournal.ca to cast their ballot and select this year’s top sporting moment. The moments will be ranked and
unveiled at the 73rd Annual Colour Awards Athletic Banquet on March
31st. Voting closes on Sunday, March 29th at 12:00am.

Journal sports editor Andrew Bucholtz paired down a list of thirty of the school’s top
sporting moments into a top-ten list. Fans are now
asked to rank the top moments.

VOTE HERE: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=E45fD47pyUoS7djfSrzvbQ_3d_3d

The ten moments selected to appear in the poll are (in chronological order):

10/05/2008 – Dominant Weekend: Gaels squads across multiple sports
dominate opponents registering significant victories over a two day
period (October 4 & 5) - Rugby (M) vs. Trent 106-0; Football vs. York
80-0; Soccer (M) vs. RMC 5-0; Hockey (W) vs. Western 4-0.

10/18/2008 – Undefeated: Football and Rugby (M) both finish their
regular seasons undefeated without a loss. Football marches to a
perfect 8-0 season while Rugby posts a 5-0-1 record and would go on to
capture a silver medal at the OUA Championship.

10/25/2008 – Champions: Rowing (M/W) captures Queen’s only banners of
the 2008 Fall Term taking both the men’s and women’s banners. For the
women’s team it marked their second consecutive banner. One week later on
November 3, Queen’s would finish second (women) and third (men) at the
Canadian University Rowing Championships.

10/26/2008 – Silver Medal: Lacrosse (W) captures its fourth
consecutive silver medal finish at the OUA Championship. The Gaels
finished with a regular-season record of 9-3 and 18 points second to only Laurier who had 24 points.

11/21/2008 – National Honours for Football – Head coach Pat Sheahan
and linebacker Thaine Carter (Nanaimo, B.C.) are recognized nationally
for their season. Sheahan is named Canadian Interuniversity Sport
(CIS) football coach of the year, while Carter is the recipient of
the CIS Presidents’ Trophy for top defensive player in the country
just a day earlier.

1/7/2009- Moore scores 40: Brittany Moore made Queen’s history scoring
40 points in a single women’s basketball game against Royal Military
College. She broke former Gael and current assistant coach Claire
Meadows’ old record by a single point. Moore was nine points shy of
tying the OUA single-game mark (49) held by Candi Lohr (Brock) in
1982-83.

1/24/2009 – Crazy Ending - Queen’s women’s basketball edged the
Carleton Ravens 53-52 on a last second lay-up by Brittany Moore.
Moore’s basket was part of a bizarre sequence of events which saw
Carleton foul Moore on a three-point attempt and leave her undefended
at the foul line.

2/3/2009 – Captain Burke - In his first night as interim captain,
Billy Burke of Aurora, Ont., scored two goals, including the overtime
winner, as Queen’s defeated the Carleton Ravens 3-2. Burke went on to
score six goals in three games after recording just three in his first 21 games. His efforts helped men’s hockey finish the season with a
6-0-1 record.

2/19/2009- Silver Again- The men’s volleyball team collected a second
consecutive silver medal as they competed against the McMaster
Marauders for the third straight season in the finals. Volleyball
tallied another impressive season, including a seven-game win streak.

3/3/2009- Morra leads Gaels to Semifinals- Amanda Morra of Pickering
Ont., had a hat-trick as the Queen’s women’s hockey team defeated the
No.9 nationally-ranked Toronto Varsity Blues 4-2 in the OUA
Quarter-finals to advance in the playoffs.

Campus Corner: A momentous day

One of the things we often forget about democracy, especially at the level of student politics, is the impact some decisions can have. That was evident at tonight's AMS Annual General Meeting, where around 800 students packed Ban Righ Cafeteria and almost unanimously approved the athletics department's request for a $120 fee increase [myself, Queen's Journal] over four years. It's easy to see why we often have voter apathy, though; much of the rest of the meeting was consumed with the petty squabbles and meaningless arguments more frequently found in politics, and it's a credit to those who managed to stick it out until the Athletics motion. Still, this one decision was incredibly important and will be remembered as such. Yes, there was a long process of research, polling and discussion leading up to today, but in the end, the future direction of the department all came down to this vote. Without the increase, Queen's sports would have been reduced to a shell of their former selves; with it, the stage is set for a further push towards excellence. That's why March 16, 2009 may be a day long remembered by those who follow Queen's sports.

Tonight's meeting was not an isolated event, though. I spoke with Director of Athletics and Recreation Leslie Dal Cin about the result shortly after the motion, and we talked about how this was part of the logical evolution of the department that started shortly after her appointment [Brennan Leong, Queen's Journal]. In fact, some of the issues even predate her involvement. The introduction of entrance athletic financial awards, for example, has led to massive shakeups [myself, Queen's Journal] in how Ontario universities approach their athletic programs and was one of the key factors in the long-running and long-delayed Athletics Review [myself, Queen's Journal]. One of the key recommendations in that review was raising the student athletics fee to a point where it was one of the top five in Ontario [myself, Queen's Journal].

Actually, this increase is more ambitious than that; with the $120 tacked on to the current fee of $131.75, Queen's becomes the OUA school with the highest athletic fee, narrowly edging out the University of Toronto (according to the comparative information provided by the athletics department). 11 of the 18 OUA schools have said they'll be looking for a fee increase in the next two years, though, so Queen's may not retain that distinction for long.

I was happy to see this fee pass with so much support; I figured it would be a much tougher challenge given students' natural opposition to parting with more money and the magnitude of the increase, plus the widespread apathy towards varsity athletics that seems to exist on campus. It was a tremendously smart decision on the part of Athletics to first find out how many people were generally in favour of a fee increase via referendum (72 per cent) and then use that and the information on the services students value to create a specific number for the increase that could be passed at Assembly and then the AGM. Referendums on campus are characterized by apathy; most people have one or two issues they care about, and fill out the rest of the ballots either at random or without a lot of thought. Some don't care about any issue, but vote to earn their free coffee. A $120 increase is much tougher to pass in that climate, especially as there's no opportunity to explain why it's needed or what it's for.

By contrast, the Annual General Meeting route is still quite democratic. Any student can attend and vote (although not all have the time), but the effort that's required to do so means that the people who turn out are those passionate about the issue (in this case, at least half the crowd appeared to be varsity athletes). There are several legitimate concerns about this increase, and many have been addressed during the various discussions to this point, but the key factor here is that this increase was hardly rammed down students' throats. It's up for debate if as many people would have supported it in a campus-wide referendum; what this did prove is that those who support the increase were much more organized, passionate and effective about it. The opportunity for dissent was there, but it was barely taken; most of the criticisms I've heard on the issue were only raised by one Tyler King on his radio show, and he didn't bother to speak about the motion at any of the meetings along the way. I'm sure there are others who share his concerns, but apart from one economics student who complained about the magnitude of the fee tonight (mostly because he wanted money for his own pet project, a climate-change audit of the university) and the 5-10 people who voted against the increase, there wasn't much dissent voiced. To me, that shows that Queen's students are at least as apathetic about long meetings and votes as they are about going to varsity games.

It's interesting to look back at how Athletics has evolved over my time at Queen's. There have been plenty of changes, some I have heartily supported and some I have disagreed with. The overarching narrative has been one of a department moving towards a professionally-run excellence-driven approach. Sure, there have been missteps along the way, but those happen in every organization. Overall, though, it looks to me like they're heading in the right direction with full-time coaches, athletics scholarships and some great new facilities that should open this fall. This new funding is an important step towards that kind of excellence-driven model. Moreover, undergraduate students have now shown that they're strongly behind athletics, which is something the department can hopefully leverage to get further support from the graduate students, the University and the alumni. This decision isn't the end of the road, as there are still many changes to come and the cuts to athletics from the University mean that the impact of this student support is lessened. However, it is an important milepost along the way.

Campus Corner: Update on Queen's proposed athletics fee increase

Next Monday's going to be a very significant moment in the future of Queen's athletics. That's the date of the AMS (Alma Mater Society, the undergraduate student government) general meeting, which takes place in Ban Righ Hall at 8 p.m. All current students have a vote at the meeting. The key motion to be addressed is a $120 increase to the current athletics fee of $131.75, spread out over several years (you can see the details on the Queen's site here, along with some very interesting budgeting data). Steep university budget cuts mean that the athletics department is facing some challenging times financially and may have to drastically alter their programs if they don't get this increase. Anyway, an interesting foreshadowing of what may go down at the AGM occured March 1 at a special AMS Assembly meeting to consider endorsing the fee increase and sending it to the general meeting for further ratification. I got the bare-bones details on the meeting in last week's Journal but figured I'd provide a little more information and context on it here thanks to the lesser space constraints. My article follows; I'll weigh in with my own thoughts on the matter as the AGM gets closer.


Athletics fee increase sent to AGM
By Andrew Bucholtz
Sports Editor
At a special meeting on March 1, AMS Assembly voted to put a motion to increase the annual Athletics and Recreation fee on the agenda for the AMS annual general meeting on March 16. The motion proposes an increase of $120 spread out over several years. The final schedule of proposed fee increases differs from the original plan put forward by Athletics at the February 11 AMS Assembly, which proposed a $50 increase in 2009-10, an additional $40 increase in 2011-12 and a further $30 in 2012-13 with the fee to be indexed to inflation thereafter. The new schedule proposes a $35 increase in 2009-10, with a $40 increase to follow in 2011-12, and a $45 increase in 2012-13 before indexing the fee to inflation in 2013-2014.
Director of Athletics and Recreation Leslie Dal Cin said the change was due to feedback from the department’s meetings with the PHESA and ComSoc assemblies, which proposed that shifting the larger increases to later years would be fairer to the students graduating next year who would only have one year of access to the Queen’s Centre facilities. Dal Cin said the revised schedule would force the department to run a deficit for one more year than the original plan would have, but the University has agreed to let the department run that deficit. Over 50 student-athletes and coaches attended the meeting to show their support for the fee.
Dal Cin said she was thankful for the support Assembly showed for Queen’s athletics and recreation programs.
“We’re grateful for both the support and the comments about the process,” she said. “The fact that so many people think supporting athletics and recreation is important is tremendous and is tremendous for our confidence.”
Dal Cin said the department plans further campaigns to increase awareness of the proposed increase and what the funds would be used for before the AGM.
“We still have more education to do,” she said. “We really felt people needed to be informed and engaged.”
Dal Cin said the change was due to feedback from student leaders.
“That was a suggestion that came out of both the ComSoc meeting and the meeting with PHESA,” she said. “It really spoke to an understanding of when the services would come on line and a certain degree of fairness that people who are graduating next year wouldn’t have had the benefit of what the Queen’s Centre can bring and all the programs and services for their previous three years.”
Dal Cin said the department made the change because they wanted to address student concerns about the fee increase.
“It was a great suggestion and we were happily able to accommodate it,” she said. “I think that helped in terms of shaping our process and people understanding that we were looking for input and prepared to accept it once we received it.”
CESA president Todd Ormiston said the increase is necessary thanks to the budget pressures faced by the athletics department.
“I think unfortunately this fee is needed,” he said. “This fee needs to happen for athletics to survive and I think we all recognize that.”
Ormiston said he doesn’t want the University to cut their funding to athletics further, though, as that would force students to bear even more of the load.
“It’s time for us to stop paying backdoor tuition fees,” he said.
Dal Cin said she’s hopeful the University will continue to support the department.
“We will do our best to make sure that the University does its part for Athletics and Recreation,” she said.
EngSoc president Jordan Black said the increase is needed to allow students to take full advantage of the new Queen’s Centre facilities for both athletics and recreation programs.
“It’s really important that we continue to provide the resources or improve the resources to both of these programs,” he said. “With all these new facilities coming in the form of the Queen’s Centre, it would be a shame to not operate them at their full capacity.”
Black said the strong student support shown for the fee increase in both the winter referendum and further polling conducted by Athletics and Recreation made it important for Assembly to send the motion to the AGM.
“Students are making a point of saying that they support this,” he said.
Medical students’ representative John Doan brought forward an amendment to approve only the first year’s fee increase and send the other increases to a referendum. Doan said his constituents don’t support a fee increase, as many of them don’t often use athletics facilities.
“In general, they are somewhat opposed to the motion, and as their representative, so am I,” he said.
Done said his constituents were also concerned that the fee was going to the AGM instead of a campus-wide referendum. He brought forward an amendment to send the first increase, of $35 for the 2009-2010 school year, to the AGM and bring the other proposed increases to referendum.
Dal Cin said the funding uncertainty that would arise from Done’s amendment would put the athletics department in a deficit position.
“If we were to adopt that motion, we would never be able to get out of that deficit,” she said.
Chair of the AMS Board of Directors Kaitlyn Young spoke against the amendment. She said she wasn’t concerned about sending the fee to the AGM instead of a referendum thanks to its support among students.
“We have student support for this and that’s what we’d be looking for in a referendum,” she said.
Young said the increase is essential to ensure stability in the athletics budget.
“Ever since I’ve been here at Queen’s, there’s been uncertainty around the athletics program,” she said. “I think the way the motion is worded without the amendment is perfect to give athletics some stability.”
Done’s amendment was voted down and the motion to send the fee to the AGM was passed with only one vote against.

Campus Corner: Zeeman named All-Canadian

A quick note that Queen's men's volleyball outside hitter Joren Zeeman was selected as a second-team All-Canadian tonight. Zeeman was named the CIS Rookie of the Year last season and was even better this year; he was the primary weapon in the Gaels' arsenal and led them to the OUA Final. He'll be one to watch in the years to come. I have the full list of All-Canadians and award winners over at The CIS Blog with some more detailed analysis.

Queen's - RMC Hockey Day in Canada segment hits the intertubes

Thanks to Mike Grobe of Queen's Athletics, I came across the 3 minute clip highlighting the Queen's-RMC rivalry that aired on CBC Saturday during their Hockey Day in Canada coverage. It's pretty good; some creative camera shots of both universities, a bit of footage from the old-time reenactment and plenty of coverage from this year's Carr-Harris Cup, including pre-game speeches by Queen's head coach Brett Gibson and RMC head coach Adam Shell, as well as interviews with the likes of Gibson, Paul Bradley, Grant Horvath, Bill Fitsell and David Carr-Harris. You can find it at http://www.cbc.ca/sports/ondemand/ by searching "RMC": only the right clip will show up that way. Unfortunately, I can't embed it or link to it directly, but it's still definitely worth a look. Kudos to CBC on a job well done on this segment, especially without a lot of airtime to work with.

OUA volleyball final live blog

It's Queen's and McMaster for all the marbles once again! Live from Hamilton, join me in the live blog below.

Upcoming live blog of Queen's-McMaster volleyball

I’ll be live-blogging Game II of the OUA men’s volleyball finals tonight between Queen’s and McMaster. The game starts at 7. It’s also going to be webcast on SSN Canada. McMaster won Round I pretty handily [myself, Queen’s Journal] on Tuesday, so it will be interesting to see if the Gaels can bounce back and force a third match on Saturday. McMaster’s only lost one match at home (regular-season and playoffs) in the past two seasons, though, so it’s not going to be easy. The key players and aspects to watch are detailed below.

For Queen’s:
Joren Zeeman: When Zeeman’s hot, he’s almost unstoppable. He was the CIS rookie of the year last year and earned Queen’s lone OUA first-team all-star nod this season. He led the team with 209 kills this year. He also had 16 kills in their win over Waterloo Saturday and another 19 kills on 36 attempts against McMaster Tuesday. Queen’s is likely to go to him early and often.

Jeff DeMeza: DeMeza brings five years of experience to the table and can be a great hitter. He finished the regular season with 195 kills, second only to Zeeman on the Gaels. McMaster shut him down pretty effectively Tuesday, so you can bet he’ll be looking for a bounce-back game. It’s the fifth year in a row that he’ll be going up against McMaster in the playoffs, so he’s used to this rivalry.

Dan Rosenbaum: Rosenbaum is one of the largest changes to the team this year, as he’s stepped into the shoes of graduated All-Canadian setter Devon Miller. He’s handled the pressure very effectively so far, but this will be the highest-pressure match he’ll have started in. It will be interesting to see how he responds.

Michael Amoroso: Amoroso’s done a very good job in the middle in his two years with Queen’s so far. He only started part of the time last year thanks to the presence of fifth-year middle hitters Chris Vandyk and Nick Gralewicz, but was very effective when he hit the court. This year, he’s taken it to another level and has become quite the offensive threat. He’s dealing with a banged-up ankle, though, so he won’t be at full strength.

Stu Hamilton: One of the keys to success against McMaster is keeping the ball in play; they’re very strong defensively, so they’re likely to get two to three attack opportunities per point. For Queen’s to stay with them, their defensive game will have to be impeccable, and Hamilton is a big part of that. He was selected as the OUA Libero of the Year last season, and has played well this year despite some injuries. His defence may be crucial.

The serving game: The Gaels have focused on a high-risk, high-reward aggressive serving strategy all year. When it works, it works very well; they pick up a few aces and get the other team off-balance on several other opportunities. When it doesn’t work, though, they commit a lot of errors and wind up in big trouble. Tuesday’s game was a case in point; they served well for the first set and only committed one error, but then committed nine errors over the next three sets.

Effective blocking: Another area that was lacking on Tuesday was the Gaels’ blocking game. McMaster ran several effective deception plays to isolate their hitters one-on-one against Queen’s blockers, and they generally worked. Queen’s will have to watch for unexpected hitters coming out of the back row and deceptive setting strategies.

For McMaster:

Jeremy Groenveld: Groenveld was a one-man wrecking crew for the Marauders on Tuesday, recording 22 kills on 36 attempts and adding 11 digs and three blocks. He was one of the Marauders’ three players selected to the OUA first all-star team and has been a crucial presence for them all year, leading the team with 164 kills. He’ll need to have a big game for them to have success.

Nathan Groenveld: Last year’s OUA MVP also had another strong season for the Marauders, racking up 132 kills and 35 blocks from the middle hitter spot, and was also selected to the first all-star team. He was pretty quiet on Tuesday, though, so it will be interesting to see if they go to him more tonight.
Peter Hrkal: Left-side hitter Hrkal was McMaster’s third player named to the first all-star team. He’s had a good season and has played a more prominent role for the team this year thanks to the graduation of Parish Offer, putting up 151 kills and 18 blocks. He’ll be another one to watch.

Ryan Hudson: McMaster’s fourth-year setter proved to be a master of illusion on Tuesday, executing some great deceptive plays to isolate his hitters against solo blocks. His success or failure at that may prove crucial tonight.

Tyler Santoni: The 6’8’’ Santoni doesn’t get a ton of attention for his play in the middle thanks to sharing a court with Nathan Groenveld, but he’s proven very effective over his three years with the Marauders. He had a solid game Tuesday and provides another strong attacking option.

Josh Lichty: The younger brother of Queen’s captain Luke Lichty cracked McMaster’s starting lineup last year in his rookie season, never an easy feat. He’s improved his play even more this year, putting up 112 kills on the season, and has become another dangerous attacking option.

The crowd: McMaster is famed for having tough crowds, especially when it gets to this point of the year. If the crowd’s anything like the one they had last season for the finals, it’s going to be an intimidating environment for the Gaels. This is still a pretty young Queen’s team, so we’ll have to see how they respond to that pressure.

You don't know what you got 'til it's gone

Few things during my time at Queen's have depressed me more than finding out yesterday [myself and Emily Davies, Queen's Journal] that the dream of a new hockey arena on Main Campus was all but dead. Sure, they've been talking about it for a while and there are some financial benefits (although no one I talked to yesterday could confirm if those numbers are still accurate), but for me, the arena was always one of the big selling points of the Queen's Centre. New gyms and student space are great, but the sports experience I probably miss more than anything else here were the Friday night hockey games at Jock Harty I'd go to with my buddies from the dorm floor back in first year. There was great student support, beer gardens and just generally a tremendous atmosphere. I've been to plenty of great Queen's hockey games since, including this past weekend's Carr-Harris Cup, but it's never been quite the same; even though the Memorial Centre is a good facility (and pretty similar to the old Jock), it's dead for the vast majority of the games.

Unfortunately, that's what I see happening with this new project if and when the West Campus arena gets built. Yes, some students make the pilgrimage out there for football, but that's quite a bit different; it's during a warmer part of the year, there's always been more buzz around football than hockey here and the games are in the afternoon instead of at night. Believe me, walking back from the desolate wasteland of West Campus is bad enough on a nice afternoon; it's far worse on the sort of frigid winter night we have in Kingston far too often for my taste. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe students will embrace this, especially if the rest of the West Campus redesign goes ahead (and they actually put a bar or something out there; it's in the middle of absolutely nowhere at the moment). Given the apathy that seems to exist towards varsity athletics, I'm not sure that will happen though.

Personally, I think Queen's would be better off continuing to lease the Memorial Centre than building a West Campus arena. This would cost a lot less, and the Gaels have the place pretty much to themselves these days. It's also about the same distance (or closer) to most of the student living areas, and it's certainly closer to restaurants, bars and the like. It doesn't really seem that that option is being considered, though, and that disappoints me.

The most disappointing aspect of all, though, is that in my mind, we're not getting what we put up the money for. The student contribution to the Queen's Centre was obviously controversial, but I think one of the big selling points in its favour was access to a new, state-of-the art on-campus arena for varsity and intramural hockey as well as recreational skating. Now, we don't have that, and that's unfortunate.

I don't blame Athletics for this; from the conversations I've had, it doesn't sound like they were the ones who proposed the idea or made the decision, and I don't think you can blame them for the problems with the Queen's Centre that are forcing all the cost-cutting. I am disappointed in the university administration for not recognizing that an arena on Main Campus is essential to the Queen's Centre, and I'm very disappointed in the AMS for not standing up and protesting about this. Students signed on to this project partly because of the promise of a new arena; student leaders should speak up about it getting relocated.

The most disappointing point, though, is how this was handled. The decision has been practically made (the arena's not even in the blueprints any more), but doesn't technically come until March. Last week at the town hall on the Queen's Centre, associate vice-principal (facilities) Ann Browne spent part of her presentation talking about how great it would be to have the arena on West Campus as if the decision was done, but then rapidly backtracked when I asked her point-blank about it. On the plus side, Director of Athletics and Recreation Leslie Dal Cin and associate dean of student affairs Roxy Dennison-Stewart were willing to talk about it on the record yesterday, which is a big step forward. I just wish that the whole situation had been announced up front in a forum like that town hall to give students the opportunity to debate its merits instead of taking the arena off the blueprints without telling anyone.

This could all work out. Director of Athletics and Recreation Leslie Dal Cin and associate director (facilities) Herb Steacy made some good points in my meeting with them yesterday about how just a fieldhouse (instead of the orginal fieldhouse/arena) is a superior multi-purpose facility for large concerts/assemblies/exams and the like, and that's something we could certainly use. Moreover, maybe by the time the arena's actually built there will be enough infrastructure on West Campus to make the trek actually worthwhile. We could wind up with a great new athletics complex out there, and maybe students will flock to it. For the moment, though, any silver linings I find keep getting covered up by new clouds.

Carr-Harris Cup live blog!

It should be a classic clash tonight between Queen's and RMC for Kingston CIS hockey supremacy. More than just bragging rights is on the line, though; the winner takes home the Carr-Harris Cup, and the Gaels likely need two points to keep their playoff hopes alive. Currently, they're tied with the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees for the final OUA East playoff berth, but Ottawa has two games in hand. Join me in the live blog below for all the action!

Queen's-Ryerson men's hockey live blog

Join me in the live blog below!

Upcoming hockey bloggage...

A quick note that I'll be live-blogging Queen's men's hockey games here both Friday and Saturday. The Gaels face 4-20-1 Ryerson Friday night and then take on 7-16-2 RMC Saturday in the annual Carr-Harris Cup. Both games are at 7:30 p.m. at the Memorial Centre, and both are likely to prove rather important for the OUA playoff picture. Queen's (10-13-2) is one point behind Ottawa for the final OUA East playoff spot. We'll see if interim captain Billy Burke can continue his streak; he's notched 2 goals in each of the last three games. Check tomorrow's Journal for a piece by Julie Stewart-Binks on Tuesday's win over Carleton and a profile of Burke by Anand Srivastava, and then come join the live blog tomorrow night!

The GBU: Women’s basketball Gaels gutted by Gee-Gees

Breaking down Ottawa’s win over Queen’s Friday night… [Michael Grobe, gogaelsgo.com]

The score: Ottawa 71, Queen’s 50

How I saw it: In person

The Good:

-Alaina Porter: Porter was Queen’s best player on the night. She went four for eight from the field and seven for 11 from the charity stripe for a 15-point total while adding eight rebounds, four of them offensive. She played well in the post against taller defenders and was consistent all night, a main reason why she recorded a game-high 32 minutes of court time.

-Erin Skippon: Skippon also had a decent game for the Gaels, making three of her seven shots from the field and four of her six chances from the line for 10 points. She also added three rebounds.

-Jill Wheat: Wheat didn’t provide much offence, only notching three points on free throws, but she collected a game-high 10 rebounds, four of them on the offensive glass. She also only picked up two fouls in 26 minutes of court time, quite good for a post player.

-The free-throw battle: Queen’s outperformed Ottawa from the line, notching 25 of their 34 shots for a 73.5 shooting percentage. The Gee-Gees hit 11 of their 18 foul shots for a 61.1 percentage.

The Bad:

-Courtney Berquist: Berquist lit the Gaels up for 15 points and six rebounds in only 28 minutes of court time. She was the most impressive player on the Gee-Gess, shooting six for nine from the field and making both of her three-point attempts.

-Kendra Walker-Roche: Walker-Roche only hit one of her 10 shots from the field and went zero-for-four from deep. She also committed three turnovers in only 16 minutes of play.

-Anne Murphy: Murphy’s normally the team’s key post presence, but she didn’t have a good game. She went one-for-five from the field, but hit all four of her foul shots, giving her six points in 16 minutes of play. She also only collected two rebounds, well below her usual standard.

The Ugly:

-The Gaels’ shooting percentage: Queen’s only made 12 of their 48 field-goal attempts on the day, an abysmal 25 per cent success rate. That’s one of the worst showings I’ve ever seen. Some of it was due to poor shot selection, much of which came from the Gaels’ inability to get anything going on offence. Most of their offensive plays consisted of passing the ball around the perimeter for most of the shot clock and then frantically launching a contested long bomb as the clock ticked down, not the best strategy if you’re trying to win.

-The Gaels’ three-point percentage: Those long bombs made things even worse. The Gaels only hit one of their ten three-point attempts all game for an atrocious 10 per cent success rate. Normally this team’s pretty good from outside, but Ottawa did an excellent job of shutting down the interior passing lanes and then jumping out to challenge Queen’s shooters: there weren’t a lot of open looks, and the ones the Gaels did get didn’t go in.

-Brittany Moore’s play: The Gaels’ offence lives and dies with Brittany Moore these days thanks to the departure of former scoring threats Sarah Barnes and Teddi Firmi and the season-ending injury to Jess Selinger. Friday, it died with her. Moore was the OUA-leading scorer heading into Friday night, and the Gee-Gees apparently did their research: they never let her get a really good look, and she wound up going one-for-seven from the floor (including a zero-for-three performance from deep). Moore did hit all of her three free throws and added two rebounds, but she also racked up four fouls and three turnovers en route to a season-low five-point performance. They’ll need more out of her if they hope to win against Carleton.

I'll have a story on this game and tonight's match against the Carleton Ravens in Tuesday's Journal.

The 2008 Sporting Madness Christmas Gifts, Part I

Continuing in our proud 1-year tradition, and in step with everyone else who uses the meme, here's the Sporting Madness Christmas gifts for the world of sports:

Soccer:

- To the Vancouver Whitecaps and Bob Lenarduzzi: a nice, gift-wrapped MLS franchise. That could make the entire city happy. I'll have more on their chances soon.

- To the Montreal Impact: good luck for their forthcoming CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal matchup against Mexico's Club Santos Laguna. Montreal's unexpected run has been tremendous to watch, and it would be great to see a Canadian team keep going.

- To Toronto FC: Well, they did already get one very nice Christmas present, but we'll send them a quality designated player as well and a playoff berth. This franchise has been great for Canadian soccer and the city of Toronto. They have so much support and so many tickets sold in advance that they really could just go through the motions, so it's refreshing to see them continue their involvement with the community.

- To Dwayne De Rosario: A happy homecoming and a tremendous time with TFC.

- To Manchester United: Some polish for that World Club Championship trophy [The Times] and good luck for their match against Stoke tomorrow.

- To Cristiano Ronaldo: Some better cleats so he doesn't fall down so frequently.

- To the Seattle Sounders of MLS: solid support from the local fans and media. After all, they're one of the only bright spots on the Seattle scene in what was possibly the worst sports year ever for a city [Jim Caple, ESPN].

CFL:

- To the B.C. Lions: An increase in the salary cap. That way, they wouldn't have had to part ways with the likes of Jason Clermont [Tim Switzer, Regina Leader-Post] and Tyrone Williams [Lowell Ullrich, The Vancouver Province] (no, not that one) for reasons that were probably more financial than football. The current cap is far too restrictive.

- To Lions' head coach/GM Wally Buono: Some good binoculars. He'll need them to find replacements for all those who have left or may be leaving, including Clermont, defensive player of the year Cameron Wake, defensive coordinator Mike Benevides [Ullrich, The Province] and Otis Floyd [The Province]. Fortunately, Buono is a personnel mastermind and there's a great supply of players out there now, thanks to the recent demise of the Arena Football League [myself, Out of Left Field].

- To the Calgary Stampeders: Congratulations on that Grey Cup and an increase on the scouting budget, so they can replace the likes of Brandon Browner and Sandro DeAngelis if they jump to the NFL [David Naylor, The Globe and Mail].

- To the Edmonton Eskimos: Relocation to the East Division, as well as a nice mention in TMQ. It's too bad they lost the East final: I would have loved a Battle of Alberta Grey Cup.

- To the Saskatchewan Roughriders fans: A sense of decorum, and some new gloves to give them a better grip on their cans of beer [Greg Harder, Regina Leader-Post].

- To the Winnipeg Blue Bombers: A diminished sense of propriety. Having cheerleader photos show up on The Big Lead is not really a scandal. Hey, at least you got the American press talking about the CFL! [A.J. Daulerio, Deadspin]. (By the way, can we please bring back Gourmet Spud's CFL D###-Joke Free Jambor-eh? It was my favourite Deadspin feature.)

- To the Toronto Argonauts: A good new head coach. I think Benevides would be perfect for the job, as much as it would suck for the Lions to lose him. The CFL needs a strong Toronto franchise to stay healthy, especially with the cross-border incursions from the Buffalo Bills.

- To the Montreal Alouettes: One healthy Mike Giffin [Neate Sager, Out of Left Field]. Insert at tailback for best results. Caution: Not intended for use as a fullback.

- Also to the Alouettes: Thanks for putting on a great Grey Cup weekend and delivering stellar TV results, even if certain anglophiles didn't like them.

- To the Hamilton Tiger-Cats: A winning season. We all know they need one.

NFL:

- To Plaxico Burress: A new suit, with a built-in holster. That way, he wouldn't have to go clubbing in his sweatpants [Rick Chandler, Deadspin].

- To the Dallas Cowboys: Some nice team-building activities! That way, you wouldn't wind up with crap like this [Dashiell Bennett, Deadspin] happening.

- To Terrell Owens: A little bit of maturity.

- To Bill Cowher: A nice new head coaching job (but not the Browns: he deserves better!).

- To the Buffalo Bills: A wealthy local investor who can buy the team and keep them out of Toronto.

- To the Arizona Cardinals: A playoff berth. It's been a long, long time coming.

- To the Pittsburgh Steelers: Another Super Bowl title. I'd love to see this one, especially considering that they barely have any offence; it would vindicate my love of hard-hitting defence.

- To Ben Roethlisberger: A new offensive lineman or two to give him some more protection in the pocket. Failing that, some extra padding to make all those sacks hurt a little less.

- To the New England Patriots: A quick playoff exit (or a failure to get in at all). I'm really sick of this team. Weren't they supposed to be toast already with Brady gone?

- To the New York Giants: My undying gratitude for ruining 19-0, making one of my predictions work and giving us possibly one of the best football games ever (and my vote for the greatest play ever, attached below).



Hockey:

- To the Vancouver Canucks: A nice, gift-wrapped Swedish star [Jeff Paterson, The Georgia Straight]. More on this later.

- To Roberto Luongo: A magical healing chamber. His team needs him back [Iain MacIntyre, The Vancouver Sun], and fast.

- To Trevor Linden: The best wishes of all Canucks fans. It was great having you here, Trevor, and you'll be sorely missed.

- To Mike Gillis: A mild raspberry for canceling my interview earlier this year, but congratulations for creating a solid Canucks team out of other people's castoffs.

- To Kyle Wellwood: A Stairmaster, so he can stay in shape and keep this great run of form going.

- To the Phoenix Coyotes: Some money to delay their inevitable failure. Oh wait, the league already gave them that [David Shoalts, The Globe and Mail]. How about an even more favourable arena deal? [Scott Burnside, ESPN].

- To the Fresno Falcons' players: New contracts somewhere else. A franchise folding in mid-season [James Mirtle, From the Rink] is bad enough: it's worse when it comes right before Christmas. They were leading their ECHL division, but they couldn't overcome their franchise's off-ice incompetence.

- To Washington Capitals' web producer Brett Leonhardt: A very merry Christmas, and a new lifelong dream (as he got to achieve his old one this year) [Lindsay Applebaum, D.C. Sports Bog].

- To Kirk Muller: A nice Golden Gaels tie so he can remember his time at Queen's [former sports editor extraordinaire James Bradshaw, Queen's Journal]. Hey, it might bring good luck as well: the McGill tie worked for Mike Babcock [Earl Zukerman, McGill Athletics]!

- To Brian Burke: An extra layer of thick skin: he's going to need it in Toronto.

- To Dave Nonis: Some new Leafs clothing. Great to see him get another important job. I thought both him and Burke weren't treated terribly well in Vancouver. Both are great hockey guys and will do well with the Leafs.

- To George Parros: A mustache-grooming kit, so he can maintain his excellence in facial hair.



[Photo from SI.com]

CIS:

- To Laval: Some champagne to sip from the Vanier Cup. They had a great year, and they fully deserved the trophy.

- To Benoit Groulx: A fair tryout for quarterback at the CFL level. He won't get it because he's Canadian, and that's a shame; his play in this year's Vanier Cup was better than several quarterbacks currently in the CFL.

- To the CIS organizers: Inspiration to put the Vanier Cup back with the Grey Cup. That worked brilliantly last year, but this year showed that having the games back-to-back in separate cities isn't the best for the university game from any point of view. With the games together, that's plenty of free promotion for the university game, and you'd also get much more media interest. There aren't a lot of football-savvy media types in Canada, and splitting them between the two events means that many organizations will opt to only cover the Grey Cup in person. Laval will do an okay job of hosting, but I would have much rather seen the Vanier again linked with the Grey Cup.

- Also on that front, it would be great to get some clarification about the amateur/pro rules in CIS sports, especially soccer. As Srdjan Djekanovic himself informed me in a comment (which he then removed), basically the only thing that made his participation in CIS championships after playing professionally legal and Andrea Lombardo's illegal was a couple of pieces of paper that allowed him to retain his amateur status. There's nothing wrong with that if everyone's on the same page. However, the press release about Lombardo only mentioned him playing professionally and didn't discuss the distinction at all; that leads to unnecessary speculation and controversy. The Byzantine nature of the eligibility rules and the differences for each sport make it way too hard to understand who can play and who can't, and that's probably why we keep seeing these violations in different CIS sports; most of them are honest mistakes or misinterpretations of the rules rather than attempts to cheat. Let's make it simple and easy for everyone to understand.

- To the sports information directors across the CIS schools: A sincere thanks for all that you do. Your work makes things a lot easier for all of us who cover the league. Special thanks to Mike Grobe of Queen's, Dan Carle of Ottawa, Ari Grossman of Laurier, Earl Zukerman of McGill and Mary Beth Challoner of the University of Toronto. One thing that would be nice would be to see consistency in statistics, though; some schools do a great job, but there's far too many mistakes in other cases.

- To the University of Toronto football team: Hearty congratulations for snapping the losing streak. It's great to see the Blues back on the road to success. Also, congratulations to Greg DeLaval on the removal of his interim tag [Neate Sager, cisblog.ca].

- To the Gaels' men's soccer team: some coaching continuity. They could use it.

- To the Queen's bean-counters: Some extra alumni donations to dissaude them from moving the new hockey rink to West Campus [myself, Queen's Journal]. This is an incredibly bad idea. The hockey rink was going to be a focal part of the new building, and that's why our teams have had to put up with the constant travel last year and the antiquated Memorial Centre this year. You owe it to them to give them the promised new state-of-the-art rink in a central location where they can draw fans, not a prefabricated building out in the boondocks of West Campus.

- To the Gaels' rowing teams: Some craft beers to celebrate their excellent season. Year in and year out, they are probably the most successful teams at our university despite little publicity or funding. Keep up the great work.

- And finally, to Queen's football: Framed copies of all the records shattered this year. It didn't turn out the way many had hoped, but it was one hell of a ride. Best of luck to you all.

That concludes the gifts for the sporting world. Part two, featuring gifts for those who cover it, should appear tonight or tomorrow.

Upcoming Kill McGill live blog...

A quick note that I'll be live-blogging tonight's men's hockey match between Queen's and the McGill Redmen, believed to be the fourth-oldest hockey rivalry in the world. The game starts at 7:30 p.m. It will also be broadcast on TV Cogeco and webcast at cfrc.ca. Check out Amrit's story in Friday's paper for a preview and a recap of last week's battle between the teams in Montreal, which McGill won 4-1. Queen's is already off to a better start this weekend with a 2-1 shootout win [Mike Grobe, gogaelsgo.com] against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees last night; we'll see if they can keep it up tonight.

Campus Corner: Stinson joins hoops Gaels

I learned this morning that football tight end Scott Stinson (famed not only for his size and great receiving numbers, but also for being one of the few athletes to crack the front page of the Journal, even in less than ideal circumstances) has officially joined the men's basketball team. There had been some rumours floating around about this earlier, but it's confirmed now: he's on the official roster and may play as early as their weekend games against Brock and Guelph.

This might work out well for the team. One of the big problems so far has been their lack of depth in the frontcourt positions; in fact, as I pointed out in my story on last weekend's games, a lot of their success came when they went to a three-guard lineup. Especially with Jon Ogden not playing (he played in the pre-season, but isn't with the team at the moment), there aren't a lot of frontcourt options on this team, and Stinson's addition should significantly help with that.

These Gaels are renowned for their speed and their outside shooting, but their main presence down low at the moment is Mitch Leger, who's better as a power forward or a small forward than a centre. Rookie Bernard Burgessen and second-year centre Patrick Beswick have shown potential, and Rob Shaw brings veteran experience, but they can't play all the time, and Stinson should be able to eat some minutes. Moreover, he's got a ton of size; he's listed as 6'6'', 250 pounds in the football media guide, but personal observations (and that aforementioned OUA roster) suggest he's at least 6'7''. More impressive still is his weight; Burgessen and Beswick (the only other 6'7'' guys on the roster) are tall, but pretty stringy, and Shaw isn't much bulkier. With his size and athleticism, Stinson should be able to make an impact.

Another point of interest is that this isn't a new game for Stinson; the aforementioned football media guide notes that he was a member of the 2003 national bronze-medal basketball team at Humber College. He also played basketball, soccer, Ultimate and rugby at Chippewa High School in North Bay in addition to football, so he's obviously got a fair bit of all-around athleticism. It will be interesting to watch and see how he does, but the feeling from this end is that he might just be a big addition to this team. Good for him for taking a risk and trying this out; it would have been much easier to rest on the laurels he earned with the football team.

Neate has more at Out of Left Field, including a look at other crossover athletes in CIS history. Oddly enough, there have been several at Queen's in recent years: Billy Burke played football and hockey until this year, when he decided to focus more on hockey, and Teddi Firmi quit women's basketball to return to rugby this year.

Campus Corner: Basketball bonus coverage

We were pretty pressed for space in this week's Journal, so I had to cut this piece on the men's basketball team's opening weekend games down substantially for the paper. I figured I'd post it here in its entirety for anyone interested in more details on the team and their opening games. For more Gaels' hoops coverage, check out my profile of Mitch Leger in today's paper: I'll have another posts on the team up here shortly. Here's the full story:

Basketball opens with a bang
By Andrew Bucholtz
Sports Editor

The men’s basketball team’s started the season with a bang Friday. They earned a 72-67 victory against the Waterloo Warriors, a team that was 6-16 last season but had defeated the Gaels 92-62 in the preseason.

Point guard Baris Ondul poured in 19 points against Waterloo and added six assists and three rebounds.

Ondul said the team was out for revenge after their ignominious loss to the Warriors in the pre-season.
“We were motivated for redemption,” he said.

Ondul said the Gaels were spurred on by the large numbers of fans in attendance.
“I liked the turnout from the crowd,” he said. “That’s good; we’re hoping for that every single game from now on.”

Forward Mitch Leger scored a game-high 26 points Friday and added 10 rebounds.
Waterloo head coach Tom Kieswetter said the play of Leger, who missed the pre-season match thanks to injury, was the main disparity between the two games.

“Mitch didn’t play; that’s the denominator right there,” he said. “He was the difference tonight; we couldn’t get him stopped. He was hitting shots and played great, and that’s why they won.”

After the game, Leger said the Gaels were humiliated by their previous loss to Waterloo, which he missed thanks to an injury, and were looking to make sure it didn’t happen again.

“You lose by 30, it’s really embarrassing,” he said. “We knew they’d come in thinking they could beat us by 30 again, so we just played hard and grinded it out.”

Leger said he was pleased with the team’s defensive play, as they were able to hold Waterloo to 67 points.

“They had 67, last time they scored 92,” he said. “To hold a team like that under 70 is pretty good.”

Leger said there was still room for improvement, though.

“It’s just little letdowns,” he said. “The coach is always talking about dead plays, where we fall asleep. We’ve practiced for two months, we can’t really afford to do that any more, and we know better.”

Head coach Rob Smart said after the game the difference between the two clashes with Waterloo was the Gaels’ defensive intensity.

“We defended,” he said. “They can really score, but we defended and they’ve scored against everybody but Carleton and us tonight. Every other game they’ve played, they’ve scored a bunch.”

Smart said he was pleased with the team’s performance.

“I don’t think we could have played a whole bunch better tonight,” he said.

The Gaels finished strong, outscoring Waterloo 17-13 in the final quarter where they went to a three-guard lineup that featured their smaller players. Smart said 6’7’’ rookie Bernard Burgessen’s rebounding performance enabled him to go to a quicker lineup. Burgessen finished the night with six rebounds, behind only Leger for the team lead.

“Bernard rebounded so well he let us go small,” Smart said. “It’s nice to go small if you can get rebounds. On the defensive end, he was just a vacuum. He got every one, he went up the ladder and took it down.”

Smart said he wasn’t pleased with the team’s 67 per cent success rate on free-throw attempts, but he doesn’t see an easy cure.

“It’s one of those things that the more you talk about it the worse it gets, usually.”

Smart said he was pleased Queen’s was able to knock off the Warriors, who he said are much stronger than last year’s record shows.

“They’re a good team,” he said. “Of the teams I’ve seen in the country, I think they’re a top ten team. They’ve beaten a lot of teams.”

Smart said there’s still a lot of work to do, though.

“I always expect a whole bunch,” he said. “The win tonight isn’t very big if we lose tomorrow.”

Those words came true, and the Gaels suffered a 97-84 loss on Saturday to the lightly-regarded Laurier Golden Hawks, who were 8-14 last year. Leger, who again scored 26 points and added 10 rebounds, said the loss nullified the euphoria from the win over Waterloo.

“By the end of the weekend we felt pretty bad,” he said.

Leger said the defensive effort, which was a strength on Friday, was absent Saturday.

“The performance we had Saturday was just a complete defensive meltdown by the entire team, and I was one of the major problems with that too,” he said. “It was a lot of fundamental defensive breakdowns, things that we just kind of took for granted, defensive things we didn’t feel like doing hard in that game.”

Leger said the loss will fire the Gaels up for their upcoming road games against the Guelph Gryphons and the Brock Badgers, though.

“It’s pretty disappointing, but it gives us some motivation for practice this week and going into this weekend.”

The charge of the Golden brigade

There are some moments in sports that transcend the usual prose used to describe such encounters, when art, life and competition collide in a surreal mix. Saturday's football game between Queen's and the Ottawa Gee-Gees was one of those moments, at least from this perspective: I've been trying to find the proper way to give it justice for two days now. In the end, there was one poem that kept flashing through my mind high up in the chilly Richardson Stadium press box while watching the Gaels' dream season reduced to ruins on the gridiron below. I present it below, with annotated commentary on its relevance to this occasion.

[The full text of The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Lord Tennyson, can be found here...]

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Much like the famed Light Brigade, the Gaels perhaps came into this game without an idea of what they were truly up against. Yes, the coaches and players said all the right things beforehand ["Have the tables turned?", myself, Queen's Journal: the question mark I added into that title seems like a bloody good idea in retrospect, as today's game showed that the tables haven't changed too much since the 2006 loss]. Even in their guarded comments, though, the confidence came through, and they were right to be confident: they were an 8-0 team playing at home against a 4-4 team that barely stumbled into the playoffs. As I mentioned in my live blog of the game, though, "There are two kinds of 4-4 teams: the mediocre ones who gut out a few wins, and the brilliantly talented but inconsistent ones. Ottawa was always the latter."

That latter group of teams is scary, and it exists across all sports, but especially in football: the small sample size of the regular season and how each game can often turn on a play or two makes it so there isn't often that much difference between a perfect or near-perfect team and a team that just snuck into the playoffs. The ultimate case in point is last year's Super Bowl, where the 14-6 New York Giants knocked off the 18-0 New England Patriots, but there have been plenty of other examples. The 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers are another great case in point; they earned the sixth seed in the AFC playoffs with a 11-5 record, but went on to win Super Bowl XL in Detroit. The 12-7-1 Toronto Argonauts knocking off the 14-5 B.C. Lions in the 2004 Grey Cup also is a good example, as is 4-4 Western's run to the Yates Cup last year. There's a good reason why they made Any Given Sunday a football movie.


"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Was there a man dismayed? There certainly didn't seem to be on the Queen's side. In my pregame interviews for the aforementioned preview piece, there was a huge atmosphere of confidence. No Giffin, no problem; Queen's hung a 38-16 pasting on Ottawa in Week Six with Giffin in a limited role, and that win was convincing enough for me to write a regrettable lede.

"Saturday’s football game was a tale of two programs. The 6-0 Gaels were off to their best start in ages and ranked second in the country, while the 3-3 Ottawa Gee-Gees were a former powerhouse in sharp decline. Queen’s helped Ottawa continue their slide from pre-season favourites to a team struggling to make the playoffs, beating the Gee-Gees 38-16."

That was probably justified at the time: Ottawa struggled for most of the season, and they never found consistency until this week. Still, I didn't think this one was going to be anywhere near as easy, especially given Ottawa's returnees from injury and Giffin's possible to probable absence. Even after the Waterloo game, all the talk was that he wasn't that badly hurt and would be back; glad I stayed skeptical there.

In any case, the Gaels weren't dismayed even without their star running back. Marty Gordon and Jimmy Therrien had proven to be capable backups before, even if they didn't pose the same kind of power running threat and force the defence to concentrate on the ground game. They were still an 8-0 team that had been lights-out dominant against most of the OUA (the Western game was a notable exception, but they still took that one by a large margin in the end). There was also every chance that the bad, inconsistent Ottawa would show up, and even a flawless Gee-Gees team would have had trouble competing with a top-notch showing from the Gaels. Maybe it looked too easy; hindsight is always 20-20, and this columnist was surely taken in to a degree as well. I didn't go to the lengths of Jan Murphy from the Whig, but I thought Queen's could win by seven even without Giffin. My confidence, and that of the team, proved sorely mistaken in the end. Like the Light Brigade, the Gaels rode into the valley of death with high hopes that didn't survive the clash of battle.

Someone had blundered. Now, we come to the nub of the problem: assigning responsibility. This is one area where my twin interests of history and sportswriting overlap: both professions are always looking for scapegoats. You can make a case for a variety of causes in this one, though. Neate theorized that a big part of it is the playoff structure and the uneven competition during the season*, but he also assigns some blame to the coaching staff and Queen's ineffectiveness on offence.

*I partly agree on this, but I don't take it to the same lengths. Yes, it's horrible having teams that are basically just a walkover on the schedule. Those games don't accomplish anything for either school, and if we can find a way to reduce them by either forcing every school that wants to play CIS football into a more substantial commitment or realigning/tiering the divisions, I'm all for it. That's going to be a tough sell at the CIS level, though, especially considering that the current model favours the participation of the many. I disagree that there's something inherently wrong with a league where a 4-4 team can win the Yates Cup, though, and I think the reason for that dissent is my sports background. As Neate wrote, his first love is baseball, which takes the sustained-excellence model further than pretty much any other sport these days due to the length of the regular season and the limited number of teams in the playoffs. I come from more of a soccer, hockey and football background, at least originally, and in all of those sports, it's more about getting hot at the right time. I live for the crazy upsets in the FA Cup and UEFA Champions League, the deep playoff runs of the likes of the 1982 and 1994 Vancouver Canucks and the Super Bowl trophy of the 2007-08 New York Giants. For me, it's the playoffs that matter, and I love to see the results no one predicted, which is why I'd probably be thrilled about Ottawa's win if I didn't go to Queen's.


Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.


Back to the scapegoats: I'm not so sure that we need to find too many in this case. Yes, there were plenty of bad plays, including a shocking number of drops by the receiving corps when they were open: if they're able to pull in a few of those, it might have been a different story. From my perspective, though, it just looked like the Gaels could never get everything to click at the same time. When Dan Brannagan was making lights-out throws, the receivers couldn't haul them in. Other times when they got open, Brannagan missed them with a pass. Yes, Dan Village missed two field goals, but he did a great job of punting all day for my money, and a more effective offence might have given him a shorter kick or scored touchdowns on its own. Yes, Giffin's absence hurt, but Gordon and Therrien filled in pretty well. They couldn't force Ottawa to play the run, and that hurt Queen's passing game, but they did their best and created a lot of yards on the ground. It's tough to do that when you haven't seen much of the ball for most of the season. Yes, losing middle linebacker Thaine Carter hurt the Gaels' defence, but as fellow linebacker T.J. Leeper pointed out afterwards, they seemed to rally around their fallen leader. The defence did an admirable job overall of containing an explosive group of Gee-Gees. At times, Queen's rode boldly and well; as the poem shows, though, no cavalry charge can succeed against massed artillery fire.

Probably eight times out of ten, the Gaels would have played well enough to win this one, but this was one of the outliers. Ottawa executed a perfect game, shutting down Queen's passing offence and pounding the ball with running back Dave Mason. Even after he went down, they stayed with the smash-mouth football and Kingston native Craig Bearss stuck it to his hometown. As mentioned above, Queen's defence did a decent job of containment that on most days would have been good enough, especially with their usual lights-out offence. This wasn't most days, though, and what should have been a glorious charge through the enemy lines turned into a nightmarish ride into the jaws of death.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

While all the world wondered. That summed up this one pretty well. All of a sudden, the mighty Golden machine ground to a halt against an underachieving bunch in garnet and grey. If you look at the previous history, though, it's easy to see the Gaels as the underdogs and Ottawa as the powerhouse army. Queen's hadn't beaten Ottawa in six years before this year's Thanksgiving game, and they'd lost to them in the semifinals two years ago. They'd also lost their first home playoff game in a long while last season against the Western Mustangs, another 4-4 team that underachieved during the regular season based on their talent but got rolling at the right time and went on to win the Yates Cup. Queen's was certainly still the favorite here, but perhaps shouldn't have been favoured by so much. Yet, they were, so all the world wondered when their season ended in tatters.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

Back from the mouth of hell. That could have described the understandably shell-shocked expressions on the players' faces after the game. They that had fought so well during the regular season had ran into far worse than they were expecting, and came up short in the end. Much like the British cavalry units involved in that disastrous charge, they found that past glories were worthless in the face of a new, more powerful foe.

All that was left of them: perhaps that's even more apt. Some will argue that it's just a game. Well, not at this level, and certainly not higher up. Anyone who's read or watched Friday Night Lights knows about the levels they go to in Texas over high school football. Here, the intensity isn't quite that bad, but there are still school reputations and potential CFL jobs on the line. Moreover, anyone who ever argues that university sports (or any reasonably high-level sport, for that matter) are just meaningless games obviously hasn't put in the time on the practice field. For months and years, these students devoted themselves to their university's football team, probably at the expense of grades and friendships, certainly at the expense of countless amounts of time. For some of the graduating ones, they'll never again don a helmet and pads. When you play any sport for a long period of time, your identity begins to get bound up in it: believe me, I know. When that all comes crashing down weeks before you thought it would, in the worst way possible, it's awfully tough for there to be much left. I've been through the soul-crushing defeats as an athlete, and it can just ruin your life for a while. The Queen's guys are all smart types, and I know there's more to their lives than football, but it's still certainly going to be an adjustment for them.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

When can their glory fade? The traditional view of sports would argue that it should have already dissipated. In the end, there can only be one, and nothing short of the ultimate prize is worth celebration. I take exception to that, though. Yes, this is not what they hoped for and not what they could have acheived, but this team should be honoured and celebrated on its own merits. This is surely one of the best squads ever to don Queen's uniforms, even if they didn't claim the Vanier Cup. They were the only Gaels team to ever go 8-0, and only the eighth team ever to go undefeated in the regular season. They set a school record for offence with 374 points, averaging over 47 points per game and only allowing over 16 points twice. Giffin led the OUA in rushing yards and might still pick up Ontario's Hec Creighton nomination, while Brannagan threw for the third-most yards in the country, Osie Ukwuoma led the CIS in sacks (with Dee Sterling tied for third) and Scott Valberg led the country in receiving yards. Valberg also put up the third-best season in Queen's history in terms of receiving yards (but perhaps the best ever, considering that he averaged more yards per catch than either Jock Climie or James Maclean, the two legends in front of him). This team put on a show all year, and those of us who saw them play can proudly attest to that. They also revitalized the interest in university football in Kingston, among both students and local residents.

Let's not blot out the good with the bad; these Gaels should be feted for what they did accomplish, not raked over the coals for what they didn't. As my hero Grantland Rice once penned in Alumnus Football,

"For when the One Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks-not that you won or lost-
But how you played the game."

The Light Brigade didn't accomplish their goal, and their charge turned into a horrible defeat. Yet, you can make a strong case that it's not the defeat that was noteworthy: after all, those have happened since time began. What's always stood out to me about the poem is the triumph even in defeat.

"Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd."

That's a picture of a doomed but heroic force, and I think it's applicable to this year's Gaels football team. Yes, they lost in the end, but boldly they rode and well, back from the mouth of hell, and as Queen's students, fans and chroniclers, we still should honour them; they're our noble six hundred.

Live blog: The Battle of the 613

And we're up and rolling! Kickoff should be in just a moment. My previews of the game are here [Sporting Madness] and here [Queen's Journal]. Neate also has a good one here. The game is also on the radio at CFRC and is being webcast at SSN Canada. Post comments here or send them to me at andrew_bucholtz (at) hotmail.com.

First quarter:
-Dan Village kicks off for Queen's: Ottawa returns it to around their own 20.
- Dave Mason runs off the left tackle for about five yards.
- Josh Sacobie completes a short pass, but his receiver is stopped less than a yard short. Gee-Gees are going for it.
- Sacobie sneaks for the first down. 1 and 10 on the Ottawa 33.
- Mason carries off right tackle, picks up 5. 2 and 5 on the Ottawa 38.
- Mason carries for two, stopped by Mike Botting. 3 and 3 Ottawa: they decide to punt.
- Awful snap and the punt's almost blocked by Tim Poffley. Ottawa gets it off, though, but the ball only travels about 35 yards. Jimmy Allin pulls off a nice return and Ottawa's called for no-yards as well. 1 and 10 Queen's on the Ottawa 53.
- Short pass to inside receiver Scott Stinson is good for about 4 yards. 2 and 6.
- Brannagan's pass is right to Ottawa linebacker Joe Barnes, who really should have made that pick. He drops it, though, and Queen's punts.
- Village gets a great punt off, punning Ottawa deep: they take it out to about the 1315.
- Mason runs for a gain of about 2. Queen's linebacker Thaine Carter is hurt on the play: he's still down.
- 2nd and 8 Ottawa on their own 17. Carter's limping off with help from Botting. That's a big loss for Queen's if he doesn't come back: Carter's the defensive captain and the key linebacker in stopping the run.
- Queen's linemen Osie Ukwuoma and Dee Sterling break through, flushing Sacobie from the pocket. He has to throw it away and Ottawa will punt. The punt goes out of bounds at the Ottawa 43, giving the Gaels some great field position.
- Realized I forgot to put an official prediction up in my preview. I think it's going to be close, but I see Queen's winning by 7.
- A short Brannagan pass to (I think) Chris Ioannides winds up going for a first down with a great run after the catch.
- Marty Gordon runs for two: 2 and 8 Queen's on the Ottawa 33. Gordon will have to carry most of the running load today: it's been confirmed that Mike Giffin isn't going to play. Looks like my doom and gloom on that front was justified.
- Brannagan hits Scott Valberg with a great pass over the middle: he's brought down around the Ottawa 12. First down, Queen's.
- Gordon runs for five off-tackle. Second and five.
- Brannagan's pass for Devan Sheahan falls incomplete. 3 and 5 Queen's.
- Queen's fakes a field goal, with Allin taking off and running. He isn't getting anywhere though, so he throws an end-zone pass, but it's picked off by an Ottawa DB. Ottawa ball on their own 20.
- I like that call, even though it didn't work. Queen's has been very successful on the fake field goals this year, particularly with Allin running. I think he might have been able to get the five yards they needed if he'd kept going instead of dropping and trying a pass.
- Mason runs for four or five yards, stopped by T.J. Leeper. 2 and 5 Ottawa.
- Mason runs for a first down off the left side. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 40.
- Mason runs for two: second and 8.
- It's surprisingly warm and nice here, which is probably good for Queen's: they're playing more of a finesse game, while Ottawa's going for the old smash-mouth power running game.
- Sacobie throws deep, and it's almost picked. Both David Rooney and Allin has a chance at that one. Ottawa will punt.
- It's not a great punt, and it soars out of bounds. Looks like Ottawa's trying to keep the ball away from Allin on the returns. Queen's ball on their own 42.
- Jimmy Therrien runs off right tackle for QUeen's and picks up about 4. 2 and 6 Gaels.
- Brannagan throws a beauty of a sideline pass to Valberg, who picks up a first down and more. 1 and 10 Queen's on the Ottawa 52.
- Brannagan has all day in the pocket, and finds Devan Sheahan at about the 10-yard line with a sideline bomb. Sheahan sidesteps a tackle and jumps in for the TD. That was fantastic protection from the O-line. Brannagan had about seven seconds without a defender getting anywhere near him, allowing him to make that deep play. It was a hell of a throw, too: right into Sheahan's arms 40 yards down the field. Village hits the EP: Queen's 7, Ottawa 0.
- Village kicks off right to the end zone and Ottawa's Chayce Elliott misfields it. He runs back to get it and is hit in the end zone for a single. Queen's 8, Ottawa 0.
- Ottawa ball on their 35.
- Sacobie throws a 8-yard pass or so, and the receiver picks up the first down.
- 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 45.
- Mason runs up the middle for about eight.
- Ottawa tries another run, but Ukwuoma comes over the top and makes a great stop. 3 and 1 Ottawa: they're going for it.
- Sacobie sneaks up the middle for the first down. End of the first quarter.
- That's cool: the Kingston high-school football all-stars are being honoured on the field, and Saskatchewan Roughrider and former Gael Rob Bagg is in attendance to shake hands with all of them. Bagg had a fantastic game this Thursday against the Argonauts. Good to see him doing so well and making the trip back to his school. He gets a big round of applause, as he should.

Second quarter:
- Sacobie drops and throws deep for Justin Wood-Roy, but Botting makes a great play to break it up. 2 and 10.
- Sacobie drops and has plenty of time this time: good protection from the O-line. He fires it deep to about the 15 and backup quarterback Brad Sinopoli makes a nice catch. It takes two tacklers to drag Sinopoli down, and he gets to the 1.
- Mason punches it in from the 1: TD Ottawa. They hit the extra point, so it's Queen's 8, Ottawa 7.
- Ottawa kicks off and Allin busts a nice sideline return, getting up to about the Queen's 37. Ottawa was offside on the play, but Queen's declines the penalty. 1 and 10 Gaels.
- Gordon rushes up the middle and finds a hole, picking up about 6. A nice run, but he's brought down by one tackler: if that was Giffin, he'd have the first down. Gordon and Therrien are doing a decent job so far, though.
- Brannagan completes a short sideline pass to Blaise Morrison, good enough for a first down on Queen's 54.
- Gordon rushes out near the left sideline and picks up another 6. 2 and 4 Queen's.
- Gordon gets some fantastic blocking and rushes outside left again for the first down, then cuts back inside for more yards. He gets all the way to the Ottawa 28. First down, Queen's.
- Therrien runs up the middle for another six or so. Ottawa's having all kinds of trouble stopping the Gaels' run game, even without Giffin. Perhaps they underestimated his backups, who are both very capable themselves.
- Brannagan has to scramble and throws for Mark Surya, but the pass falls short. Surya almost reels it in with a diving grab, but can't hang on. Third down, Queen's.
- Village hits the 29-yard field goal, making the score Queen's 11, Ottawa 7.
- Ottawa takes the ball on their own 35.
- Mason runs outside left for about seven yards. 2 and just over 3 for the Gee-Gees.
- Mason goes up the middle and is hit at the line of scrimmage: he fights for an extra couple of yards, but it's going to be third and short after a measurement.
- Sacobie sneaks for the first down.
- Sacobie hits Sinopoli with a short pass, and he fights through the middle for a gain of 9. It's going to be second and short on Queen's 54.
- Sacobie keeps and picks up the first down. 1 and 10 Ottawa on Queen's 52.
- Mason runs off left tackle and picks up a first down. He's down at Queen's 38.
- Good protection by Ottawa's line and Sacobie completes a pass to Ivan Birungi, who makes a nice sliding catch at around the 15. A penalty's tacked on, giving Ottawa the ball on the 5. 1 and goal Ottawa.
- Mason runs up the middle and gains about 4. 2 and goal from the 1. A Queen's defender is down on the play.
- It's defensive end Neil Puffer, who's limping off now. With him and Carter both gone, that's two big losses for the Gaels' defence.
- Mason punches it in for the TD. Matthew Falvo kicks the extra point, making it Ottawa 14, Queen's 11.
- Well, we knew this one wasn't going to be easy. There are two kinds of 4-4 teams: the mediocre ones who gut out a few wins, and the brilliantly talented but inconsistent ones. Ottawa was always the latter, and it looks like the good Gee-Gees showed up today, rather than the mediocre ones. Queen's has to find a way to shut down Mason on the run: he's opening up too much space for Ottawa's deep passing game.
- Great coverage on the kickoff by the Gee-Gees: Allin only gets to about the 25. Now, that makes much more sense than just kicking it out of bounds all the time.
- Brannagan's pass falls incomplete.
- Brannagan is flushed and has to throw away the ball. 3rd down, Queen's.
- The Gaels punt: Ottawa returns it to about their own 53.
- Mason runs for about 6.
- Mason runs again and gets close to a first down, but he's hurt on the play.
- Mason limps off. That's not good for Ottawa by any stretch of the imagination: he's been tremendous so far. 3 and short.
- Sacobie keeps and gets the first down.
- Craig Bearss is in the game for Mason, and he runs for about 6 up the middle.
- Bearss runs off the right tackle and gets the first down, plus more. 1 and 10 Ottawa on the Queen's 26.
- Looks like there's about 3:16 left in the half, but the scoreboard's tough to read from here. The Gaels could really use a stop at this point.
- Sacobie is flushed and almost sacked: he gets off an underhand toss to Bearss as he's falling down. Bearss made a good move to come back and help his QB. Loss of 2 on the play, but a sack would have been a loss of 7 or so at least.
- Sacobie tries a swing pass, but Ukwuoma gets a hand on it and knocks it down. 3 and 12 Ottawa on Queen's 28. Looks like they'll try for the field goal.
- Falvo hits the FG from about 35 yards out, making it Ottawa 17, Queen's 11. Less than three minutes left in the half.
- Gaels take the ball on their 35.
- Therrien takes it up the middle but gets only about 3 yards. 2 and 7 Queen's.
- Brannagan gets tons of time in the pocket and has Sheahan open up the middle, but the throw is behind him. Sheahan gets a hand on it but can't hang on, and Queen's will have to punt.
- 2:15 left in the half. Time out Ottawa.
- Village punts to around Ottawa's 30-yard line. Elliott gets nowhere on the return. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 31.
- Felix Dejardins-Potvin runs up the middle for a gain of about 2. 2 and 8 Ottawa.
- Sacobie has time in the pocket and completes a 15-yard pass up the middle to Cyril Adjeity. First down Ottawa on their own 48.
- Queen's finally gets some pressure. Ukwuoma almost brings Sacobie down. He escapes, but runs into T.J. Leeper, who records the sack.
- Sacobie completes a pass to Matthew Bolduc who makes a nice diving catch, but he's hit about 2 yards short of the first down. Ottawa will punt.
- A poor punt by Falvo loops off his foot and tumbles end over end out of bounds. Queen's ball on their own 46: they'll have less than 2 minutes to make a drive.
- Brannagan throws sideline for Valberg, who makes the catch but is called out of bounds. Doesn't matter: Gaels were offside on the play.
- A great play call by Queen's on second and 10: Ottawa's looking pass, and Gordon rumbles up the middle for the first down.
- Swing pass to Gordon gets the Gaels another first down. 1 and 10 on the Ottawa 33.
- Brannagan's pass to Blaise Morrison is incomplete and almost picked off. 2 and 10.
- Brannagan tries a short sideline pass to Valberg, who can't reel it in. 3 and 10 Queen's. Field goal attempt, or maybe a fake?
- Nope, it's a real field goal, but Village's attempt falls short and wide. That's the last play of the half. Ottawa leads 17-11.

Third quarter:
- Queen's kicks off, Ottawa returns it to around their own 30.
- A run from Bearss picks up a first down.
- Short pass gets Ottawa about 8: second and two.
- Bearss rumbles up the middle, stopped just short of the first down. Third and very short.
- Sacobie sneaks for the first down.
- 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 54.
- Sacobie scrambles, throws a pass to Bolduc, but he can't reel it in in tight coverage from Botting.
- Sacobie throws deep, but his receiver slips and falls down.
- Ottawa punts: the snap flies over Falvo's head, but he does a great job to race back and recover. He gets a weak punt off just before it would have been blocked and it rolls out of bounds at the Queen's 46. Great field position for Queen's.
- Gordon rushes twice, but only gains a combined seven yards. Queen's will punt.
- Village gets off a good punt to the Ottawa 21, but Elliott returns it to about the Ottawa 40. It's coming back for holding, though. First and 10 Ottawa on their own 21.
- Bearss rushes up the middle, gets nowhere.
- Sacobie is rushed and almost sacked by Sterling, but he gets the pass off as he falls. Sacobie's down and hurt, receiving attention.
- Injury update here: Puffer is back in the game for the Gaels, but Carter's still out. Sacobie hobbles off. Ottawa will punt from their own 10 or so.
- Good snap this time and a good punt to Queen's 45. Allin doesn't have much room, but still picks up a 15-yard return or so. Queen's ball on the Ottawa 52. They need to get something going here.
- Gordon rushes, but he's stopped by Ottawa defensive end Ian Hazlett, a former Queen's linebacker.
- Brannagan is flushed and almost sacked, but he makes a great throw off the scramble to find Surya. Surya would have been well short of the first down, but he makes two tacklers miss and picks up about 7 yards after the catch.
- Therrien powers through a hole up the middle for about 12: another first down.
- Therrien goes off the right tackle for about 8. 2 and 2 Queen's on the Ottawa 19.
- Therrien runs, but is stopped for a loss of 2. 3 and 4 Queen's. Field goal team on: Allin to hold, might be a fake.
- No fake, but Village misses from about 30 yards: Elliott runs it out to the Ottawa 20. That's a bad one to miss.
- Sacobie is back in, so he can't have been hurt too badly.
- It's getting a bit chilly out here: the wind's picking up.
- 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 20.
- Sacobie hits Wood-Roy on a play-action fake, picks up 15. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their 35.
- Bearss runs up the middle for 2: nice stop by Ukwuoma. It's a battle of the second-string backs now, with Mason and Giffin both out.
- Sacobie's pass is short: 3 and 8 Ottawa.
- Good snap, and Ottawa's Steve Fievet gets off a good punt. Looks like they've gone away from Falvo after some of his struggles earlier. Queen's ball on their 39.
- Brannagan is hit, but gets off a pass over the middle to Scott Stinson, who picks up the first down. 1 and 10 Queen's on their 54.
- Sheahan runs a great outside route and beats two defenders, but then drops the ball when he's wide open. He would likely have had a touchdown if he'd caught it. It's those hands that prevent Sheahan from being a great receiver, as opposed to a good one.
- Ottawa lineman Evan Prokipchuk breaks through and sacks Brannagan: he's been getting good protection most of the day, but not on that play.
- Queen's punts deep: good coverage means that Ottawa will start on their own 19.
- Swing pass from Sacobie's good for a first down: 1 and 10 on the Ottawa 35.
- Bearss runs up the middle for a gain of 1: 2 and 9.
- Pass over the middle to Adjeity: no one near him and he gets the first down. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their 54. That's where Carter's injury might hurt the Gaels: backup middle linebacker Matt Ritchie hasn't played much this year, and he's looking rusty.
- Great rush by Queen's sees Sacobie throw a pass that's almost picked by Sterling. 2 and 10.
- Sacobie throws into double coverage: incomplete. Ottawa will punt.
- Great punt by Fievet pins Queen's deep. Allin drops the ball and recovers just before he's hit. Queen's ball on their own 13. They have to get something going here.
- Therrien runs up the middle for about four or five, stopped by Hazlett. End of the third quarter.

Fourth quarter:
- Queen's is running out of time here: they've got to get the offence together. The defence is holding, but the offence isn't getting much done without the running threat posed by Giffin. Ottawa's defence is favouring the pass. Therrien and Gordon are doing okay, but not well enough to open up passing lanes for Brannagan.
- Therrien runs off the right tackle for a first down. 1 and 10 Queen's on their
own 25.
- Brannagan gets clocked by Prokipchuk but gets a deep pass off. Sheahan makes a great diving catch, but it's coming back: offensive holding by Queen's. I think it's a face mask: it's 15 yards. 1 and 25 Queen's on their own 13.
- Time out Queen's. This could be a crucial series here. They've got a long way to go, but Ottawa will have great field position if the Gaels fail to get the first down.
- Brannagan is flushed, short pass to Valberg incomplete, but flags on the play. Pass interference on Ottawa. It's now 1 and 12 on the Queen's 22.
- Queen's called offside: 1 and 17.
- Therrien runs up the middle, but gets nowhere.
- Gaels' left tackle Matt O'Donnell is hurt on the play and limping off. As anyone who's read The Blind Side knows, that's a big loss.
- Jordan Kirchberger is in to replace him. The inexperience is shown on the next play: Ottawa right end Tyler Dawe breaks through and hits Brannagan, but Ottawa's called for a face mask. First down Queen's on their own 35.
- Brannagan throws deep to Valberg, but he's in double coverage and can't pull it in. 2 and 10.
- Ottawa's defence breaks through, and Dawe and Sebastien Tetreault sack Brannagan, who drops the ball. Tetreault recovers the fumble. Ottawa ball on Queen's 34.
- That could be the decisive play if Ottawa can score here.
- Bearss runs for a couple.
- Bearss runs for about 6 more: 3rd and 1.
- Ottawa's going for the FG. Falvo hits it, making the score Ottawa 20, Queen's 11. That missed field goal by Village is looking bigger all the time.
- 10:30 left in the fourth quarter.
- Queen's offence is running out of time.
- Gordon carries up the middle but he's stopped by Hazlett for no gain.
- Interesting call on 2 and 10: Gordon rumbles up the middle again, and gets 9 this time. 3 and 1 Queen's: they're going for it.
- Brannagan sneaks for the first down. Queen's has to be careful, though: he's been stopped on a couple of those this year. Remember that he's still got a rookie left tackle protecting the blind side.
- Dawe breaks through again and should have had a sack. Brannagan breaks free and gets a deep pass off, but Blaise Morrison can't reel it in. 2 and 10.
- Brannagan over the middle for a wide-open Stinson, but he can't make the catch. Too many drops by the receivers today. Queen's will punt.
- Good punt by Village, down to the Ottawa 15. Excellent coverage means they'll start around their 18. The Gaels need to get a quick stop here: they're down by 9 with eight minutes to go.
- Different Gaels' players have looked good at times, but the whole hasn't come together. When Brannagan's on, his receivers aren't. When they're in form, his passes are off.
- Bearss rumbles outside for a first down, but a flag on the play. He's having a hell of a day as well. Looks like Ottawa doesn't miss much from Mason to him.
- Objectionable conduct is the call: Ottawa gets the first down, but they're back to their own 19. Lousy time for that kind of a penalty.
- Bearss carries off the right side, doesn't get too far. Offside against Ottawa is declined. It will be second and 9.
- Deep pass to Sinopoli, a tremendous play by Botting to knock it down. Ottawa will have to punt. Queen's should get good field position out of this.
- The punt's blocked! Great play by Queen's special teams. I couldn't tell who it was: maybe Alex Daprato? The ball rolls out of the end zone for a safety, so a huge two points for Queen's. It's now Ottawa 20, Queen's 13. They're within one TD.
- Kickoff to Queen's 30: Allin returns it to the 42.
- Therrien runs for four up the middle.
- Brannagan's pass is tipped and almost picked off, but the Ottawa DB can't make the catch. Queen's will punt.
- Village's punt is almost blocked, but he gets it to the Ottawa 20. Ottawa's Ezra Millington returns it to the 34.
- About five minutes left: Queen's still trails by a TD.
- Bearss runs up the middle for about two: nice stop by Sterling. Looks like maybe they're finally getting somewhere against the run.
- Sacobie flushed by an unblocked Ukwuoma, but hits Adjeity over the middle with a short pass. Adjeity gets the first down and more. 1 and 10 Ottawa on their own 51.
- Bearss runs up the middle for four. 2 and 6.
- 3:15 left. Bearss runs up the middle again for 4. 3 and 2 Ottawa; looks like they'll punt.
- This is turning into rather a defensive struggle. Queen's is running out of time to get something done, though: they need to get somewhere on this drive.
- 2:56 left. Fievet is in to punt. His punt's almost blocked by Stephen Laporte, who was lucky not to draw a roughing the kicker penalty. He pins Allin deep, though, and the Gaels can only get it back to about the 17. Rough play's called on Ottawa though, so 1 and 10 on the Queen's 32.
- Brannagan throws a deep sideline route to Valberg, who gets open, but can't hang on: he's stripped from behind, and the ball falls incomplete. 2 and 10.
- Another O-line injury for Queen's: right tackle Colin Boyle is out.
- Brannagan finds Sheahan wide open over the middle again, and again Sheahan drops the ball. That might have cost Queen's their season unless they do something quick here. 2:26 left.
- Village punts deep: Millington returns it to about the Ottawa 40. 1 and 10 Ottawa.
- 2:13 left: Queen's needs to make something happen.
- Bearss runs up the middle for 1: good stop by the defensive line.
- Pass over the middle to Wood-Roy, looks like he made a diving catch, but he couldn't pull it in: 3 and 9, and Ottawa will have to punt.
- Good punt: Allin makes the catch, but he gets stripped and Ottawa recovers. Ottawa ball on Queen's 29, and that might be it.
- 1:34 left, and the fans are starting to leave. A comeback now would be a miracle. Time out, Ottawa.
- Bearss up the middle for about 6. 2 and 4. Time out, Queen's.
- Bearss up the middle for about 2, but he's stopped. 1:26 left: Ottawa's going to try a 33-yard FG.
- Falvo hits the FG, and it's Ottawa 23, Queen's 13. 1:05 to go.
- Queen's takes it on their 35, and Brannagan throws up the middle for Stinson: incomplete, almost picked off.
- Brannagan throws deep for Morrison, incomplete, again almost picked. 3 and 10
- Brannagan deep for Valberg in double coverage. Incomplete. The curtains are starting to go down on this season.
- Sinopoli takes the snap and runs around for a bit to kill the clock, putting the ball back on Ottawa's 39. 2 and 45, 40 seconds left.
- Sinopoli takes a knee: 37 seconds left. 3 and 47: Ottawa runs the clock down to 16 seconds, then takes a time out. They'll punt, and that should do it: no way to score 10 points in that little time. It's another season of high expectations and great moments at times, but a failure in the playoffs for the second year in a row.
- Punt's out of bounds on the Ottawa 53: 10 seconds left. Queen's sends everyone deep this time, but pass to Valberg is incomplete: he only threw it to about the 30, so even a catch wouldn't have been enough. They should have gone end zone.
- Last play: Brannagan to Valberg, he punts it down field and Millington falls on it. That's the season, folks. A tough way for it to end for the Gaels. I'll have much more in a post-game writeup here later today.