CIS NOTES: LAVAL'S STAR KICKER, AND WESTERN PUTS ITS FOOT IN ITS MOUTH

MOUTHY MUSTANGS, PART 2

As a follow-up to the earlier CIS football post, check out the London Free Press story about Western's loss to Laurier. Apparently the Mustangs were a little lacking in grace on Saturday. First they jumped on the Laurier logo during the pregame introductions, touching off a scuffle between the teams. Hey, Western did beat Laurier back in 2003, so it's not like they haven't earned it.

Western linebacker Nick Kordic was quoted as saying Laurier "didn't do anything in the first half." Sure, maybe he was a little emotional when he said that, but still, it bears noting that Laurier not "do(ing) anything in the first half" involved outrushing Western by 40 yards and wiping out a 15-point lead in a little less than five minutes.

KICKER NOT LOST IN TRANSLATION

Not to break one arm's with that self-back patting, but the No. 1 Laval Rouge et Or' s 29-0 shutout of the Bishop's Gaiters capped a 12-for-13 week on the CIS football picks, with ye old alma mater's loss as the only blemish.

(Haven't checked on the NFL picks but there's a feeling that didn't go so well.)
In Laval's win, Rouge et Or botteur Cameron Takacs (pictured) kicked four field goals, giving him 42 points on the season, tops among all players in the CIS despite the fact his team has played one less game than 13 other teams.

If this keeps up, maybe that august broadsheet in his hometown of Brantford, Ont., The Expositor, will see fit to mentioning Takacs' success. It seems like a neat story -- an Anglophone from southern Ontario having success with the football team at a French-language school.

Laval has three other Ontarians, all of whom play in the defensive secondary: Luis Morales (from London by way of the Ottawa Gee-Gees), Justin Morrow (from Shedden, which has the unfortunate and probably unfairly deserved reputation as the biker-slaying capital of Ontario) and André St-Amour from the Ottawa area. The Sherbrooke Vert et Or doesn't have a single player from outside Québec. The Montréal Carabins roster posted at the CIS website doesn't list hometowns.

Anyway, Takacs' success is only mentioned as a public service to The Expositor (AKA The Suppositor) and its intrepid sports department, which has been known to display some odd news values by times. In their defence, if they haven't got around to Takacs it's because there was something really important going on, like what the Brantford Blast is doing for a between-periods promotion at its home opener.

Related:
Gaels Find Their Waterloo... (Sept. 24)
CIS Football Picks, Week 4 (Sept. 21)
Journalism 101: How To Get Scooped In Your Own Backyard (July 12)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.