BLEEDING TRICOLOUR: NEXT YEAR COUNTRY ARRIVES FOR THE GOLDEN GAELS

In big-time U.S. college football, the visiting team sometimes tries to plant the school flag at the 50-yard line and often a brawl breaks out.

In Canada, you raise the flag outside a nearby watering hole located a punt, pass and kick away from the stadium -- in this particular example, the Barley Mow on Bank St. -- and hope for the best. If it doesn't work out, the sun's still going to come up tomorrow, eh?

That seems to be the best way to sum up Saturday from a lifelong Queen's Golden Gaels fan's point of view after Josh Sacobie, scatback Mike Donnelly and their defensive mates on the Ottawa Gee-Gees ended Queen's season with a convincing 23-10 win yesterday in the Ontario University Athletics football semifinal.

(Just to rub it in, the Gee-Gees women's soccer team edged the Gaels 1-0 earlier today, in Kingston no less, to win the OUA championship. Don't worry, though, Queen's may get another shot at the next weekend's nationals in Victoria.)

There was plenty of coulda-woulda-shoulda for the gridiron Gaels. Try two missed field goals (one after an illegal procedure penalty pushed Queen's five yards back), numerous near-completions and the lingering image of image of two Ottawa D-backs giving Gaels receiver Brad Smith the Night At The Roxbury treatment on one deep pass and no flag being thrown for pass interference.

It all summed up a season for the Gaels that was at times frustrating, but one that can't be considered too disappointing the minor miracle against Mac. One could harrumph about all of that, but life's too short.

Pat Sheahan's underdog Gaels, who got a great effort from their defence, especially graduating defenders Kirby Calvert and Adam Ross (team-high 8.5 tackles) hung in there for 56, 57 minutes. By that point, after another trip into scoring range yielded no points and Gee-Gees tailback Davie Mason scored on an 82-yard run with 1:19 left ice the win, it was pretty clear who deserved to win.

Ottawa's D got most of the post-game accolades after holding QB Dan Brannagan and the Gaels without a first down until late in the second quarter and just 50 total yards in the first half (292 on the game). The X factor, though, was Donnelly, an undersized rookie running back (5-foot-10, 195 lbs.) who did lose two fumbles, but totalled 111 yards from scrimmage and made two plays that were backbreakers for the Gaels.

Looking over my notes, I scrawled "probably a TD next series" after a short punt gave Ottawa possesion at Queen's 41-yard line with the game tied 0-0 early in the second quarter. It took nine plays before Sacobie hit Wayne Desmond deep in the end zone for the day's first points, but it wouldn't have happened without Donnelly.

A holding penalty had put Ottawa in a second-and-18 hole back at the Queen's 26. Donnelly, though, broke free on a draw play, and with a couple stop-and-start moves, gained 17 yards, close enough for Ottawa to gamble on third-and-short, which they did with a successful Sacobie sneak.

Two minutes later, after Ottawa's Tyler Dawe knocked the ball loose from Brannagan and Ottawa recovered inside Queen's territory, Ottawa faced and second-and-8 at Queen's 13. From the formation, you could tell Sacobie wanted to look for Desmond, who was lined up right and matched up against Gaels cornerback Mike Botting.

Sacobie rolled in that direction, but Desmond was covered. No problem for Ottawa, though -- he dumped it off to Donnelly, who faked out a Gaels defender and got the first down, setting up his two-yard touchdown run moments later. In the space of 2:08, the Gee-Gees had scored 15 points (Ara Tchbonian booted a single on the ensuing kickoff).

Ultimately, that proved far too much for an underdog Queen's team to overcome against the best defensive team in Canada playing at home after a bye week.

A frustrating, up and down season for Gaels? You bet. There was Windsor loss at Homecoming, the last-second defeat at Waterloo, an offence that struggled to put up points all year -- but all in all, Queen's did win a playoff game away from Richardson Stadium for the first time since 1992. They lost their best tailback, Marty Gordon, to a knee injury early on (Mike Giffin filled in admirably, but he's best suited to being a fullback in a true two-back offence) and played a big portion of the season without their best defensive player, linebacker Ian Hazlett, so to go 5-5 and reach the OUA semifinal isn't half-bad.

To borrow a Prairie expression, it's Next Year Country for the Gaels, and we (the royal we, the editorial we) are already looking forward to following Queen's next season, via the web and in person. Although considering Queen's has now lost the last seven games I've attended, maybe we should review the "in person."

Thanks again to Dan Pawliw of the Queen's Football Club, who's given us good exposure by including our writing in the QFC's e-newsletter, as well as the many Gaels fans who gave us positive feedback.

THE GEE-GEES RIDDLE

From the jinx to the sphinx: After nine games, two of which I've seen in person and two others on TV, Ottawa still seems hard to figure out. That might be a benefit to them, though. Head coach Denis Piché's crew looks like the type of team that can adapt to any kind of game or opponent -- which you better be able to do in CIS ball, especially with the kind of weather you sometimes get in November.

From here, it seems like Ottawa is playing with confidence. Donnelly reflects that. A lot of coaches wouldn't have changed their starting running back, especially after Davie Mason opened the year with four straight 100-yard games, fearing it might upset team chemistry and lead to internal tension. Ottawa's coaches realized that Donnelly, though, gives them a better receiver coming out of the backfield, and possibly a better edge runner than the 245-lb. Mason, who's more of a straight-ahead back in the Earl Campbell mould. Mason's healthy, but Ottawa only used him Saturday as a "closer," helping run out the clock in the fourth quarter after Donnelly had fumbled the ball away for the second time on the day.

Now Ottawa has a 1-2 rushing punch that while not the equal of, say, Manitoba's Matt Henry and Karim Lowen, gives them another dimension in the backfield.

Related:
GGs smother Gaels: Defence sparks playoff win (Chris Occhiuzzi, Ottawa Sun)
Gee-Gees' defence crowns Queen's (Wayne Kondro, Ottawa Citizen)
Queen's vs. Ottawa photo gallery (Jeff Chan photography)

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