Sunday, September 28, 2008

CIS Corner: Sacobie back in saddle for GGs

Notes on our teams of interest from The 613 ...

Gee-Gees: Josh Sacobie "does not have a broken bone in his non-throwing arm and ... is expected to practise Tuesday," according to U of O sports information.

It's a spot of good news for the Gee-Gees, but there's a lot more oowies to be healed up before Saturday's home game vs. Laurier (1 p.m., The Score, SSN Canada). A healthy Sacobie ought to help them out get in fighting trim before the playoffs.

Remember, yes, they are 3-2 and first place is out of reach. This isn't the Little Sisters of the Poor — there's still a lot of talent on that team.

Across the river: Kingston's own Cory Greenwood, a linebacker, had 9½ tackles and a sack for the Concordia Stingers in their 21-12 loss to No. 1 Laval on Sunday

South of the border: The Rice Owls are in that post where Out of Left Field obsessively overthinks its choice of NCAA football team.

Rice starts Scott Mitchell of Manotick at left tackle and Montrealer Arnaud Gascon-Nadon, or AGN, as they call him. Gascon-Nadon, a freshman starter at defensive end, had an interception return for a touchdown in Rice's 77-20 win over North Texas, while Mitchell helped the Owls score touchdowns on their first six possessions.

Another bit of Canadians/NCAA news that might have to be followed up — Ottawa native John Delahunt, is apparently moving up on the depth chart for the No. 24 UConn Huskies, as Desmond Connor reported in the Hartford Courant:
"Well, Yianni (Apostolakos) will be No. 2 (behind Martin Bedard), and then we'll have John Delahunt. We'll get him some work this week too. But we've worked three tight ends. Yianni's been up practicing, and Martin, and John Delahunt would move in to get some practice reps now.
Ravens: Carleton's 3-2 exhibition win over Lakehead has been covered off at The CIS Blog.

Again, not unlike the Queen's Football Gaels, it's not even Oct. 1. Lakehead is far from a fully formed team and Carleton had played the previous weekend. Alex Archibald and Jordan Wakefield combined to stop 34-of-36 shots on Saturday against the Thunderwolves. This might be a notebook column on this week's Ottawa Sun schools sports page.

(Lakehead also has the best-named player in hockey, amateur or pro, Kalvin Sagert.)

7 comments:

Tyler King said...

Not to be the downer, but isn't it possible Ottawa might win out, and Queen's get upset once more before end of season, and thus the GGs could get first?

sager said...

York (Oct. 4) or Waterloo (Oct.18), which one is beating Queen's — the one with the average score of 59-3 or the one who just lost 59-0 to Ottawa?

Ottawa might very well beat the Gaels, but they'll have the tiebreaker over a 7-1 Western team (which still has to play Guelph). Ottawa ends up 6-2 and finishes third.

Tyler King said...

On balance of probability, yes, and that's exactly what I expect to happen. But it's still technically not out of reach. Sorry to be Mr. Semantics again.

sager said...

On balance of and not having been born yesterday and wanting to see York win a game and see cancer cured, but knowing neither is going to happen in the next six days, it is out of reach.

Sorry to be Mr. Logical, Mr. Realist, and Mr. Not Having A Bullshit Bone In His Body — again.

Tyler King said...

Maybe I'm just haunted by the York game two years ago when they needed overtime.

Anonymous said...

If Ottawa plays anything like they did in the first half against Windsor when the meet Queen's it will be over in a New York minute.
Honestly, I can't believe how stupidly Ottawa plays.
They have a disgraceful first half against a very average Lancer team.
A second half comeback puts the game well within reach with lots of time to play.
But, Sacobie...once again... literally throws the game away with another ill advised, deep pass into double coverage.
The only good news out of this is thst Sacobie's injury isn't serious and he'll play next week.
Unfortunately, I think the Gee-Gees have regressed from the previous two years overall and do not have what it takes to win the Yates.
Sorry to say that, but after watching the game Saturday how could anyone think otherwise?

Anonymous said...

What "anon' says about Ottawa playing stupidly, regressing, and Sacobie making ill-advised long passing attempts into double coverage when there was time left to go with higher percentage plays---it is all true.

But as Neate has suggested in his blogs, this is still a team with talent. The GG faithful only have to look at last year to be reminded that a sixth place team took the Yates Cup. So why not a third or fourth place team? Ottawa can still become the team nobody wants to play in the playoffs.

To do so, I think the coaches have to take a hard look at how they are preparing the team for each game. Not just the Xs and Os , but the mental aspects of playing up to their potential.

It would help if the team captains set an example by stepping up their level of play, as well as talking to some of their comrades about focus and coming prepared to play each week. ( That includes Sacobie who has to settle down and go for the high percentage play more often, rather than those risky long passes into coverage.)

Still some exciting football ahead!

OttawaFan