I’m not exactly very good at reading lips, but as I watched thousands of fans’ reactions at the 50th Vanier Cup in Montreal on Saturday, I could decipher what they were all saying; “wow.” That simple three-letter word was the word of the day at McGill Stadium and it described the game perfectly.
Two teams that had never played each other before, the Montreal Carabins and the McMaster Marauders, battled the frosty elements throughout the game. Measuring about -1 Celsius, the wind chilled the bones with gusts measuring up to 10 km/h at times. With these conditions, the game started slowly, with the kickers controlling the game early. Tyler Crapigna of McMaster kicked the first six points in the first quarter while Louis-Philippe Simoneau split the uprights early in the second.
The powerful Carabins offence was dominated by the Marauders defence, and they didn’t pass the first down marker until their fifth drive, near the end of the opening frame. Thankfully for the solid Carabins defence, the team received a spark early in the game when Marshall Ferguson’s pass was intercepted by the turnover-creating machine safety in Anthony Coady.
Despite the interception in front of 22,649 screaming, mostly pro-Montreal fans, Gabriel Cousineau and the rest of the offence continued to stagnate for the whole first half. The defence wasn’t themselves either: with Chris Pezzetta injured, the Carabins allowed running-back-by-default Wayne Moore to rush 50 yards into the endzone to make the score 13-3 for the Marauders at halftime.
At half, Danny Maciocia mentioned to Radio-Canada following the game that he “told (his) players that (he) would trade (his) two Grey Cups for a Vanier Cup at home”*. As if in response, they stormed out in the second half, playing classic Carabins football. Just over two minutes into the half, Philip Enchill caught a 9-yard strike from Cousineau in double coverage to bring the crowd to their feet and his team within three points of McMaster.
The Carabins defence continued to show flaws with their rush defence, but stopped all attacks towards the end zone. Crapigna – the CIS’s highest scoring kicker – nailed two more kicks from 29 and 43 yards out, extending McMaster’s lead by 9 points heading into the fourth quarter.
The turning point of the game came just two plays into the final frame when Ferguson’s pass was intercepted around midfield by Coady, who leapt into the air and miraculously snagged the toss. Despite the Carabins not scoring on the resulting drive, this gave their attack some life. The renewed energy showed cleraly when they took the ball 35 yards in just three plays later, when Running back Sean Thomas-Erlington punched the ball in from 3 yards, making the score 19-17 for the Marauders.
Montreal’s next drive was spectacular once again, starting at their own 40 with 6:51 to go. Cousineau went 4/5 passing on 46 yards, but his worst mistake came on second down at the ten yard line. Cousineau had a chance to win the game on a TD toss, but ran the ball himself to no avail, forcing Simoneau to put up three. The Carabins were now only up by only a single with 2:45 left on the clock.
The highlight of the Marauders’ next drive was Moore’s 24-yard rush, which put his team on the Montreal 33. Two rushes later, Moore and his offence faced 3rd and 1 at the 24. Stefan Ptaszek elected to send Crapigna out, surely expecting to secure a win with about a minute left to play.
With the crowd cheering loudly to distract the McMaster kicker, the ball went up – and was blocked. The likely Vanier Cup winning field goal was blocked by Mathieu Girard. That was the game, and the Carabins took the win 20-19 for their first ever Vanier Cup.
The fifth year defensive lineman for the Carabins was very emotional after the game. “Five years we’ve been working for this,” Girard said. “Five years we’ve been working hard… I’m not responsible for the win, the (team) is. The Carabins de Montreal are.”
“This has been in the works for many years. The players, coaches, family members, everyone has got us here,” said receiver Enchill. The game’s defensive MVP Coady, who was almost in tears, summarized the win perfectly: “We were a group of players that believed.”
After many years of losing to Laval and watching them hoist the cup, the Montreal Carabins were finally Vanier Cup champions. One of the best finishes in Vanier Cup history transpired on the McGill field on Saturday. A blocked kick to win the game. You rarely see that in any football game, whether NFL, CFL, NCAA or CIS, let alone a blocked kick to win a championship.
Just, “wow.”
Photograph courtesy of Proacguy.
Note: all quotations are courtesy of Radio-Canada who interviewed the players in French following their victory and were translated by the author.
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