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McMaster Marauders Win Big 40-10 in Battle of the Birds

The McMaster Marauders opened the 2016 season on at home under the lights to a sell out crowd of 5,427 fans during their school’s frosh week.

Photo by Alistair Boulby.
Photo by Alistair Boulby.

On a picture perfect night, the Marauders played pretty much a picture perfect game beating the Carleton Ravens 40-10, giving interim head coach Greg Knox his first win.

Marauders Win Big 40-10 in Battle of the Birds

The Ravens had high hopes of being a top dog their third year in the league after climbing into the CIS Top Ten rankings for the first time in 2015.

The Ravens were coming off a tight “preseason” game against the Laval Rouge et Or from the RSEQ. They were looking to make a statement against a team that has had three national championship appearances in their last five seasons, the Ravens unfortunately came out flat, unable to capitalize when given chances and making costly mistakes. This led to Mac dominating the game in all three facets as they sent the Ravens home with their feathers ruffled.

Greg Knox Gets First Win as Head Coach

Head Coach Greg Knox was very pleased with the way his team performed. “It was a good job by everyone, our defence was really strong, only gave up a couple long ones and a trick play. Beyond that they were outstanding. On offence we were explosive, on specials we were good, and got a great performance from a young kicker.”

On Carleton being ranked ahead of the Marauders the coach was quite frank. “We’re going to respect all our opponents, they’re a good team and they’ve still got a bit of a ways to go, obviously. They’ll be back for sure, though,” Knox said.

Mac Receivers Run Wild

Asher Hastings threw the deep ball far and often, finishing the game 19 for 28 with 320-yards and four touchdowns. The Ravens secondary couldn’t keep up with the Marauders’ receivers. Midway through the first quarter Mac got on a roll and the Ravens appeared to be chasing the Marauders from behind down the field. As the game went on, that didn’t change. Mac receivers were almost always behind their defenders.

Hastings had plenty of time to pick apart the Ravens as they couldn’t muster much of a pass rush against the Mac offensive line. After the game the Mac quarterback was singing the praises of his big men charged with protecting him. “A great job by the offensive line. Two of those guys were playing defence last week and one of them is a brand new starter so I’m just proud of my guys. Those longer touchdowns are because of them; Josh Lolli, Chris Adeneye and John Grant did an outstanding job.”

Thanks to his offensive line, Hastings was able to make plenty of throws to his receivers, like fellow East West Bowl teammate Danny Vandervoort. Vandervoort had four catches for 197 yards and two touchdowns. After the game the receiver had plenty of thanks for his coaches for putting him in a position to succeed. “Coach Bird drew it up, called the plays and we just executed. Me and Asher basically just started where we left off.”

On his 86-yard touchdown reception, Vandervoort was able to get open on a surprise his coach threw at the Ravens defence.”They’d never seen that look from us and I broke free, Asher threw a perfect ball, I just had to not drop it and we scored.”

Mac City, Sack City

Ravens quarterback Jesse Mills jersey will need to get cleaned with extra strong Tide after the trip to Hamilton. McMaster’s defence had his number, racking up five sacks in the game. They hit him plenty of other times as he took a beating throughout the matchup. The Ravens resorted to a trick play to score their lone touchdown, finding Nate Behar for a 63-yard score on a fake sweep pass in the second quarter.

At times the Mac defence bent and give up big plays, but they never really broke. When Carleton first got in the red zone, Mac got back to back sacks on first and second down, forcing a 37-yard field goal. The second time, the secondary caused three incompletions forcing a turnover on downs. The head coach explained how it was all possible.”They played a disciplined game, if we play disciplined football we’re going to be successful.”

Mills was never comfortable in the pocket and rushed throws making for incomplete passes and two interceptions. When the Ravens tried to run the ball, the defence attacked and blew up blockers at the point of attack causing running lanes to close fast.

Defensive end Mike Kashak, a 2016 Calgary Stampeders CFL draft pick, was ecstatic about his team’s performance. “We have a good solid group of fourth, fifth and some sixth year guys. We’re all ready to go all the way this year, everyone’s preparing like it and we’re playing how we need to. This was round one of a heavy weight fight and we won it.”

CFL Mac Carleton 2Things to Improve

Just because the Marauders won big doesn’t mean there wasn’t rust in the home opener. Mac’s centre Grant was starting in his first game at the position ever, and it showed. A 105-yard kickoff return by Mac put them at first and goal on the 5-yard line. After consecutive botched high shotgun snaps set them back in field position, the Marauders offence was forced to settle for three points on a 37-yard field goal. The lone hiccup by the receivers was a fumble by Vandervoort after a long reception near midfield. Mac will need to clean up these mistakes in practice before they take on the other contenders in the conference.

Moving Forward

The Marauders head fifteen minutes down the road to take on the University of Toronto Varsity Blues in Tim Hortons Field for Week 2 of OUA action. The Mac home game takes place in the Hamilton Tiger-Cats stadium is part of a Labour Day double header. The CIS kickoff slated for noon. U of T is coming off a beating by the defending Yates Cup Champs Guelph, losing to the Gryphons by a score of 41-22. Mac will look to dish out some of the same punishment to kick off Football Day in Hamilton.

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