Sinotte sets national record in Shaughnessy Cup loss to Stingers
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(PHOTO BY ANDREW DOBROWOLSKYJ)
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MONTREAL - McGill receiver Charles-Antoine Sinotte made Canadian university football history on Saturday afternoon but his efforts were in vain as a late Redmen rally came up 15 yards short of the endzone and Concordia held on for a 30-25 victory in the 41st annual Shaughnessy Cup football game.
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It was McGill's 10th straight loss to the Stingers, since a 10-6 victory in the 2002 Dunsmore Cup league championship game. The result leaves a four-way log-jam for the final two playoff berths in the six-team Quebec conference. McGill, Concordia, Bishop's and Sherbrooke are all 3-4, heading into the final week of regular-season play. Laval leads the league with a 6-1 record and the Montreal Carabins are second with a 4-3 record.
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The contest was played in a constant downpour before 1,217 rain-soaked fans at Concordia Stadium.Ìý Despite the sloppy conditions, the two teams combined to complete 58 of 94 pass attempts for 754 yards in the air.
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Sinotte, a fourth-year wide receiver from Trois-Rivières, Que., caught 10 passes for 92 yards and now has 195 career receptions on his career, one more than the previous CIS record set a year ago by former McGill teammate Erik Galas, who needed five campaigns to haul in 194 balls.
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"It's a nice stat, for which I thank my teammates, beginning with Matt (Connell) and J.C. (Jonathan Collin), the two quarterbacks that helped me reach that plateau," said a subdued Sinotte to the media. "But you should understand that in these circumstances (a heart-breaking loss), I am not very enthusiastic."
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Sinotte will get a chance to become the first player in history to reach the 200-catch plateau next Saturday when the Redmen (3-4) end the QUFL schedule against top-ranked Laval.
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Concordia quarterback Rob Mackay, a fourth-year senior from Port Dover, Ont., set several school records while completing 31 of 44 passes for 494 yards and three touchdowns. Both the 31 completions and the 494 yards are Concordia single-game marks.
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His 281 pass attempts for 2,259 yards this season, surpassed the Concordia records of 247 and 2,000, respectively, set by Dominik Goulet in 1996. Mackay needs 275 yards in his final game next week to break the conference passing record held by McGill's Matt Connell, who threw for 2,533 yards in 2007
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In the victory over McGill, Mackay found a couple of sure-handed receivers in Cory Watson (10 receptions, 175 yards, one TD) and Liam Mahoney, who led all receivers with 11 catches and 117 yards.
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Overall Concordia rolled up 477 yards of offence to McGill's 340 yards. For the Redmen, rookie pivot Jonathan Collin completed 27 of 50 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound native of Greenfield Park, Que.,Ìý also also carried eight times for 24 yards and his seventh TD on the ground this season, establishing school records for most rushing majors by a rookie and by a quarterback. The McGill single-season mark is 10 rushing TDs by running back Dave Fleiszer in 1969.
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Concordia led 9-0 after the opening period and extended that to 23-2 at the half before McGill abandoned the running game and rallied in the second half to outscore the Stingers 23-7.
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Collin first hooked up with Sinotte for a 15-yard TD toss with eight minutes remaining in the third quarter, narrowing the gap to 30-9, then rushedfor a two yard major with 40 seconds remaining in the third to make the score 30-16. Only a minute later, Collin connected with receiver Patrick Dodd on a 17-yard scoring play to make it 30-23 with 14:20 left in the contest.
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A key interception by Joel Arsenault with seven minutes remaining, gave McGill possession on their own 28-ard line and Collin then engineering an impressive 17-play drive that ran out out of gas with an unsuccessful third-down gamble at the Concordia 15.
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The Stingers conceded a safetly to make it 30-25 and McGill got the ball back on its own 35 with just 41 seconds remaining. The drive stalled three plays later and Concordia ran out the clock to escape with the victory, their third straight after four consecutive losses to start the season.
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The playoff possibilities for both teams are still up in the air, although a slide-rule will be needed to figure out all the permutations of a four-way tie, the Stingers have a better mathematical chance of qualifying than McGill.
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Next week, Concordia travels to Lennoxville to meet the Bishop's Gaiters (3-4), while McGill hosts No. 1-ranked Laval (6-1).
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REDMEN RAP: Jonathan Collin became only the second quarterback in McGill history to register 50 pass attempts in a game... The only other pivot to manage the feat was Matt Connell, who reached that plateau five times, including a team record 59 attempts three times and a 58-attempt performance... Ìý Senior Anthony Lukca, a two-time all-star cornerback who has been moved to linebacker this season to help McGill's rush defence, was the team's leading tackler with seven solos and three assisted tackles... He also had one fumble recovery... McGill's flashy running back Andrew Hamilton fell victim to the early lopsided score as the Stingers loaded up the box to limit his success. The former Concordia star touched the ball only four times for nine rushing yards -- all in the first half -- before the McGill coaching staff took him out to spread the Concordia defence in an attempt to give the offence more options whilesaving time by focussing on the passing game in the second half. It marked the first time this season that Hamilton has not breached the 90-yard rushing plateau... The ploy opened some holes and allowed sophomore runnning back Taylor Kuprowski to rush 13 times for 60 yards in the second half... Linebacker Junior Bishop, one of three former Stingers in McGill's starting lineup, had a stellar game on his old stomping grounds. he was credited with three solo tackles, four assisted tackles, one tackle for loss, a blocked FG attempt and a knockdown... The other ex-Stinger was his brother Courtney Bishop, who had two solo tackles and a knockdown.
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| QUFL STANDINGS (updated after games of Oct. 24/09) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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MCGI vs CONC (Oct 24, 2009)
Scoring Summary (Final)
Concordia Stingers 2007
MCGI vs CONC (Oct 24, 2009 at Montreal)
MCGI (3-3-0) vs. CONC (2-4-0)
Date: Oct 24, 2009 Site: Montreal Stadium: Concordia
Attendance: 1,217
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
MCGI................ 0 2 14 9 - 25
CONC................ 9 14 7 0 - 30
Scoring Summary:
1st 09:13 CONC - Dan Rodrigues 28 yd pass from Robert Mackay (Rene Parades kick), 4-63 1:56, MCGI 0 - CONC 7
08:15 CONC - TEAM safety, , MCGI 0 - CONC 9
2nd 11:58 MCGI - Team safety, , MCGI 2 - CONC 9
06:41 CONC - Cory Watson 48 yd pass from Robert Mackay (Rene Parades kick), 4-90 1:37, MCGI 2 - CONC 16
04:14 CONC - Rene Parades 25 yd field goal, 4-40 1:14, MCGI 2 - CONC 19
02:01 CONC - Rene Parades rouge, , MCGI 2 - CONC 20
00:44 CONC - Rene Parades 36 yd field goal, 3--7 0:39, MCGI 2 - CONC 23
3rd 12:52 CONC - Sanc. Deschamps 24 yd pass from Robert Mackay (Rene Parades kick), 5-82 2:00, MCGI 2 - CONC 30
08:01 MCGI - C.A. Sinotte 15 yd pass from Jonathan Collin (Austin Anderson kick), 11-88 4:45, MCGI 9 - CONC 30
00:40 MCGI - Jonathan Collin 2 yd run (Austin Anderson kick), 11-87 4:38, MCGI 16 - CONC 30
4th 14:20 MCGI - Patrick Dodd 17 yd pass from Jonathan Collin (Austin Anderson kick), 1-17 0:20, MCGI 23 - CONC 30
00:41 MCGI - Team safety, , MCGI 25 - CONC 30
Kickoff time: 13:00 End of Game: 16:08 Total elapsed time: 3:08
Officials: Referee: R. Daigneault; Umpire: R. Moquin; Linesman: I. Letendre;
Line judge: R. Romanado; Back judge: J. DiLalla; Field judge: L. Olivier;
Side judge: Y. Gatien;
Temperature: 5c Wind: Moderate Weather: Light Rain
NOTES: Concordia wins the 41st annual Shaughnessy Cup.
In this game, McGill receiver Charles-Antoine Sinotte established a CIS record for most career catches (195), eclipsing the mark of 194 set last year by former Mcgill receiver Erik Galas. Also, McGill quarterback Jonathan Collin scored his seventh rushing TD of the season, eclipsing the school record for most rushing TDs by a quarterback and by a freshman. Concordia quarterback Robert Mackay set a team record for most
passing yards in a season, eclipsing Dominic Goulet's record of 2000 yards, set in 1996.
NOTE: For complete stats and a Play-by-Play Summary (click on link below)