Box Score
GUELPH, Ont. - Saturday afternoon at Guelph's Alumni field, the Guelph Gryphon's football team dropped a tough matchup to the McMaster Marauder's 37-13 in front of a sold-out Homecoming crowd of 9,500 excited fans. The Marauders outscored the Gryphons 34-3 in the second half to advance to a 3-1 regular season record while the Gryphons drop to 1-3.
"It was nice to have all the fans here for homecoming and I think we played reasonably well in the first half," said University of Guelph Head Coach Stu Lang. "I said to the guys after the game, what I was most proud of is that they battled till the end. We had some mistakes and things but they never gave up. We realize it's one game at a time, so Windsor's next and hopefully it breaks for us in the end before the playoffs."
McMaster running back Christopher Pezzetta had a strong rushing game, collecting 106 yards on 13 rushing attempts. Marshall Fergus led the Marauders passing attack, collecting 236 yards on 19-of-29 completions to go with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Guelph Quarterback Chris Rossetti (Mississauga, Ont.) completed 16-of-35 attempts for 216 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Receivers Kevin Campbell (Pickering, Ont.) and Jedd Gardner (Niagara Falls, Ont.) each had five receptions, with Campbell scoring the lone Gryphon touchdown.
Guelph started off the game strong in front of a packed stadium for Guelph's Homecoming festivities. The Gryphon defence was the key to their first half success, forcing five McMaster turnovers in the first half alone. Unfortunately, the offence struggled to capitalize on the Marauder's turnovers, leaving the door open for McMaster's comeback.
A missed field goal by Guelph early in the first quarter, McMaster saw a promising return end in a fumble recovery for the Gryphon's, giving them great field possession. On the ensuing drive, Rossetti was able to find Campbell on a one yard touchdown throw to give the Gryphon's a 7-0 lead. Guelph's defence continued its early dominance with another fumble recovery to finish the first quarter.
The Gryphon's opened the second quarter with a strong drive, ultimately ending in a missed field goal. On McMaster's first play after the miss, defensive back Bryan Dunjko (Aurora, Ont.) made his first of two interceptions on the day to give the Gryphon's fantastic field position. Guelph made a field goal soon after to go up 10-0 early in the second.
After another interception by Dunjko, Rossetti threw his first interception to McMaster linebacker Nicholas Shortill, scoring a field goal on the next drive to close the Gryphon lead to 10-3. After trading turnovers, the teams went to the half with Guelph leading 10-3.
Guelph started the second half strong, adding another field goal early to extend their lead to 13-3. After that though the game was all McMaster, as they would score on a one yard run by Pezzetta and a 24 yard pass by Fergus to Matthew Peressi, giving McMaster a 17-13 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
McMaster would open the fourth quarter with an early field goal to give them a 20-13 advantage, and would score once more on a touchdown pass, once more to Peressi to go up 27-13. McMaster would add a field goal and a long interception returned for a touchdown to round out the scoring.
While the score might have been one-sided, the Gryphon's received a strong showing by their defence, who were able to keep Guelph involved for most of the game. Guelph's inability to capitalize on McMaster turnovers was ultimately the deciding factor in their loss.
The Gryphon's will hope to put an end to their two game mini-slump when they hit the road to take on the Windsor Lancers Saturday, October 1. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
