GUELPH, Ont. – On Saturday afternoon (October 22) the Guelph Gryphons football team will look to finish their 2022 season on a high note when they play host to the No. 10-ranked team in the country in the Carleton Ravens. With perfect weather conditions in the forecast, kickoff is set for 1pm at Alumni Stadium with tickets available online at gryphons.ca/tickets. A win for the Gryphons (1-6) on Saturday in their season finale will be no easy task, as the playoff-bound Ravens arrive in Guelph with a 4-3 record on the season. 




"The Carleton Ravens are a good football team," says Gryphon head coach, Ryan Sheahan, who helped lead the Gryphons to a pair of wins over Carleton when the teams met twice during the 2019 season, including a 22-17 quarter-final win by Guelph in the 2019 playoffs. "They are well-coached, and they have a lot of athletes in a lot of positions. Defensively, they fly around and make a lot plays. Offensively, they use a variety of formations and have a variety of playmakers, so we are going to need to bring our best effort. We take our hats off to their staff who have taken over their program in 2022 to get the Ravens to the playoffs. Our team has a young nucleus, which has continued to progress this season despite going through some growing pains in 2022. We will be bringing our best effort on Saturday to honour our seniors and put on a good show as we pay tribute to all those effected by breast cancer as part of our annual 'Think Pink' game. We are looking forward to the contest on Saturday afternoon and will do all we can to end our 2022 season on a positive note."
 
While the Gryphons have been mathematically eliminated from this year's edition of the OUA football playoffs, Saturday's matchup carries no shortage of playoff implications for the Ravens and rival schools. The Ravens can finish as the OUA's 5th, 6th or 7th-seed, depending on the outcome of Saturday's action in Guelph and around the conference. The Gryphons, meanwhile, enter this week's matchup coming off a tough loss in Waterloo to the Laurier Golden Hawks back on Saturday, October 15 at University Stadium, which saw the Gryphons put on one of their best offensive and defensive performances in the first half to lead the No. 9-ranked team in the country 18-14 heading into the half. The challenge this Saturday for the Gryphons will be to stop one of the premier quarterback, receiver duos in the OUA in Tanner DeJong and Kaseem Ferdinand. DeJong, a Brockville, Ontario native, in his 3rd year as the Ravens starting quarterback currently sits at 2nd in the OUA in passing yards per game (237.6) and 5th in passing touchdowns with 9. Five of DeJong's nine touchdowns have been thrown to Ferdinand who finds himself 3rd in the OUA in both receiving touchdowns and receiving yards per game (73.2) this season.
 
Tasked with slowing down the Carleton passing attack will be third year Gryphon defensive back Harrison Bagayogo. Bagayogo, a 2021 U SPORTS All-Canadian talent, enters Saturday's game coming off a season's best performance that saw the Bois-des-Filion, Quebec native return an interception 29 yards to put the Gryphons up 18-14 late in the first half against the Golden Hawks. Assisting Bagayogo in slowing down the Carleton offense will be linebackers Brandon Ferigo and Scott Murray. In Ferigo, the Gryphons have the nation's leading tackler with 52.5 total tackles, including 38 solo takedowns. The Guelph native comes off another impressive performance after leading the Gryphs in total tackles (13.) last weekend. 4th-year Mississauga native, Scott Murray, will be tasked with applying pressure off the edge to the Carleton quarterback on Saturday. Murray comes into the matchup tied for 5th in the country in sacks (6) and 2nd in tackles for a loss (11). On the offensive side of the ball the Gryphons will be looking for a repeat performance from University of South Carolina transfer quarterback Jake Helfrich. The Charlotte, North Carolina native is coming off one of his best performances of the season after throwing for 202 yards, 2 touchdowns, and no interceptions last week in Waterloo. The Gryphons will also look for another strong performance from rookie wide receiver Cameron St. Kitts-Park and second year running back Sito Berrio, both of whom are coming off their best games of the 2022 season. Kitts-Park caught 3 passes for 80 yards while Berrio rushed 12 times for 40 yards on Saturday versus Laurier.
 
The last time the gryphons and Ravens met was during the 2019 playoffs where the Gryphs hosted Carleton in the OUA quarterfinals at Alumni Stadium. The Gryphons earned a 22-17 victory thanks to Harrison Bagayogo's late game heroics which saw him recover a blocked punt for a touchdown while the Gryphons were down 17-16 with 1:04 remaining in the game. The Gryphon defence held the Ravens to just 264 yards of total offence that day while forcing Carleton to punt it away 10 times. Much like the 2019 playoff game the Gryphons have held the clear advantage against the Ravens since their return to football in 2013, winning all seven meetings between the two programs. Tickets to Saturday's matchup are available online at gryphons.ca/tickets. Fans unable to attend the Gryphons season finale can watch live online at www.oua.tv, with pre-game coverage beginning at 12:45pm.