GUELPH, Ont. – In front of a sold out crowd of 8,500 at the University of Guelph's Alumni Stadium, the Gryphon football team rolled to a convincing 88-7 victory on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 23, 2023), defeating the visiting York Lions in the 2023 edition of the University of Guelph's annual Homecoming football game. The Gryphons were led by rookie quarterback
Tristan Aboud, who put on a perfect performance going 16-for-16 for 384 yards and 6 touchdown passes. The Montreal native set a new Gryphon football record for passing touchdowns in a single game, beating the previous record of 5 held by former U of G quarterbacks Justin Dunk and Wally Gabler.
The Gryphons scored three touchdowns within the first five minutes, jumping out to a 35-0 lead after the 1st quarter. A dominant first half was capped off by an 87-yard touchdown run by Donnavin Milloy, giving Guelph a 59-7 lead over the Lions heading into halftime. It was another impressive performance for Milloy, with the second-year Hamilton native going for 188 yards on the ground on just eight carries in addition to finding the endzone twice. The running back already ranks in the Top 3 in the conference in several key statistics and today's performance is sure to continue to vault him up the rankings.
The first half also saw the Gryphon defence put on a dominant performance of their own, holding the York offence to just one score late in the first half and just 182 yards of total offence. The effort was led by the Guelph linebacking corps of
Jevaun Jacobsen,
Brandon Ferigo, Breaden MacDougall, and
Jack Cobb who combined for 21.5 tackles. Jacobsen was also one of two Gryphons to force turnovers, when he brought in his second interception in as many games early in the opening quarter.
The Gryphons opened the third quarter looking to add onto their lead, and
Tristan Aboud did just that. Aboud found
Willem Arseneau for an 85-yard score and his record-breaking 6th touchdown pass of the day. Arseneau led the Gryphon receiving group on the day with 114 yards and a touchdown on just two catches. The rookie from Calgary was one of 11 different Gryphons to catch a pass.
Vyshonne Janusas,
Jakob Tomas, and
Kaine Stevenson each caught a pair of touchdowns, with Janusas racking the second most yards on the day with 103. Rookie quarterback
Marshall McCray was also highly effective, passing for 77 yards while rushing for 18 and a pair of touchdowns. The Gryphons dressed three quarterbacks in the game, and all three demonstrated their talent with 2022 redshirt freshman
Troy Hawkins seeing the field for the first time in his career. Hawkins, a native of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, threw for 51 yards and a touchdown on a perfect completion percentage.
The team played well in all three phases of the game, including special teams which saw
Anakin Guthrie have another strong performance against the Lions. After going for two return touchdowns in the Gryphons 2022 preseason game against York, the local Guelph product returned four punts, taking his first of the day 74 yards for the second score of the day. Guthrie also brought in the U of G defences second interception of the day late in the second half. Rookie kicker
Gabriel Canabrava was perfect on the day, going 11-for-11 on extra points with a field goal to account for 14 Gryphon points.
With the win on Saturday over York, the Gryphons improve to 3-2 on the season, while the Lions fall to 0-5. Next up for the Gryphons (3-2), is a trip to the University of Waterloo on Saturday, September 30 to face the Waterloo Warriors. Kickoff next Saturday at Warrior Field is set for 1pm.
