KINGSTON, Ont. (October 17, 2015) – The Gaels (5-1) clinched their fifth consecutive win this Saturday afternoon against the Laurier Golden Hawks (2-4) 60-20.
GAME FLOW The Gaels were on their heels right after the kick-off but Jeff MacDonald (Toronto) didn't let the Hawks get comfortable as he grabbed an intercept three minutes into play to run end-to-end putting down the first try of the game. A good convert by
Alex Colborne (London, Ont.) completed the play, giving the Gaels the early 7-0 lead. With the pace set for the rest of the half, the Gaels were back on the board with another try from MacDonald as well as a try and conversion combo from Colborne marking the first try of his Queen's rugby career.
Kainoa Lloyd (Mississauga, Ont.) matched their trend, breaking away with a 40 yard run try followed by tries from Colborne and
Will McArthur (Brantford, Ont.), stretching the Gaels lead to 36-0.
The Hawks managed to find a seam in the Queen's defense and got down their first try of the game by Ryan Gamm 34 minutes deep in the first half. Captain
Lucas Rumball (Toronto) answered immediately with a try for the Gaels. With less than a minute left in the half,
Teddy Taggart (Ottawa) wrapped up the strong Queen's performance pushing across one more try to put the Gaels up 50-5 at halftime.
Queen's opened the second with a quick try by
Kevin Rush (Aurora, Ont.) with his first try of the game. The Gaels started to slow then, as the Hawks found some traction with Robert Cini coming through with the second try of the match for the Hawks. The momentum continued to swing in favour of the Hawks as they got another try down, this time by Mitch Shiels getting them up to 15 points against the 55 for the Gaels.
The Gaels picked it up, getting another try down by
Matt Beukeboom (Bobcaygeon, Ont.) but Laurier found their way back onto the board with a try by Darnell Marks. The Hawks couldn't catch the Gaels though and Queen's met the final whistle with a 60-20 win over the Golden Hawks.
FINAL SAY? "The first 40 minutes were exactly what we were trying to do; we controlled the tempo of the game and we executed everything right. At half, what happened was that with young players they just get up in their heads when they get up by 40-50 points and think they don't have to work as hard and obviously that's a big mistake. It's a good lesson though with the playoffs still three weeks away. Next week against Toronto we'll be better and then against MacMaster." –
Gary Gilks,
Head Coach BY THE NUMBERS 5 – Game winning streak for the Gaels
2 – Games left for the Gaels of regular OUA season play
19 – Conversions by rookie
Alex Colborne this season
20 – Points by Colborne in the game
UP NEXT The Gaels will be on their home turf again next Saturday, October 24 when they host the Toronto Varsity Blues in a Queen's Homecoming Match scheduled for 5:00 pm on Nixon Field.
