James Keenan threw two touchdowns and Anthony Federico recorded three sacks to lead Queen's Football past the Carleton Ravens 18-6 for a winning start to the 2021 season.

After Carleton opened the scoring with a field goal in the first quarter, Keenan gave the Gaels the lead with a 40-yard touchdown pass to Ben Langlois in the second quarter and Queen's never looked back.

Playing in his hometown, Keenan (Ottawa, Ont.), finished with 177 yards on 12-20 passing, while adding another 39 yards on nine rushes. 

Richard Burton (Ottawa, Ont.) caught Keenan's second touchdown of the game, a 51-yarder in the fourth quarter.

Rasheed Tucker (Ajax, Ont.) led all rushers with 14 carries for 79 yards.

"Our goal was obviously to go on the road as one team, get a win and come back as one team, and stick together throughout the entire process, learn a lot from it," said Steve Snyder, Head Coach, Football. "Ultimately, our key to victory was staying steady. That's what we talked about all week. Emotionally, people are going to be excited. We haven't played football in 700 days essentially. Just keep our emotions in check and play football one play at a time.

"That's really what our team did. What was impressive about that was how young we were and how many players on the field were playing their first ever U SPORTS game. They were able to actually keep their emotions in check and play football one play at a time. We were able to come out and get a win."

Federico (Niagara Falls, Ont.) helped lead the Queen's effort on defence, which limited Carleton to just six points. The Second Team OUA All-Star in 2019 finished the game with 5.5 total tackles and 3.5 tackles for a loss (three sacks).

Linebacker Braden Reed (Prince George, BC) also had a big game on defence, recording an interception and sack to go along with four tackles.

Defensive back Ashton Miller-Melancon (Montreal, Que.) and linebacker Nolan Bedard (Montreal, Que.) led the defence with 6.5 total tackles each.

Queen's returns to Kingston for their home opener at Richardson Stadium next Saturday against the Ottawa GeeGees, who opened their season with an 11-10 loss to the Toronto Varsity Blues. Gametime is 3 p.m. and tickets can be purchased at gogaelsgo.com/tickets.