Despite a 10-3 loss to the Montréal Carabins in their home opener Friday night at Concordia Stadium, the Stingers sent a resounding message to the RSEQ football conference – while they maybe young, they are not to be taken lightly.
“We wanted to play 60 minutes of hard-nosed football and we did,” said head coach Brad Collinson. “A loss is a loss, but I told the players to hold their heads high and to be proud of what they accomplished.”
And those accomplishments were impressive. The Stingers’ defence held Montréal quarterback Dimitri Morand in check. He completed just 12 of 25 passes (48 per cent) for 130 yards. The Carabins had a modest 215 yards of total offence in the game.
Meanwhile Concordia veteran pivot Adam Vance completed 20 of 33 passes for 225 yards (61 per cent) and oversaw an offence that rolled up 266 yards against the Carabins who consistently have one of the top defences in the nation.
Rookie receiver Jeremy Murphy, out of Champlain College-St. Lambert, was one of Vance’s top targets. He caught five passes for 95 yards in his U Sports debut. Veteran James Tyrrell was also on the radar with seven receptions for 71 yards.
The Stingers had 18 first downs compared to Montréal’s 15, and Concordia also had a slight edge in time of possession 30:12 to 29:48.
A year ago, the Carabins handed the Stingers one of their worst losses in the history of the program. With Concordia in full rebuild mode and a lot of first-year players on the team, not many people expected much out of the 2019 team.
“There were 2,000 people in the stands who thought we were going to be blown out,” said Collinson. “Everyone but us thought that.”
It was right back to work for Collinson and his staff. They were in the office first thing Saturday morning reviewing film, making corrections and getting ready for the Shaughnessy Cup versus McGill on Friday at 4 p.m. at Molson Stadium.
Scoring Summary:
- 1st 06:30 MTL - Dimitri Morand 1 yard-run (L-P. Simoneau kick) MTL 7 - CONC 0
- 2nd 01:10 CONC - Andrew Stevens 27-yard field goal MTL 7 - CONC 3
- 2nd 13:17 MTL - Team safety MTL 9 - CONC 3
- 4th 12:19 MTL - L-P. Simoneau rouge MTL 10 - CONC 3
