The Université de Montréal Carabins players held their participation in a second Vanier Cup in a row at their fingertips, but they slipped it into the hands of the Saskatchewan Huskies in the dying seconds of the game.
Photo Martin Alarie
Tears rolled down the cheeks of the Carabins players after their loss to the Saskatchewan Huskies on Saturday.
With only five seconds remaining at the Uteck Cup on Saturday at CEPSUM, Huskies running back Adam Machart rushed 13 yards into the end zone.
This decisive touchdown brilliantly concluded an offensive streak of 83 yards for the visitors and gave them a 14-10 victory moments later.
As the Huskies celebrated their first appearance in a 15-year college football final, the Carabins had a lot of players in tears on the pitch.
It’s hard to find a more heartbreaking way to lose a decisive match. Especially since the Blues were the most dominant in several facets of this Canadian semi-final.
” It hurts “
But missed opportunities kept them from building a bigger lead.
“It hurts, for sure,” launched the head coach of the Blues, Marco Iadeluca, his eyes red with emotion. I have to give credit to our opponents, when the time was right they capitalized, which we weren’t able to do. “
Michaël Arpin notably had a difficult afternoon in the CEPSUM cooled by the ambient -3 degrees. The kicker, however imperial since the start of the season, has missed three of his five field goal attempts.
“In football, we have to take advantage of our chances, but we didn’t do it early in the match and we didn’t do it later in the match,” Iadeluca analyzed.
“We missed field goals, we lost yards on punt returns,” he continued. We made mistakes that we hadn’t made all year. ”
In the loss, Carabins starting quarterback Jonathan Sénécal once again showed the power of his arm. He managed several long passes skillfully captured by receiver Hassane Dosso.
The rookie was tackled hard at the end of the first half. After spending some time on the ground, Sénécal got up and was able to finish the game, with gains of 398 yards and 31 passes completed in 41 attempts.
But beyond the successful passes by their quarterback, the Carabins have dropped several balls in the opposing zone.
Chances of scoring touchdowns that ultimately turned into simple placements.
Not the expected festival
The Huskies were the first to enter the scoring. The Western champions missed the field and had to settle for a single.
If this first push from Saskatchewan foreshadowed an offensive game, it was ultimately rather quiet in the score. The Carabins had to wait until the end of the first quarter to respond with a field goal of 25 yards.
Another placement, a single and a safety touch allowed the Blues to take the lead by eight points with 15 minutes to go.
However, this lead quickly turned out to be rather slim. From the start of the final quarter, ex-Alouette Scott Flory’s troop scored the first touchdown of the game, thanks to a nine-yard pass from Mason Nyhus to Machart.
The Huskies missed the conversion by two points, but Arpin later missed his field goal attempt on 37 yards.
So the Carabins were only leading by three points when the visitors regained the ball with 1:55 to go, for their decisive push.
” Oh ! my god the Carabins were tough to beat, praised Flory. They are such a good football team, they have great coaches in Marco [Iadeluca] and Anthony [Calvillo]. “
“It’s all to their credit, admitted, despite the disappointment, substitute quarterback Dimitri Morand. It’s a great team. Machart and Nyhus really got up at the end of the game, they made big plays. ”
– With the collaboration of the QMI Agency, Philippe Asselin
Photo Martin Alarie
Philippe Lemieux-Cardinal was inconsolable after the game.
Few defeats are more painful than those that risk the death knell of a career. Carabins veteran Philippe Lemieux-Cardinal struggled to describe the emotions that inhabited him after this last-minute defeat at the hands of the Huskies.
In tears, the defensive lineman hugged his teammates for a long time after the game was over.
Russian mountains
The day before, Lemieux-Cardinal had said he was aware that the Uteck Cup could be the last game of his university career, even if he did not yet know what the future held in store for him.
“It’s a roller coaster of emotions,” said the RSEQ lineman par excellence, his voice trembling. It’s nostalgia, sadness, disappointment considering how it ended. “
“But I am also very happy and very proud to have shared these moments and this terrain with my teammates during all these years,” he added. I am proud of the group of players and coaches who made up the Carabins this season. “
As a defensive lineman, Lemieux-Cardinal was on the field during the Huskies’ victorious push. A few minutes after the defeat, he could hardly explain what had happened.
“It’s a team that likes to run with the ball, so they stuck with their game plan,” he said. They found a loophole in our defense. You have to give them credit, they stayed focused, they kept pushing the ball forward. “
During his time with the Blues, the veteran suffered painful setbacks. Losses to the Laval University Rouge et Or at the Dunsmore Cup, and a loss at the Vanier Cup two years ago.
But nothing seemed to compare to the pain felt on Saturday, as victory seemed so close.
“Looks like I don’t realize it yet. But I think it’s the defeat that hurts me the most, ”said the fourth-year player.