The Bishop’s Gaiters’ playoff hopes will be greatly enhance with a victory tomorrow when they host the McGill Redmen tomorrow afternoon at Coulter Field.
The Gaiters (1-3) not only have an opportunity to get a game closer to 0.500 before a Homecoming crowd but also to avenge their opening season defeat at the hands of the Redmen.
“It’s homecoming so we’ve got the crowd behind us,” head coach Kevin Mackey said at the weekly Touchdown Club in Lennoxville.
“They (McGill) do what they do, I mean, they’re an aggressive defense. Offensively they like to throw the ball, they have a good running back and offensive line. They have good receivers. They’ll add a couple of wrinkles to what they’ve done but they’ll play their style of football.”
Mackey is hoping to build pn the momentum from last week’s road win over the Saint Mary’s Huskies after dropping their first three games.
“1-3 feels a lot better than going in 0-4 and like I said to the guys, ‘it’s not always how you start something, it’s how you finish,’” the coach said.
“So if we can get this opportunity, this is a huge game for us… if we can go into the [Thanksgiving] break 2-3, you’re feeling a lot better about yourself and you’re starting to see a lot of the results of all the hard work. Because the guys are working hard, they are enthusiastic.”
Rookie Mathieu Demers will once again get the start at quarterback as he continues his development. The Quebec City native was intercepted three times in a 23-17 win over SMU last week but did lead the team to three scoring drives in the fourth quarter. Mackay would like to see a diverse offence to combat McGill’s aggressiveness.
“I mean, sometimes when they’re aggressive you have to run right at them,” he explained.
“Hopefully we’ll be successful running right at them. Get the ball out of Mathieu’s hands early. And we’re going understand that they are going to make plays but if he makes his reads like he’s been doing so far in the last two games, then we should be fine.”
On the CEGEP side, the Champlain Cougars (6-0) will be facing their biggest challenge of the season as they travel to Notre Dame de Foy (6-0) tonight in a battle of undefeated teams in a game that will likely decide which team gets a first round bye in the playoffs.
Something is going to have to give tonight when they league’s top two offences meet the top two defences.
While the Cougars have the best quarterback in Division I football, Michael Arruda, and top receiver Marc-Antoine Pivin, and a balanced running attack, Notre Dame is averaging over 42 points a game.
