John Kelsey

The Redmen started Friday night’s game off with a bang, as J.T. Thompson returned the opening kickoff 102 yards for a touchdown. Concordia’s Kris Pickering, however, returned the favour with a 62-yard punt return touchdown with under three minutes to go in the fourth quarter, giving his team the comeback victory by a score of 34-29.

Controlling the game for the first three quarters, the Redmen led 18-10 at the half and 24-13 at the end of the third. Concordia, however, outscored McGill 21-5 in the fourth to take the 42nd annual Shaughnessy Cup.

Thompson’s touchdown was the first-ever score for a McGill player on an opening kickoff. His 223 yards on four kickoff returns broke a 26-year-old Quebec conference record for single-game kickoff return yardage. But individual accolades don’t mean much to Thompson.

“To be honest, I’d rather take away all the individual performances that I had in order to get the W,” he said after the game. Thompson gave due respect to Concordia’s gritty comeback, but believes the Redmen deserve better luck after dropping two tight contests in consecutive weeks.

“We lose in overtime one week, and then this week it comes down to the last second, so the football gods just hate us right now,” he said.

Whoever you want to blame, you couldn’t have pinned it on the crowd. With an announced attendance of 5,346, the Fill the Stadium game was a rousing success. Red Thunder had a large and loud contingent in attendance, along with the McGill Kendo team (notable for their enormous homemade Lego heads) and a variety of other varsity clubs. Additionally, McGill had its own “green man”—an enthusiastic fan in a skintight electric-green bodysuit—dancing up a storm on the sidelines.

Monika Fabian, co-founder of Red Thunder, was happy with the turnout. “The audience always spurs the athletes so I’m glad we were here,” she said. “We gave them all [we had] and they did the best they could.”

Mike Bird, the team’s operations manager and video coordinator, noticed and appreciated the crowd’s enthusiasm.

“Love the crowd support,” he said. “[It] was awesome to see it. Big, right at the opening kickoff they got into the game and they never got out of it, so it was really enjoyable for our guys for sure.”

While the crowd was energetic for the whole game, the players flagged at a couple of crucial moments. With less than five minutes to go, and a single-touchdown lead, the Redmen stopped a Concordia drive at the McGill 25-yard line. One play later, Taylor Kuprowski fumbled the ball at the McGill 27. Concordia recovered in prime field position and scored a minute later to even the score at 27 apiece.

After a two and out by McGill, the punt came to Pickering, who returned for the score to give Concordia its first lead.

McGill marched back down the field, using a wide variety of receivers, including Canadian Interuniversity Sport receptions leader Charles-Antoine Sinotte, freshman Justene Edwards, and veteran Taylor Kuprowski to move the ball downfield.

The offence picked up quick yardage and forced Concordia into costly fouls while making its way to the Concordia 1-yard line, But Concordia’s last-minute goal-line stand stopped them from getting any further. QB Ryne Bondy’s final pass was tipped and picked off by Concordia CB Kyle Smith as the game’s last seconds ran down.

Despite the loss, the team is staying positive. “[We’re going to have] the confidence that we can be winning games and that it’s just a matter of playing the full 60 minutes and winning the game at the end,” Bird said.

For his part, Thompson knows that although the Redmen should have won this game, it means nothing going forward.

“‘Coulda,’ ‘shoulda,’ ‘woulda’ [are] not going to cut it in football,” he said. “You’ve just got to come out and take care of business. So we just [have to] reboot and come back hard against Montreal and try to get a win.”

The Redmen are at the University of Montreal next Friday and return home to play Sherbrooke for Homecoming on October 2.