RECAP: Gee-Gees drop tight Season Opener battle at Toronto

After a long layoff of nearly 700 days, the Gee-Gees' 2021 football season got underway on Saturday in Toronto. In a very close affair that came down to the wire, the host Varsity Blues edged the Gee-Gees by a final score of 11-10.

Despite both teams successfully moving the ball on offence throughout, the difference was a lone rouge point that Toronto picked up on a missed field goal at the end of the first half.

Both teams started the game quietly, trading possessions through the first quarter. Toronto eventually found their way on the board first with a short touchdown run, to which Ottawa answered almost immediately when running back Dawson Odei found the endzone for the first score of the season for the Garnet and Grey.

Falling behind 11-7 at halftime, the Gee-Gees pulled closer on a 10-yard field goal from Campbell Fair in the third quarter, which served as the only score from either team in the second half.

With a chance to steal the win on the final drive of the game, the Gee-Gees took a penalty that knocked them out of field goal range and ultimately sealed their defeat.

In the end, Ottawa outgained the Varsity Blues both in the air and on the ground, but it was the Gee-Gees' 12 penalties for 110 yards that hampered them most throughout.

"This was a peculiar one," said Gee-Gees head coach Marcel Bellefeuille. "With all of those penalties, offensively we were backed up inside of our own 20-yard-line six, seven, or eight times. We had some real challenges with some of the scenarios we saw, but kudos to [Toronto], they played a really clean game."

A key bright spot for the Gee-Gees came in the performance of receiver Rodney Éstime. In his first game at the university level, Éstime totalled 149 yards on 8 catches for an average of 18 yards per reception on the afternoon.

"I have to come out like this every game," said Éstime. "I've been working a lot since transitioning from Cégep, I've learned a lot as a new guy in university, it shows the work we're putting in every day at practice."

On the defensive side of the ball, linebacker James Peter led the team with 4.5 total tackles.

"We stayed positive," said Bellefeuille of what he liked from the team in responding to adversity. "We kept playing hard, and we gave ourselves a chance to overcome all of those things in the end, and it's a positive when you can do that."

Next up, the Gee-Gees take back to the road to meet the Queen's Gaels at Richardson Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m.