1997 Dunsmore Cup and Churchill Bowl Champions

Ottawa team stats | OQIFC conference stats

RECAP: Ottawa Grabs O-QIFC title, spot in Churchill Bowl

KINGSTON - Coach Larry Ring hopes that, finally, the Ottawa Gee-Gees will get the respect they deserve.

He won't have any trouble swaying Queen's coach Bob Howes after the Gee-Gees beat the Golden Gaels 24-7 yesterday to win an unprecedented third consecutive Ontario-Quebec Interuniversity Football Conference title before 5,120 fans at Richardson Stadium.

"I thought they were great," said Howes. "I've never seen them play that well. I thought they were a better team the previous two years, but this team wore us down. They've been a team that has been through a lot of turmoil, and sometimes when that happens, it draws the players closer together. This is a much better team than we beat two weeks ago."

The Gee-Gees, who have lost the national semifinals in each of the past two years - in Calgary and Halifax - will take another kick at advancing to the Vanier Cup national championship when they play host to the Waterloo Warriors in the Churchill Bowl next Saturday at Frank Clair Stadium.

The Vanier Cup is Nov. 22 at the SkyDome in Toronto.

The Warriors defeated the University of Western 30-10 in the Ontario University Athletics conference final yesterday in London. Mount Allison University and University of British Columbia will square off in the Atlantic Bowl in the other national semifinal next Saturday. Game times have yet to be confirmed, but the Ottawa-Waterloo matchup will start following the completion of the Altantic Bowl, which kicks off at 12 noon EST.

"This group of players has been resliient," Ring said. "It has been a season of peaks and valleys. Everyone thought, just because we've won it the last two years and we still had (Chris) Evraire and (Ousmane) Tounkara, we should have been blowing teams away. But we've lost three starters on the offensive line, and people also tend to forget we've won three championships with three different (starting) quarterbacks."

The Gee-Gees finished the regular season with a 6-2 record, rallying to win four of those games in the final two minutes.

They also had to rebuild their offensive linemen in midseason. Tackle Claude Provencher quit for personal reasons, but the toughest hits came when Martin Arsenault, the other starting tackle, and guard Constantin Shousha were suspended by the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union for using steroids. 

Evriare and Tounkara, the O-QIFC player of the year, played their usual starring roles yesterday. Tounkara caught nine passes for 109 yards, and Evraire had four receptions for 100 yards, including one for a 73-yard touchdown in the third quarter to give the Gee-Gees a 16-0 lead.

"Evraire's touchdown was the key play," Ring said. "We had the wind at our backs and needed to score early in the third quarter."

Gee-Gees coaches developed a game plan that produced 443 yards in total offence against the Gaels. They added a quarterback option to the playbook, and Queen's took three quarters to figure out how to stop it. By then, Ottawa's Trevor Bailey had a career-high 138 yards on 18 carriers, including a 15-yard TD run.

"It's the first time we've used the (option) play all year, and we surprised Queen's," Bailey said. "Most of our running this season has been inside."

Fullback Lanny Murphy also scored a touchdown on a seven-yard run.

Quarterback Phil Côté, a second-year player in his first season as a starter, also had a strong game, passing 16-for-29 for 237 yards and running for 33 more on eight carries.

Although Queen's all-star quarterback Beau Howes threw for 263 yards, the Gaels managed to penetrate the Ottawa territory only once in the first half.

Note: This article originally appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on November 9, 1997. It was written by Tom Casey.

RECAP: Gee-Gees crash roadbloack: semifinal thriller earns U of O Vanier berth

A battered and bruised Chris Evraire, who gingerly stepped onto the practice field only once last week because of a leg injury, knows when he hears the whistle blow, the legs must go.

Wow, did those short powerful legs pump with a purpose yesterday as the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees finally scaled the Churchill Bowl obstacle that has been their roadblock to the Vanier Cup for the past two years.

The hard-nosed Gee-Gees, devastated by two steroid suspensions last month and the loss of two starters last week, defeated the University of Waterloo Warriors in an outstanding emotional rollercoaster right that had eight lead changes and wore out the 5,000 noisy fans as much as it did the players.

The national semifinal victory means the Gee-Gees will travel to Toronto this week to play in their fourth Vanier Cup final. They'll meet the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, who beat Mount Allison Mounties 34-29 in the Atlantic Bowl semifinal at Halifax.

The Gee-Gees almost lost their bid for a national title because of an accidental error from an unlikely source. The university's unnamed horse mascot was called for a penalty which directly resulted in a Waterloo touchdown and brought about her removal from the sidelines after the first half. It's a sure bet to be on TV highlight reels this week.

Identifying herself only as Sam and answering questions with inconclusive hand signals, the mascot was assessed a fan interference penalty when she got too close to a pass thrown to a Waterloo receiver near the sidelines. The Warriors scored a touchdown on the next play and the half ended with Waterloo leading 23-22.

Evraire, ignored as an Ontario-Quebec Interuniversity Football Conference all-star at receiver, accelerated, decelerated, hobbled and sprinted en route to four touchdowns, including two on electrifying punt return runs of 97 and 43 yards in the second quarter. Quarterback Phil Côté also tossed him TD passes of 10 and 16 yards.

Showing his versatility, Evraire tossed a two-point conversion to Pierre Landry.

Evraire's winning TD was a credit to his concentration and maturity as two players were covering him. Falling to the ground because of leg cramps, but never taking his eyes off the ball, he had the ball gently land into his arms with less than seven minutes in the game.

"I was lined up outside and Phil called my number," Evraire said. "My calf was cramping up and I didn't have much speed. I didn't want to drop th eball. I fell and the ball fell into my hands. It was destiny."

But Ousmane Tounkara, who will be honoured this week as an All-Canadian along with teammate Mark Raphael at cornerback, was even more brilliant.

Predicting a win and a touchdown, Tounkara took off for some thrilling long-distance runs, outdid even himself, and earned MVP honours. 

He scored two touchdowns and a two-point convert, and touched the ball 22 times for an amazing 357 all-purpose yards - six punt returns (61 yards), four kickoff returns (105), five pass receptions (113), and seven rushes (78).

His touchdown runs covered 88 yards on a kickoff return and a two-yard sprint off a reverse to tie the game 37-37 late in the third quarter. Tounkara also collected a two-point convert.

Waterloo relied on its running game exclusively for three quarters as Jarrett Smith (one- and two-yard runs) and Eddie Kim (17- and six-yard trips) each had two touchdowns. Quarterback Ryan Wilkinson, who completed only two of eight passes for 33 yards, had a 71-yard touchdown run.

"They (Evraire and Tounkara) proved they are the two most exciting players ever to play college football," said Ottawa head coach Larry Ring.

Three punt or kickoff returns for touchdowns and a defensive assignment adjustment in the fourth quarter, which shut down the dangerous Waterloo running attack, allowed the Gee-Gees to reach the final.

Although the Gee-Gees had six players on the line of scrimmage to atttack the Warriors run-only offence, the Warriors had good success on the ground, gaining 387 yards on 47 carries.

But a technical adjustment in player assignments in the fourth quarter shut down the Warriors' run. Yancy Romano and J.P. Lemaire led the Gee-Gees each with 13 tackles, including 10 apiece in the second half.

On third and inches, the Warriors took an illegal procedure penalty and forced them to punt from their 29-yard line. The Gee-Gees started on their own 50 and five plays later took the last lead in a game which had more than 1,200 all-purpose yards.

Tounkara started the victory march by running for three yards and then taking a pass for 17. Fullback Lanny Murphy chaged into the line for a short gain, but Waterloo was called for unsportsmanlike conduct and the ball was placed on the Warriors' eight-yard line. But the Warriors responded by sacking Côté for eight yards. With the ball on the Waterloo 16, Côté arced a soft pass to Evraire for the winning TD.

Note: This article originally appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on November 16, 1997. It was written by Martin Cleary.

CHURCHILL BOWL GAME SUMMARY:

Ottawa 44 Waterloo 37 at Ottawa

Waterloo 10-13-14-0-37

Ottawa    7-15-15-7-44

First Quarter:

Wat - FG Bigos 45 3:45

Ott - TD Evraire 10 pass from Côté (Watters convert) 6:28

Wat - TD Wilkinson 71 run (Bigos convert) 6:56

Second Quarter:

Ott - TD Evraire 97 punt return (Watters convert) 5:12

Wat - TD Smith 1 run (Bigos convert) 10:29

Ott - TD Evraire 37 punt return (Lemaire two-point convert pass from Côté) 14:32

Wat - TD Kim 17 run (two-point convert attempt incomplete) 15:00

Third Quarter

Wat - TD Smith 3 run (Bigos convert) 6:23

Ott - TD O. Tounkara 88 punt return (Watters convert) 6:39

Wat - TD Kim 5 run (Bigos convert) 11:58

Ott - TD O. Tounkara 3 run (O. Tounkara two-point convert pass from Côté)

Fourth Quarter

Ott - TD Evraire 16 pass from Côté (Watters convert) 8:37