2000 Dunsmore Cup Champions

RECAP: No stopping the Gee-Gees

STE-FOY, Que. - The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees proved to the Laval Rouge et Or that there's much more to them than just Phill Côté. The Gee-Gees lost their all-star quarterback with an ankle injury late in the first quarter, but his teammates never skipped a beat.

They showed the No. 1-ranked Laval just how much balance they have in defeating the defending national champions 26-9 in the rain to with the Ontario-Quebec Conference championship and Dunsmore Cup before an overflow crowd of 10,063 fans yesteray at PEPS Stadium.

The Gee-Gees were relentless on defence. Their special teams play was strong and backup quarterback James Baker did a sound job as Côté's replacement.

The Gee-Gees will play the McMaster Marauders next Saturday in Hamilton for the Churchill Bowl, with the winner advancing to the Vanier Cup on Dec. 2 at SkyDome. McMaster defeated the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 48-23 yesterday in the Ontario Interuniversities Football Conference championship game.

Côté insisted there's a chance he will play next week despite leaving the field on crutches. Côté was the target of the Rouge et Or.

"When you look at Ottawa, you think the responsibility of winning falls on the shoulders of one young man - Côté," said Laval coach Jacques Chapdelaine, who saw his team's winning streak snapped at 16. "They proved us wrong. Each (Gee-Gee) player took upon themselves to make the big play."

Côté was injured when he tried to break a tackle by Laval defensive lineman Sébastien Dupuis, who seemed to twist the Gee-Gee quarterback's ankle while he was on the ground. Côté said he heard something pop, but Ottawa head coach Marcel Bellefeuille refused to comment on the tackle until he sees the replay.

"There was a sense of wow when Phill got hurt," said Gee-Gee free safety Lukas Shaver. "We asked ourselves: 'What are we going to do?' We met at the bench as a team, and we all said we had to take our game up a notch."

The Gee-Gees' defence allwed Laval to cross centre field only once in the first 50 minutes. It also forced five turnovers, four of them interceptions. Shaver led by example. He had two interceptions, his first setting up the game's first touchdown, a flea-flicker that saw receiver Nathan Thompson (also a backup quarterback) hit Darryl Ray with a 54-yard TD pass.

"We worked on that play all week," said Thompson. "We saw their safety (Patrick Boies) always would bite on the pitch. Once he took the bite, I threw the ball to his area."

That was all the Gee-Gees needed. Their defence, led by linebacker Kevin Gagnon, who had 10 tackles, stymied the high-powered Laval offence the rest of the afternoon. "Our defence has been underrated all season," said Bellefeuille. "I knew they could play like this. Laval plays a finesse offence. We kept coming at them in waves and we wore them down."

The Gee-Gees stuffed the Laval running game, forcing the Rouge et Or to pass more than they had intended. The Gee-Gees led 13-2 at halftime as a pass interception by Ottawa cornerback Frantz Plant late in the second quarter set up Jeffrey Lee-Yaw's second of two field goals.

Laval's only scoring in the first half came on a conceded saftey late in the second quarter. Its lone touchdown, a four-yard pass from quarterback Pascal Trudeau to Jean François Tremblay, was scored late in the fourth quarter.

Scott Gordon's 49-yard punt return set up the Gee-Gees' second touchdown, a two-yard run by Michael Shaver.

Then Baker put the game away when he hit Mike Di Battista with a 37-yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth. Baker started slowly, but he played with more confidence as the game progressed. He completed 13 of 22 passes for 139 yards and didn't hrow any interceptions.

"We didn't give him much work last week in practice," said Bellefeuille. "When Phill got hurt, I told the offence that this guy can play. We helped him out and went back to plays we used a couple of weeks ago."

Although he had not played more than a quarter in six games this season, Baker felt he had his teammates' respect.

"I've always felt part of this team," said Baker, who played his minor football with the East Gloucester Bengals. "I was nervous when I came in because I know how much the team dpends on Phill. I've won championships at other levels, but I've never felt like this."

Note: this article was originally published by the Ottawa Citizen on November 12, 2000. It was written by Tom Casey.

RECAP: Defence jump-starts Gee-Gees to win

All-star quarterback Phill Côté and the big-play offence have been the impetus behind the Ottawa Gee-Gees' No. 3 national ranking.

But it was the defence that jump-started the Gee-Gees to a 50-3 win over the McGill Redmen in the Ontario Quebec Interuniversity Football Conference semifinal yesterday before 2,500 fans at Frank Clair Stadium.

Ottawa (8-1) meets the defending Vanier Cup champion Laval Rouge et Or next Saturday afternoon in Quebec City in a repeat of last year's final. Laval, undefeated in its past 16 games, held on to defeat the Bishop's Gaiters 17-14 before 10,000 fans at Laval to win the other conference semifinal.

The underrated U of O defence is no longer playing in the shadows of the offence. It has allowed only four offensive touchdowns all season and only 21 points in its past five games. They bough time for their high-powered offence to get on track yesterday.

McGill's defence had Côté on the run to start the game. Redmen linebacker Mike Mahoney intercepted Côté's second pass of the game, which led to their only score. The Redmen had cut off his favourite running lanes and disrupted his timing and the Gee-Gees failed to generate a first down in the first quarter.

Although the Redmen controlled the ball in the first quarter, the Gee-Gees still had 1 7-3 lead. U of O cornerback Brad German alertly stepped in front of McGill receiver Paul Chenier to pick off Josh Sommerfeldt's pass and return it 41 yards for a TD in the final minute.

It was all downhill after that for the Redmen, who were without all-star receiver Ben Wearing and who lost Sommerfeldt with a broken jaw in the second quarter. Wearing didn't dress because of a concussion he suffered las week.

"Whie Côté is an important element for the Gee-Gees, we also realized what great balance they have as a team, and that includes a great defence," said McGill's all-star defensive tackle Randy Chevrier. "Their defence made the play that broke our backs."

German's interception gave the Gee-Gees' offence an emotional boost. "Ottawa is a very good team, and if you can keep the score close, a team usually plays above its level," said Charlie Baillie, who retired after the game, ending a 29-year stint as McGill's head coach. "That touchdown was the play that turned the game around."

U of O coach Marcel Bellefeuille siad his defence has been the Gee-Gees' backbone all season.

"We knew McGill would come at us with everything they had early in the game," said Bellefeuille. "They were an excited team, but our defence is an experienced group and they held on. Our offence is younger, and we were running around blindly and not reading the plays. Then we started executing on offence."

Côté settled down in the second quarter, hitting slotback Jeremy White with two touchdown passes. Côté, who rushed for 68 yards and passed for 168, also scrambled for another score as Ottawa jumped to a 29-3 halftime lead. 

Patrice Aubriot, Nathan Malley and fullback Michael Shaver, who had 40 yards on eight carries, all scored touchdowns in the second half for Ottawa. The Gee-Gees racked up 375 yards on offence and held the Redmen to 156 yards and 11 first downs.

While German and Frantz Jacques, who also had an interception, might be the best cornerbacks in Canadian university football, Ottawa's linebacking corps of Teddy Neptune, Mark Pretzlaff, and Michel Dupuis accounted for 19 tackles and four plays that resulted in loss yardage.

"We play a very basic defence," said Dupuis. "We've been together for two or three years, and we have very good communication on the field. The system also fits the talent. On offence you can say that Phill Côté is great because he's making all the plays by either passing or running the ball, but on defence it's more difficult to come out from the group. But we have very good players on our defence."

Note: this article was originally published by the Ottawa Citizen on November 5, 2000. It was written by Tom Casey.