Guelph Gryphons notch victory in football season opener
GUELPH – It took one game for the Guelph Gryphons to equal their win total from the entire 2022 OUA football season.
“Yes, we have,” Guelph head coach Ryan Sheahan said as the Gryphons, with two rookie quarterbacks at the helm, opened the 2023 season with a 33-10 victory over the Toronto Varsity Blues Saturday at Alumni Stadium. “But as I said in the preseason discussions, this group is not 1-7. This group is brand new. Right now this group is 1-0.”
Guelph Gryphons 33 Toronto Varsity Blues 10
It took the Gryphs a bit of time to get rolling, partly due to the new quarterbacks shaking their first-game jitters and the loss of running back Isaiah Smith in the first two minutes of the game.
“This is the culmination of a lot of great work for two weeks preparing for this moment,” Sheahan said. “At some points in this game, we were a little rusty and some young players needed to get used to the speed of the game.”
Smith went down with a lower-body injury on his third carry of Guelph’s opening drive of the game. Last year’s OUA rookie-of-the-year gained a total of 34 yards on those carries.
The Varsity Blues opened the scoring when Sam Henke hit on a 25-yard field goal five minutes into the game.
The visitors also closed the scoring when Jared Currie caught a 10-yard pass from backup quarterback Scott Barnett for a touchdown with four seconds to play. Henke kicked the convert.
The scoring was all Guelph in between as they turned the 3-0 deficit at the end of the first quarter into a 14-3 lead at halftime thanks to two TDs in the final five minutes of the half. They extended the lead with five points in the third quarter – a field goal and a safety – and then added two more touchdowns in the final quarter.
Starting quarterback Tristan Aboud completed 19 of 26 pass attempts for 200 yards and a touchdown. He also had four carries for 59 yards.
Fellow quarterback and teammate Marshall McCray, who was used in short-yardage situations, complete one of two pass attempts for a one-yard TD and he also had four carries for 57 yards, one of them a TD.
Neither quarterback was at the university last year. Aboud, from Montreal, played for an elite prep school near Boston and McCray played high school football at Welland.
“We came in and we executed well,” McCray said. “I’m expecting many more wins like this if we keep executing and putting in the work for it.”
The Gryphs were dominating at times and it showed in the stats as they had 414 yards of total offence, averaging 6.9 yards per play. Toronto had 190 yards and an average of 3.6 yards per play.
Guelph held the Varsity Blues to 42 yards rushing on 16 carries.
With Smith sidelined, Donavin Milloy had the majority of the carries for the Gryphon ground game as gained 60 yards on 10 carries. Mason Duvall had six carries for 10 yards.
Vyshonne Janusas caught five passes for 69 yards and Willem Arseneau had five catches for 46 yards. Kaine Stevenson (35 yards) and Jakob Tomas (25 yards) each had three catches.
TDs for the Gryphs were recorded by Arseneau on a five-yard toss from Aboud, McCray on a one-yard plunge, Evan Spangenberg on a one-yard pass from McCray and Anthony Moretuzzo on a 47-yard interception return. Ben Lane converted all four TDs and also booted a 13-yard field goal. Guelph also had a team safety.
While it was a win for the Gryphs, they came out of the game knowing there was still plenty of work to do. They also know that the things that stood out were the usual things that are noticeable in the first game of the season.
“Penalties, offsides, miscues, bad snap, a couple of times when we needed to get a 12th guy on special teams,” Sheahan said. “I think that’s always going to happen on Week 1. But the effort was there, the speed was there, the technical play was there. Now we just need to tighten things up moving forward.”
“We’ll just focus on ourselves and fix what we can fix,” Aboud said. “It’s all on us. Everything’s on us, how we do and how we perform.”
The Gryphs had 25 first downs, 11 more than Toronto, but also lost 88 yards on a total of eight penalties. Toronto was flagged for six penalties than led to a loss of 58 yards.
For Toronto, starting quarterback Kinsale Philip completed 16 of 27 pass attempts for 135 yards and Barnett was good on four of five pass attempts for 34 yards and the TD. Both were intercepted once.
The QBs were also the leading rushers, Barnett getting 16 yards on two carries and Philip getting 15 yards on three carries.
Nic Greene caught seven passes for 52 yards and Jake Oseen hauled down five passes for 46 yards.
On defence, Moretuzzo had seven tackles, two for sacks, and his interception. Malcolm James and Jack Cobb each had 4.5 tackles, James also getting an interception. Braeden MacDougall also had a sack while Joshua Campbell, Robert Keyes, Maxwell Holmes and Kumail Khilji each shared sacks.
In other games Saturday, Western Mustangs destroyed York Lions 83-0, Laurier Golden Hawks edged Queen’s Gaels 11-10 and Windsor Lancers slipped by McMaster Marauders 21-17.
Ottawa Gee-Gees are to host Waterloo Warriors Sunday.
Next up for the Gryphs is a game against the Lancers at Windsor’s Alumni Field next Sunday. Game time is 7 p.m.
“Windsor’s a tough opponent and they’ve had our number the past couple of years,” Sheahan said. “They always play sound, solid, physical. Windsor’s a tough place to win so this is going to be the next test in succession for this group. We’re excited to play them. It’s going to be a night game in Windsor on the Sunday of Labour Day weekend. It should be a great game and we’re going to need everybody to go down there and give (it everything).”
Next home game for the Gryphs is a match against Laurier Sept. 9 at 1 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Guelph Gryphons notch victory in football season opener
GUELPH – It took one game for the Guelph Gryphons to equal their win total from the entire 2022 OUA football season.
“Yes, we have,” Guelph head coach Ryan Sheahan said as the Gryphons, with two rookie quarterbacks at the helm, opened the 2023 season with a 33-10 victory over the Toronto Varsity Blues Saturday at Alumni Stadium. “But as I said in the preseason discussions, this group is not 1-7. This group is brand new. Right now this group is 1-0.”
Guelph Gryphons 33
Toronto Varsity Blues 10
It took the Gryphs a bit of time to get rolling, partly due to the new quarterbacks shaking their first-game jitters and the loss of running back Isaiah Smith in the first two minutes of the game.
“This is the culmination of a lot of great work for two weeks preparing for this moment,” Sheahan said. “At some points in this game, we were a little rusty and some young players needed to get used to the speed of the game.”
Smith went down with a lower-body injury on his third carry of Guelph’s opening drive of the game. Last year’s OUA rookie-of-the-year gained a total of 34 yards on those carries.
The Varsity Blues opened the scoring when Sam Henke hit on a 25-yard field goal five minutes into the game.
The visitors also closed the scoring when Jared Currie caught a 10-yard pass from backup quarterback Scott Barnett for a touchdown with four seconds to play. Henke kicked the convert.
The scoring was all Guelph in between as they turned the 3-0 deficit at the end of the first quarter into a 14-3 lead at halftime thanks to two TDs in the final five minutes of the half. They extended the lead with five points in the third quarter – a field goal and a safety – and then added two more touchdowns in the final quarter.
Starting quarterback Tristan Aboud completed 19 of 26 pass attempts for 200 yards and a touchdown. He also had four carries for 59 yards.
Fellow quarterback and teammate Marshall McCray, who was used in short-yardage situations, complete one of two pass attempts for a one-yard TD and he also had four carries for 57 yards, one of them a TD.
Neither quarterback was at the university last year. Aboud, from Montreal, played for an elite prep school near Boston and McCray played high school football at Welland.
“We came in and we executed well,” McCray said. “I’m expecting many more wins like this if we keep executing and putting in the work for it.”
The Gryphs were dominating at times and it showed in the stats as they had 414 yards of total offence, averaging 6.9 yards per play. Toronto had 190 yards and an average of 3.6 yards per play.
Guelph held the Varsity Blues to 42 yards rushing on 16 carries.
With Smith sidelined, Donavin Milloy had the majority of the carries for the Gryphon ground game as gained 60 yards on 10 carries. Mason Duvall had six carries for 10 yards.
Vyshonne Janusas caught five passes for 69 yards and Willem Arseneau had five catches for 46 yards. Kaine Stevenson (35 yards) and Jakob Tomas (25 yards) each had three catches.
TDs for the Gryphs were recorded by Arseneau on a five-yard toss from Aboud, McCray on a one-yard plunge, Evan Spangenberg on a one-yard pass from McCray and Anthony Moretuzzo on a 47-yard interception return. Ben Lane converted all four TDs and also booted a 13-yard field goal. Guelph also had a team safety.
While it was a win for the Gryphs, they came out of the game knowing there was still plenty of work to do. They also know that the things that stood out were the usual things that are noticeable in the first game of the season.
“Penalties, offsides, miscues, bad snap, a couple of times when we needed to get a 12th guy on special teams,” Sheahan said. “I think that’s always going to happen on Week 1. But the effort was there, the speed was there, the technical play was there. Now we just need to tighten things up moving forward.”
“We’ll just focus on ourselves and fix what we can fix,” Aboud said. “It’s all on us. Everything’s on us, how we do and how we perform.”
The Gryphs had 25 first downs, 11 more than Toronto, but also lost 88 yards on a total of eight penalties. Toronto was flagged for six penalties than led to a loss of 58 yards.
For Toronto, starting quarterback Kinsale Philip completed 16 of 27 pass attempts for 135 yards and Barnett was good on four of five pass attempts for 34 yards and the TD. Both were intercepted once.
The QBs were also the leading rushers, Barnett getting 16 yards on two carries and Philip getting 15 yards on three carries.
Nic Greene caught seven passes for 52 yards and Jake Oseen hauled down five passes for 46 yards.
On defence, Moretuzzo had seven tackles, two for sacks, and his interception. Malcolm James and Jack Cobb each had 4.5 tackles, James also getting an interception. Braeden MacDougall also had a sack while Joshua Campbell, Robert Keyes, Maxwell Holmes and Kumail Khilji each shared sacks.
In other games Saturday, Western Mustangs destroyed York Lions 83-0, Laurier Golden Hawks edged Queen’s Gaels 11-10 and Windsor Lancers slipped by McMaster Marauders 21-17.
Ottawa Gee-Gees are to host Waterloo Warriors Sunday.
Next up for the Gryphs is a game against the Lancers at Windsor’s Alumni Field next Sunday. Game time is 7 p.m.
“Windsor’s a tough opponent and they’ve had our number the past couple of years,” Sheahan said. “They always play sound, solid, physical. Windsor’s a tough place to win so this is going to be the next test in succession for this group. We’re excited to play them. It’s going to be a night game in Windsor on the Sunday of Labour Day weekend. It should be a great game and we’re going to need everybody to go down there and give (it everything).”
Next home game for the Gryphs is a match against Laurier Sept. 9 at 1 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal