RECAP: Football falls to #5 Gaels at home

They kept it close at times, but the University of Ottawa football ultimately fell to the number five-ranked Queen's Gaels by a 30-12 score at TD Place Stadium Thursday evening. 

Rasheed Tucker did the damage for the Gaels, rushing for three touchdowns. 

"I felt we were playing the way we wanted to play into the third quarter," said Gee-Gees head coach Marcel Bellefeuille. "We were playing a good, physical game. I felt good about where we were at. Unfortunately, at that point we started clumping and turning the ball over. It then kind of avalanched."

The score was 13-9 at the half and a Campbell Fair field goal in the third quarter made it 13-12. However, uOttawa turnovers deep in their own half gave the Gaels the ball inside the Ottawa 35-yard line on three consecutive drives. Queen's capitalized each time, giving themselves an insurmountable 30-12 lead.

"We come in every week and we expect to win," said Nathan Walker, who hauled in five passes for 38 yards. "It hurts a little bit more knowing that a lot of the things that went wrong were in our control. We're going to go into practice and try to correct those mistakes."

J-P Cimankinda spearheaded the Gee-Gees offence with 114 rushing yards on 16 attempts. However, the experienced running back also fumbled the ball twice on a wet evening in the Nation's Capital.

Ottawa quarterback Ben Maracle went 17-for-29 for 180 passing yards and an interception. His counterpart in gold, James Keenan, passed for 183 yards. All four of the game's touchdowns came on the ground.

The Gee-Gees fall to 2-3 on the season, and face the Carleton Ravens (2-3) at TD Place Stadium next week. Tickets for the Thursday, Oct. 28 matchup are on sale at tickets.geegees.ca. 

The Garnet and Grey can still earn a home playoff game, but they would have to beat the Ravens and have the University of Toronto (2-2) lose their remaining matchups.

Queen's is on a bye next week, having finished the regular season 6-0. They secured home field advantage throughout the OUA playoffs, which are slated to start the week of Nov. 1.