RECAP: Football falls to Queen’s in home opener

Twenty second half points helped the Queen's Gaels to a victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees in the latter's home opener.

Queen's prevailed by a 26-16 score in front of 2,770 fans at TD Place Stadium.

"It was going along just as we thought, we were leading at halftime and playing smart football," said Gee-Gees head coach Marcel Bellefeuille. "Then in the second half, we can't turn the football over, we can't give up long passes on defence and take penalties. They made the plays we didn't down the stretch."

The contest lasted nearly five hours from start to finish, aided by torrential downpours in the area and a 90-minute lightning delay. The teams had played just 10 minutes and two seconds before the officials signaled for the delay, with the teams returning to locker rooms. 

Both offences were humming coming out of the break, with the Gaels booting two field goals and Ottawa finding paydirt. Ben Maracle hit Willy-Pierre Dimbongi for a 75-yard catch-and-run to electrify the Ottawa faithful who remained throughout the delay. 

A Campbell Fair field goal concluded the first half with Ottawa in front 13-6. 

Queen's was firing coming out of halftime, finding the endzone twice in the third quarter. Despite another Fair field goal, the Gaels hung on and used their rush attack to run out the clock.

"We have a core of players who are doing the little things right, and there's a core that's still learning to do things right," said Bellefeuille. "Until we get everybody going that same direction, we're not going to be the team we want to be."

"It's still early in the season and we've got a lot of things we need to work on," said Dimbongi, an Ottawa product. "Going into next week, although we lost, I feel there are a lot of good things we can take out of this game." 

Coming off a U SPORTS Special Teams Player of the Week performance, Campbell Fair went 3-for-3 on field goals, all of which were booted from 30 yards or more. 

Ben Maracle went 12-for27 for 186 yards, two picks and the long touchdown pass to Dimbongi. His counterpart from Queen's, James Keenan, threw for 176 yards and a touchdown.

Gaels players combined for scamper for 202 yards on the ground, while J-P Cimankinda led the way for the Gee-Gees with 75 rushing yards. Willy-Pierre Dimbongi was the only receiver in triple figures, at 104 receiving yards. 

Ottawa (1-1) hits the road next week to take on the McMaster Marauders (1-1), before returning to TD Place Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 17 to face the Guelph Gryphons (0-2). Tickets for that game are on sale at tickets.geegees.ca.

Queen's will face Western in London, Ont., in a battle of undefeated teams.