RECAP: #6 Gee-Gees advance to OUA semifinals with win over Windsor

It may not have been as polished as they would have hoped, but the Gee-Gees football team punched their ticket to the OUA semifinals with a win 43-40 win over the Windsor Lancers at Gee-Gees Field on Saturday.

In the first quarter, Ottawa built an early 10-0 lead thanks to a J-P Cimankinda touchdown and a Campbell Fair field goal. Their comfortable start quicky came unraveled as Windsor responded to even the score early in the second quarter.

The Gee-Gees seemingly built a comfortable lead again on another Fair field goal followed by a Ben Maracle touchdown pass to Nicholas Gendron and a Windsor conceded safety put them up 21-10. Windsor once again responded with a touchdown in the waning seconds of the half, bringing themselves closer at 21-17.

In the third quarter, the Lancers added another field goal and touchdown to claim a 27-21 lead. After conceding another safety to close the third frame, Windsor returned a tipped pass interception for a touchdown and the Gee-Gees faced a 32-23 deficit with 13:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Ottawa then went to work reclaiming the lead, first on a 16-yard Cimankinda touchdown with a successful two-point conversion attempt caught by Willy-Pierre Dimbongi. 

The Gee-Gees fully flipped the game when Emmanuel Aboagye-Gyan forced a fumble, scooped up the ball and ran it back 60 yards for the touchdown. Another safety and field goal later, Ottawa more comfortably had the game under control leading 43-34. 

Windsor capped off the afternoon with a final touchdown run with 11 seconds left on the clock and after an unsuccessful onside kick attempt, the Gee-Gees locked up the win.

"I'm happy with the resilience of the team." said Ottawa head coach Marcel Bellefeuille. "We got behind by a couple of scores in the second half, but the guys kept playing hard and I'm proud of the players for that, that pushed us through today."

In all, Cimankinda led the way offensively with 118 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries. Maracle had 191 yards and a touchdown, while Dimbongi was the leading receiver with 57 yards.

"What I told the team was that we still had one more quarter to play, the game's not over," said Cimankinda. "It took five minutes for us to get the lead again, we just had to keep our head up, stay focused, and do our job."

Defensively, it was the Gee-Gees' veterans that stepped up with James Peter finishing with 9.5 total tackles, a sack, and four tackles for loss, while Aboagye-Gyan had six total tackles, a tackle for loss, forced fumble, and a touchdown. On the line, Michael Pezzuto, had five and a half tackles, one sack, and a tackle and a half for loss.

"At that point we needed a spark," said Aboagye-Gyan of his fumble recovery touchdown. "We were getting scored on and we just needed something, so that kind of pushed us to finish the game. I was in the right spot at the right time, stripped the ball and brought it back, it was great."

Up next, Ottawa will travel to Kingston for a meeting with familiar foes in the Queen's Gaels with a trip to the Yates Cup on the line in the OUA semifinals. The game is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday at Richardson Stadium.