After being dominated by the Montreal Carabins last week, the Stingers men’s football team hit the road to redemption. Travelling to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, the Stingers took on St. Francis Xavier’s X-Men in their home opener on Saturday.
From the initial kickoff, Concordia took control of the game and handed St. FX their first loss, with a final score of 41-20. The Stingers set the tempo on the opening drive by marching down to score the game’s first touchdown. The 76-yard drive was capped off by a pass from Reid Quest to Jesse McPhail. The Stingers never trailed in the game and improved their record to 2-1.
Quest went 26-for-44 in passing attempts and ended the afternoon with 266 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. He spread the ball around as four Concordia receivers had three catches or more.
While the aerial assault was virtually unstoppable, running backs Michael Donnelly and Raul Thompson combined for 125 yards and kept the X-Men defense off balance.
On the other side of the ball, Concordia’s defense was just as solid. During the second half, they allowed only seven points, and none in the final quarter. Behind linebacker Max Caron, who had two sacks on the day, the Stingers recorded four sacks, a fumble recovery and a safety.
The defense was a disruptive force throughout the game and never allowed the X-Men offense to gain traction. As the Stingers offense methodically marched up and down the field drive after drive, St. FX never found the same type of rhythm.
One of Concordia’s most underrated aspects of the game was their special teams, specifically their kicking game. Stingers kicker Keegan Treloar went six-for-six in field goal attempts and three-for-three in extra point attempts. Highlighted by a 42-yard field goal, Treloar’s impressive performance was responsible for 21 points and single handedly outscored the opponents.
Concordia controlled all phases of the game and never gave the X-Men a chance to come back. The Stingers overcame the excitement of an opponent’s home opener and focused on playing a complete team game for 60 minutes. With the satisfaction of such a dominating win, a long bus ride home goes a lot more smoothly.
The Stingers will look to duplicate this past weekend’s performance when they travel to Bishop’s University to take on the Gaiters on Saturday, Sept. 22 at 1 p.m.
