Stingers go green

The Concordia Stingers football team wanted to get home-field advantage in the playoffs, and the only way they could was with a win Saturday afternoon against the Sherbrooke Vert et Or.
It was an ugly day weather-wise, but the result was beautiful for the Stingers, who came away with a 17-3 victory.
With pouring rain and strong winds, it wasn’t going to be an easy task, but with head coach Gerry McGrath’s week-long preparations to deal with all different weather scenarios, they came out gearing for the win.
Taking the weather into account, the Stingers’ plan of attack was clearly to run the ball, choosing to throw it only eight times, including only three pass attempts in the second half when the Stingers were nursing their lead.
“Our game plan was to run the game,” said Ferdinand. “[The weather] was problematic for throwing, but our high powered offence didn’t let up.”
The Stingers got points off a Rene Parades 19-yard field goal in the first quarter, and a Sherbrooke safety put them up 5-0. Mahoney had his biggest run in the second quarter on an option play. He faked the handoff up the middle to fullback Colin Bennett and ran for 47 yards on the play to set up Parades’ first of three field goals on the day. Mahoney also ran 11 yards for the only Stingers touchdown with 2:50 left in the half, giving Concordia a solid 11-0 lead midway through the contest.
The Stingers defence had a very good game offensively, stopping the Sherbrooke running attack and Vert et Or quarterback Jean-Philippe Shoiry. Sherbrooke coughed up the ball six times with Shoiry throwing three interceptions, two picked by cornerback Andrew Nagy.
Sherbrooke’s closest chance of getting a touchdown Saturday afternoon was early in the fourth quarter when they were eight yards away from a major. On third down with the ball on the Concordia eight yard line, Shoiry threw the ball into the end zone to a diving Dave-Anthony Gaudreau, but it just eluded his hands as it was incomplete.
With just under four minutes left in the game, Parades hit his final field goal from the 31 yard line.
The Vert et Or had some hope when Gaudreau caught a pass up the middle for a big 39 yard gain, the only major offensive play past the Stinger defensive line.
At the end of the play all they could muster was a field goal by William Dion to break the shutout with 2:14 left on the clock.
Nagy picked up his second interception of the game with just over a minute left to play. “We have to bring the same intensity going into next week,” said Nagy. “We have to bring the same force and an even higher tempo.”
Solidifying home field advantage and a rematch against the very same Sherbrooke team next weekend, McGrath said they have to do more of the same next week.
“It’s all about managing the game, not the score,” he said. “It’s about how many mistakes you don’t make.”