Gaiter quarterback Jordan Heather (Oromocto, N.B.) tossed a pair of touchdowns, as he also found Quincy Van De Cruize (Etobicoke, Ont.) early in the third quarter to start the comeback. He finished with 350 yards passing, his fourth 300-yard game of the season, as he completed 25 of 47 attempts.
McGill took an 11-0 lead in the first quarter, as a 42-yard halfback option pass play from Taylor Kuprowski to Tristan Baldini sandwiched a pair of safety touches. The teams were scoreless in the second quarter.
The comeback began, much the same way as it did three weeks ago in Montreal, with a big play on the Gaiters' first play of the second half. This time, Heather found Van De Cruize open at midfield, and he evaded a pair of McGill defensive backs and romped into the end zone for a 76-yard score. A pair of singles by Mathieu Paquette (Magog, Que.) cut the gap to 11-9 after three quarters.
Jesse Briggs put McGill back up 18-9 at 3:56 of the fourth with an 11-yard interception return touchdown. However, Paquette's 41-yard field goal on the next drive cut the margin to 18-12.
With 2:07 to go, the Redmen conceded a safety touch, dropping the margin to 18-14. Steven Turner's (Brampton, Ont.) 33-yard kickoff return gave the Gaiters the ball on their own 42-yard line with 2:00 left. Heather completed six of ten passes on the drive as he masterfully drove the Gaiters down the field for the game-winning major.
Van De Cruize was the Gaiters' leading receiver, with 150 yards on six catches, while Alexander Fox caught seven balls for 84 yards.
For McGill, Ryne Bondy went 8-for-24 for 138 yards with an interception. Gabriel Aubry led the Redmen receivers with three catches for 65 yards. Taylor Kurprowski carried the ball 27 times for 142 yards.
The Gaiters outgained McGill 323-261, including 310 second-half yards. Bishop's made 18 first downs, to 13 for the Redmen. The Gaiters took 14 penalties for 120 yards, while McGill was flagged 12 times for 95 yards. Bishop's caused four McGill turnovers, while coughing the ball up only twice.
Defensively, Dan West (Ajax, Ont.) led the Gaiters with 6.5 tackles, including a sack and a forced fumble. Elie Ngoyi (Sherbrooke, Que.) and Steven McCollum (Brampton, Ont.) each had sacks.
For McGill, Jesse Briggs had two sacks and the interception return touchdown, while Ryan Trudeau had eight tackles and Alex Hutchison had 7.5 tackles and a sack.
With the win and Concordia's loss, the Gaiters remain alive in the Quebec conference playoff race, but need a win next week, combined with a Concordia loss.
McGill (0-8) closes out their season on Saturday, October 29, as they host the Concordia Stingers (3-5). The Gaiters (3-5) close out the regular season at home on Saturday, as they host No. 3 Laval (6-1). Kickoff at Coulter Field is set for 1 p.m.
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NOTES: Bishop's leads the all-time series 42-37-1 … The Gaiters swept a two-game regular-season series from McGill for the first time since 1992 … The Gaiters now have 2,375 passing yards on the year, 72 short of the team record of 2,457, set in 1995 … Heather became only the third Gaiter quarterback to throw for 2,000 yards in a year (Silvio Martel, 1991, and Trevor Lovig, 1995), he now has 2,149 yards this season … Fox gained 266 all-purpose yards, sixth all-time in Gaiter history.
SUMMARY
First Quarter
MCG – Safety Paquette concedes 5:42
MCG – TD Baldini 42 pass from T.Kurprowski (Anderson convert) 7:32
MCG – Safety Paquette concedes 8:50
Second Quarter
No scoring
Third Quarter
BISH – TD Van De Cruize 76 pass from J.Heather (Paquette convert) 1:55
BISH – Single Paquette 33 (MFG) 8:06
BISH – Single Paquette 46 (punt) 13:49
Fourth Quarter
McG – TD Briggs 11 interception return (Anderson convert) 3:56
BISH – FG Paquette 41 8:54
BISH – Safety Silva concedes 12:53
BISH – S.Wilson 15 pass from J.Heather 14:37
McGill.............. 11 0 0 7 – 18
Bishop’s............ 0 0 9 12 – 21
Attendance at Lennoxville, Que. - 815
MCG BISH
First downs................... 13 18
Yards Rushing................. 141 19
Yards passing................. 180 350
Total offence................. 321 369
Team losses................... 60 46
Net offence................... 261 323
Passes made-tried............. 9-25 25-47
Returns-yards................. 10-74 12-246
Intercepts-yards by........... 2-11 1-0
Fumbles-Lost.................. 2-2 1-0
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 3-28 3-33
Punts-average................. 10-41.2 9-36.6
Penalties-Yards............... 12-95 14-120
Possession Time............... 28:33 31:27
Net offence is yards passing, plus yards rushing, minus team losses such as yards lost on broken plays.
RUSHING: McG – T.Kurprowski 27-142, Murphy 1-minus 1; Bish – Turner 5-11, McCalla 1-8.
RECEIVING: McG – Aubry 3-65, Baldini 2-59, Chitayat 2-34, Mikelberg 2-22; Bish – Van De Cruize 6-150, Fox 7-84, N.Heather 5-45, S.Wilson 2-38, Chrétien 1-12, Turner 1-10, Adekolu 1-6, McCalla 2-5.
PASSING: McG – Bondy 8-24, 138 yds, 0 TD, 1 int, T.Kurprowski 1-1-42-1-0; Bish – J.Heather 25-47-350-2-2.
