Stingers lose to rival McGill

Concordia gives up 13 points in last 15 minutes

By Paolo Mingarelli
Staff writer

 

For most of Sunday afternoon’s game between crosstown rivals Concordia and McGill, it looked like it was going to be a relatively even match. Unfortunately for the Stingers, a late game meltdown saw the Redmen pick up the coveted ‘W.’

McGill would beat the Stingers 21-13, but 13 of the Redmen points came with only 15 minutes remaining in the game.

“It’s frustrating to go into the second half leading and not to have (the lead) taken away, but to give it away,” said Stingers’ prop Jimmy Bang.

“We gave them the benefit of the doubt and it ended up costing us,” said fly-half Kevin Elliott. “If we stuck to our game plan we could have executed a little bit better and come out on top.”

Elliott would score Concordia’s only try in the first half by taking advantage of a fumbled ball that he picked up on the run. He did so with such a pace that left all defenders trailing in his path to the score.

In the 26th minute of the second half, a scrum was won by the Stingers, but a seemingly routine zone clearing kick simply did not have enough juice on it. As a result, the ball would fall into the hands of a Redmen winger. McGill would maintain possession and eventually extend the ball out to the far winger who ran in for a game tying try.

“It was a called play, we drove for that penalty on a called play and that was thrown away,” said Stingers’ head coach Clive Gibson.

Soon after conceding the game-tying try, Concordia had taken control of the ball inside the opposition’s 22. Concordia was putting a tremendous amount of pressure on McGill in the zone and eventually caused the Redmen to take a penalty 10 yards outside of the try-zone.

However, rather than kick for points, which would have given Concordia a three-point lead and possession of the ball, an attempt was made to rush the ball in for a try. But the Stingers would come up short and come away from the possession with no points, leaving the door open for the Redmen comeback.

Just as quickly as the try was denied, the ball was brought into the Stingers’ zone through a sequence of gaps hit by the McGill offence. The possession was concluded with a try scored by McGill, giving them a lead they would not let go of. McGill would later add a penalty kick putting the game firmly out of reach.