The Carleton Ravens football team lost its fourth consecutive Panda Game 37-7 against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in front of a sold-out crowd at TD Place on Oct.1.
The Ravens have now gone winless in the annual Panda Game since 2018 and have fallen 3-3 on the season.
Head coach Corey Grant said his team made too many mistakes to win.
“[The Gee-Gees] had a really good game plan coming in,” Grant said. “They executed better than us [and the game] got out of hand in the second half.”
The Ravens’ offence started with efficient ball movement, travelling 90 yards in six plays to take an early 7-0 lead. Tanner DeJong unloaded a deep ball 48 yards downfield to wide-receiver Tristan Ready.
Two plays later, DeJong found wide receiver Kaseem Ferdinand open in the endzone. The touchdown would end up being the only points the Ravens put on the board.
After the touchdown, the Gee-Gees responded with an 81-yard pass from quarterback Ben Maracle to wide receiver Nicolas Gendron, who found himself wide open with a clear path to the endzone. The Gee-Gees added a 21-yard field goal to take a 10-7 lead later on in the half.
The Carleton Ravens are losing to the uOttawa Gee-Gees at halftime 10-7. The Ravens offence will look to get things going in the third-quarter after a frustating first-half.
Photo taken by @LMBaechlin pic.twitter.com/ZddQojL8lH
— Charlatan Sports (@CharlatanSports) October 1, 2022
Gee-Gees head coach Marcel Bellefeuille’s message to his team was to not abandon the game plan, especially if things don’t work out early.
“Our motto is we don’t react to adversity—we respond to it,” Bellefeuille said. “Carleton made a couple plays and then our offence responded with a huge play.”
J-P Cimankinda, Gendron and Maracle led the Gee-Gees’ strong offensive showing. Cimankinda had 166 rush yards and two rushing touchdowns, Gendron totalled 211 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown and Maracle put up 354 passing yards and two passing touchdowns.
“We spread the ball around and gave everybody a chance to use their athleticism and make plays,” Maracle said. “It was a team effort today and Cimankinda really opened things up for us.”
Cimankinda was a problem for the Ravens. He forced linebackers to play closer to the line of scrimmage, which created holes in the Ravens’ secondary for Maracle to exploit by passing.
“We had a couple of challenges along the way,” Cimankinda said. “We [stayed] focused, took it one play at a time and ended up finishing strong in the second half.”
Bellefeuille said his team’s game plan was to get the rushing attack going with Cimankinda and then use the play-action game to create big plays downfield.
“Our ability to run the ball, create holes in the secondary and tire out the defence made it easier for our passing game to be effective,” Bellefueille said.
Bellefueille’s tactics set up the Gee-Gees to take a 10-7 lead when Gendron burned the Ravens’ secondary on a 58-yard catch.
The Ravens’ offence couldn’t respond but their defence stepped up. The Ravens’ defensive lineman Shaiheem Charles-Brown recovered a fumble forced by defensive back Talik Ehouman. The team then blocked and recovered a 25-yard field goal from the Gee-Gees just before halftime.
The Gee-Gees’ offence had a smooth start to the third quarter. Two big catches from Gendron and wide receiver Rodney Estime set up the Gee-Gees in the red zone and Maracle found wide receiver Willy-Pierre Dimbongi with a 14-yard pass.
The Ravens’ secondary struggled in the second half and when they got a stop, their offence couldn’t capitalize. The closest the Ravens got was when kicker Brandon Forcier drilled a 32-yard field goal attempt off the upright.
After two field goals from Gee-Gees’ kicker Campbell Fair, Cimankinda added two touchdown runs late in the fourth quarter for the Gee-Gees to seal the victory. The Gee-Gees improved to 5-1; the Ravens fell to 3-3.
“We’re gonna go watch the film. We’ll take the lessons. We’ll get better,” Grant said. “We’ll evaluate what we’ve done right, what [we’ve done] wrong, or how we can get better for the next game.”
The Ravens will look to bounce back against the Waterloo Warriors on Oct. 15 at TAAG Park.
Featured image by L. Manuel Baechlin.
