The Carleton Ravens football team was defeated 37-31 by the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks in their last home game of the regular season on Oct. 5.
Shortly before the game, the Ravens honoured all their graduating members by taking a group photo of the players with their families at centre field of MNP Park.
Ravens safety Jay Dearborn said playing his final game was “tough” but he didn’t want the meaning of the game to affect his play.
“It’s tough, now [at] the end of the game I have time to think about it,” Dearborn said. “I don’t think too many of the guys were thinking about that during the game.”
Laurier opened the scoring early in the first quarter when kicker Nathan Mesher sent a field goal sailing through the uprights to take a 3-0 lead.
The Ravens retaliated with a field goal of their own from senior kicker Michael Domagala less than three minutes later to tie up the game.
Laurier then regained the lead with yet another field goal to head into the second quarter with a 6-3 lead over the Ravens.
The battle of the kickers would continue early into the second quarter, as the game saw yet another field goal from Mesher to extend his team’s lead to 9-3.
Carleton took a one-point lead with the first touchdown of the game when wide receiver Quinton Soares received an 11-yard pass from quarterback Michael Arruda as the Ravens took a 10-9 lead.
The Ravens lead would be short-lived, however, when Laurier receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr. ran an eight-yard pass from quarterback Connor Carusello into the end zone for the Golden Hawks first touchdown of the game.
The Ravens would eventually take a 17-16 lead shortly before the first half when wide receiver Phil Iloki caught a 65-yard pass from Arruda for a touchdown.
Laurier would once again retake the lead seconds before the expiry of the half when receiver Brentyn Hall caught an eight-yard touchdown pass from Carusello as both teams headed off the field with a score at 23-17.
The game bobbled back and forth in the second half, as both teams traded two more touchdowns each. However, it would be Laurier who would seal the win as Golden Hawks receiver Esson Hamilton ran the ball 78 yards into the end zone to bring the final score to 37-31.
During the game, Arruda made history and became the fourth Ravens quarterback to accomplish 4,000 career-passing yards after finishing the game 21-34 for 371 passing yards.
“Well, they got a couple days off, hopefully, they’ll regroup and come back with that renewed energy, and unfortunately it [was] one of those games,” head coach Steve Sumarah said after the game. “It went back and forth and when we had chances to make plays near the end we didn’t, and it’s disappointing. I can’t lie—it’s disappointing.”
The Ravens will look to close out their regular season with a win, as they travel down to Toronto to take on the York University Lions in an afternoon matchup on Oct. 12.
Photo by Tim Austin
