The Carleton Ravens football team proved to be a Halloween horror story for the Queen’s University Gaels.
The Ravens’ first playoff matchup since 1996 against the Queen’s Gaels ended with a score of 39-8 for the Ravens.
“I’m feeling ecstatic—ecstatic is the word,” third-year receiver Nate Behar said.
It was Carleton’s first playoff win in 29 years, in their first playoff game in 19 years.
On top of that, it was one of the most embarrassing defeats in Gaels playoff football history, as they surrendered the fourth-most points ever in their history.
“That’s the one we think we feel best about as a team, even though we had a few other blowout games,” Behar said. “Defence would do something well, offence would come and move the ball. It felt different. It felt like a full team performance and we’ve just got to keep that up.”
Just like their first game against the Gaels, the Ravens got off to a fast start and scored first. Jahvari Bennett struck first with a two-yard touchdown, set up by a 25-yard pass from Jesse Mills to Behar.
Two drives later, Mills hit Wilson Birch for a 45-yard pass, and Behar a few minutes later for a 42-yard touchdown to make it 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.
This gave Mills a 157 yards passing in just the first quarter, and on only six completions.
He finished with 337 yards and three touchdowns on the game. Mills said he was pleased with the overall team performance.
“I don’t think we expected to win by such a margin,” Mills said. “They’re a good team and we came to play today.”
Gaels tailback Jesse Andrews was notably absent from the game after torching the Ravens in their previous two matchups for 245 and 177 yards on the ground.
This time around, Jonah Pataki was in the backfield for Queen’s and failed to gain much traction early in the game, only running for a total of 24 yards.
Ravens head coach Steve Sumarah said he gives a lot of credit to his defensive line, calling their play “outstanding,” but also commending the whole team’s performance.
“To play as well as we did on three sides of the ball, it’s a testament to the work the coaches did this week and the players buying in,” he said.
The Gaels seemed to gain some momentum late in the second quarter with two huge passes from quarterback Nate Hobbs, but couldn’t extend the drive on a third long throw to receiver Curtis Carmichael, who couldn’t haul down the pass.
The Ravens made them pay yet again, driving down as the clock ticked down to halftime and putting another major score on the board to make it a towering 29-0 lead.
Queen’s had a chance to climb back from the deficit late in the third quarter, electing to go for a third down and short yardage situation, but they were stuffed.
The Ravens have clinched a spot in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) semifinals against the Guelph Gryphons, a team they lost to 44-12 at home just a week earlier.
Despite that loss, this game seems to have given Mills hope for the semifinal, he said.
“I can’t imagine them switching up too much from what they did to us last week—they played a hell of a game. But I think we’ve got to make some adjustments on offence,” Mills said. “I think we’ve got to run the ball a bit better and obviously our passing game needs to get established. I personally didn’t play great, but if we do better with those I think we’ll give them a great game.”
