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THIS WEEK: The Bishop’s Gaiters head to Montreal to play the Concordia Stingers in the annual Montreal Shrine Bowl.

ON THE AIR: Saturday’s game will be broadcast on Radio-Canada, (SRC) the French-language television service of the CBC. This is the first of two scheduled SRC appearances for the Gaiters this season. Jean St-Onge will be on play-by-play; with former Montreal Machine head coach Jacques Dussault providing colour commentary. SRC is available on Cable 12 in the Greater Toronto Area, Cable 5 in Ottawa, Cable 2 or 4 in Montreal, Cable 11 in Fredericton and Channel 112 (among others) on Bell TV. Note that in Western Canada, the game is scheduled to air at 1 p.m. local time.

UPDATES: Fans unable to watch or attend the game can follow along with score updates at www.gaiters.ca and www.twitter.com/BishopsGaiters.

TICKETS, PLEASE: Tickets are available at the gate. Tickets for adults cost $10, Bishop’s students are $7, seniors are $4 and children under 12 are free.

THE RECORDS: The Gaiters enter the game at 2-1, with consecutive wins over McGill and then-No. 10 Acadia. Concordia is also 2-1, after last week’s 34-29 win over McGill and a 29-8 loss to #3 Montreal.

VISITING THE SHRINE: Saturday’s game will mark the 24th annual Montreal Shrine Bowl. This is the third time the Gaiters have appeared in the game, and Bishop’s is 1-1 in their previous two appearances . Their first appearance was in 1989, a 15-9 win over the Concordia Stingers at Loyola Stadium. The Gaiters’ other appearance was at McGill in 1997, a game that is officially recorded as a 1-0 McGill victory.

LAST TIME OUT: Jesse Andrews threw for one touchdown and ran for another as the Gaiters downed then-No. 10-ranked Acadia 31-16 in CIS at Coulter Field. The Gaiters scored 18 points in the second quarter as they took a 21-1 halftime lead and cruised to the win. Andrews went 18-for-29 for 219 yards and a touchdown and ran seven times for 52 yards and a touchdown before being pulled from the game early in the fourth quarter. John Jean-Baptiste led the Gaiters’ rushers with 11 carries for 80 yards. Haddrall led the Gaiters’ receivers with four catches for 60 yards and a touchdown.

THE SERIES: The Gaiters lead the all-time series 34-28-2. The Gaiters have won two of the past three games in the series, after ending a ten-game Concordia winning streak. The Stingers won the first meeting of the year, 17-14 in Lennoxville on September 4. The Gaiters have not won at Concordia since a 33-23 victory on October 27, 2001, a streak of six straight Concordia home wins. However, this is only the second time in that span that Concordia does not enter the game ranked. The first meeting between the two teams came in Lennoxville on October 4, 1975, when the Gaiters upset the heavily favoured Concordians 13-11.

LAST MEETING: An interception in the end zone by first-year linebacker Max Caron allowed Concordia to outlast the Gaiters 17-14 on Sept. 4th. A scoreless fourth quarter, despite the Gaiters having the ball in Concordia territory three times, allowed Concordia to hold on for the victory. The Gaiters held the edge statistically, as they outgained Concordia 298 to 239, and made 16 first downs to Concordia’ 14. However, Bishop’s took 19 penalties for 153 yards, while Concordia was whistled nine times for 70 yards and the Gaiters turned the ball over four times to the Stingers’ three.

RANKING MEMBERS: The Gaiters cracked the Football Reporters of Canada-CIS Top Ten for the first time this week. The Gaiters received 70 points in the weekly poll, good for ninth place. (The Gaiters tied with Guelph, but were awarded the higher spot based on the coaches’ votes.) This is the first time the Gaiters have been nationally ranked since September 30, 2008, when they were also ranked ninth. The Gaiters are the third of three QUFL teams in the Top Ten, with Laval at #1, and Montreal ranked #3. Concordia and Sherbrooke also received votes this week.

SIMPLY MAV-ELOUS: With 41 points, fourth-year kicker Josh Maveety leads the CIS in scoring. Maveety scored a career-high 19 points in Saturday’s 31-16 win over Acadia. In addition to his first career touchdown (on a fake field goal), Maveety kicked three field goals, three conversions and a 79-yard kickoff single. He was named the QUFL Special Teams Player of the Week after Week 2, when he scored 14 points in the 26-19 win over McGill. Maveety has made nine of his 11 field goal attempts, a percentage of 0.818. He needs only nine points to equal his best point total to date: 50 points in 2008.7

MR. 5,000: Jesse Andrews is the first Gaiter quarterback to throw for 5,000 career yards. He now has 5,629 career passing yards. The fifth-year Pickering native also holds the Gaiters’ team record for career completions (420) and pass attempts (755). With his touchdown pass to David Haddrall last week, he equaled Tony Harris’ team record of 27 career touchdown passes.

ANDREWS AIR FORCE: Andrews has made 32 consecutive regular-season starts under centre for the Gaiters, the longest current streak in the QUFL. Andrews took over as the Gaiters’ #1 quarterback in the second quarter of the Laval game on Sept. 24, 2006, and made his first start one week later. His overall streak was snapped at 30 when Jordan Heather started last year’s QUFL semi-final. In his career, Andrews has faced Concordia seven times, and has averaged 210 passing yards and a 57.8% completion percentage.

THE JOY OF SACKS: The Gaiters lead the QUFL, and are 7th in the CIS, with eight sacks this season. Leading the Gaiters’ sack attack is second-year defensive end Elie Ngoyi, whose 3.5 sacks put him in a tie for the league’s individual lead, while Mathieu Boulay has made three sacks.

SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS: The Gaiters have made 19 tackles for loss this season, an average of 6.3 per game. Mathieu Boulay’s seven tackles for loss leads the team, and is tops in the QUFL.

MILESTONES:  Several Gaiters are approaching career milestones:

·       Nick Poloniato has 14 interceptions, two short of the school record

·       Olivier Mongeau needs 72 receiving yards to reach 1,000 for his career.

·       Matt Burke needs 7 rushing yards for 500 in his career.

·       Jesse Andrews needs 371 passing yards to reach 6,000 for his career.

·       Jesse Andrews needs 192 rushing yards to reach 1,000 for his career.

 

TODAY IN GAITERS HISTORY:  On September 25, 1970, the Bishop’s Gaiters handed the Sir George Williams Georgians their 13th straight defeat with a 41-14 triumph in Verdun. The 1970 Gaiters, led by running back Larry Smith (who returned the following week after a brief dalliance with McGill), went on to win the Central Canada Intercollegiate Football Conference East Division with a 5-1 record, before falling to the Ottawa Gee-Gees in the league championship game.

UP NEXT: The Gaiters return home next week to host the No. 3-ranked Montreal Carabins (3-0). Kickoff at Coulter Field is set for 1 p.m., and the game will be carried live on SSN Canada.