LAST TIME OUT:  Bruno Prud'homme threw three touchdown passes to lead No. 1-ranked Laval to a 62-0 victory over the Gaiters on October 17. Laval used a 27-point second quarter to take an insurmountable 36-0 halftime lead, as the Gaiters were never able to get their offence untracked. Laval outgained Bishop's 539-51, and made 36 first downs, to the Gaiters' nine. The Gaiters committed five turnovers, while Laval made none. For the Gaiters, Jesse Andrews went 11-for-15 for 98 yards with an interception. David Haddrall led the Gaiters' receivers with four catches for 35 yards. Jermaine Gabriel led the Gaiters' defence with nine tackles (seven solo, four assists) and a knockdown. Mathieu Boulay made 7.5 tackles and a sack.

THE SERIES: All-time, the Gaiters are 7-7 against Sherbrooke. The first meeting came in the 1971 QUAA Championship, when Bishop's dumped the Vert & Or 49-2 in Sherbrooke, clinching the Gaiters' first bowl bid (the 1971 Western Bowl). Since the restart of Vert & Or football in 2003, the Gaiters have gone 5-7 against their cross-town rivals, with the teams having split their past six games. The home team has won six of the past seven games in the series, and home teams have gone 9-5 overall in the series. The Gaiters hold a 4-2 edge in the games played in Lennoxville, with the Vert & Or having dropped their last two games at Coulter Field.

THE CUP RUNNETH OVER: Saturday's game is the fifth edition of the Mayor's Cup game between the two squads, but the first overseen by new Sherbrooke Mayor Bernard Sévigny. The Gaiters are 5-2 during Sévigny's tenure. The Gaiters have won the Cup on one occasion, a 33-26 win in 2007, while Sherbrooke has won the other three times. The home team has won the Mayor's Cup in all four previous games.

LAST MEETING: A pair of big plays early in the second quarter paced the Gaiters to a 40-10 victory over Sherbrooke on October 8. David Haddrall scored on a 69-yard pass-and-run at 1:04 of the second to break a 3-3 tie, while Harrison Maloney scored on a 22-yard interception return three plays later to give the Gaiters a 17-3 lead. The Gaiters amassed 407 yards of total offence, while holding Sherbrooke to 260. The Gaiters defence held Sherbrooke to only 61 yards rushing, and forced five turnovers. Jesse Andrews completed 17 of 27 pass attempts for 310 yards and a touchdown, and was the Gaiters' leading rusher, with six carries for 40 yards and a touchdown. Two Gaiters went over 100 yards receiving, as Haddrall finished with four catches for 113 yards and a major, while Olivier Mongeau finished with four catches for 102. Defensively, Mathieu Boulay led the Gaiter defence with four tackles, including a sack and a forced fumble.

TELEVISIONARIES: The QUFL announced this week that the Gaiters' final regular-season game of the year, October 30 at Montreal, would be telecast on SRC. That gives the Gaiters three television appearances this year, with the potential for a fourth in the QUFL semi-finals.

NINE LIVES: The Gaiters dropped to ninth in the this week's Football Reporters of Canada-CIS Top Ten, falling four spots from #5. The Gaiters received 125 points, two behind #8 McMaster, and 99 ahead of #10 Saint Mary's. Laval remained a unanimous choice at #1, and Montreal moved up to #6. Sherbrooke received 11 points this week, falling just short of the tenth spot.

NUL POINTS: The Gaiters' 62-0 loss last week was the first time they had be held off the scoreboard since a 14-0 loss on October 28, 2006 at McGill, ending a streak of 32 straight games in which the Gaiters scored. The Gaiters last shut a team out on October 11, 2003 at Sherbrooke, coincidentally also by the score of 62-0.

SIMPLY MAV-ELOUS: With 82 points, fourth-year kicker Josh Maveety fell to second in the CIS scoring race this week, six points behind Lirim Hajrullahu of Western Ontario, who has 88. Maveety is second in the CIS with 18 field goals this year (Hajrullahu-19), which beat Simon Restall's school record, and is tied for the fifth-highest total in QUFL history. His next field goal attempt will tie him with Greg Hiscox for the school single-season record. With 210 career points, he is tied for fourth on the Gaiters' all-time list with Jamall Lee (who scored his points six at a time). Maveety is averaging 61.6 yards on his kickoffs, allowing the Gaiters to lead the league with a 44.4 yard net kickoff average, and scored his first career touchdown this year.

MR. 6,000: Jesse Andrews is the first Gaiter quarterback to throw for 6,000 yards, after hitting the milestone in the third quarter of the Gaiters' win over Montreal on October 3. The fifth-year Pickering native also holds all the Gaiters' major career passing records, and is now 483-for-855 for 6,495 yards with 30 touchdown passes. In the all-time QUFL lists, Andrews is fifth in completions, fifth in attempts and seventh in yards.

ANDREWS AIR FORCE: Andrews has made 36 straight regular-season starts for the Gaiters, the longest current streak in the QUFL. Andrews took over as the Gaiters' #1 quarterback in the second quarter on Sept. 24, 2006, and made his first start a week later. His overall streak was snapped at 30 games when Jordan Heather started last year's QUFL semi-final.

THE PURPLE PATCH: The Gaiters have scored on 20 of 22 trips to the “purple zone” this year, and average 4.5 points per trip inside the opposition's 20. Defensively, the Gaiters have allowed teams inside the 20 on 18 occasions, and stopped four of them.

SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS: The Gaiters have recorded 38 tackles for loss so far this season, an average of 5.42 per game. Mathieu Boulay leads the team, and is tied for second in the league with 9.5 tackles for loss, while Elie Ngoyi is eighth with 7.0.

THE JOY OF SACKS: The Gaiters are now third in the QUFL with 16 sacks this season. Elie Ngoyi leads the sack attack with 5.5, which is second in the province. Mathieu Boulay is third with 5.0 sacks, which is tied for third.

HEATHER OR NOT: October 3 marked the CIS debut for rookie receiver Nathan Heather, the younger brother of third-year quarterback Jordan Heather. The younger Heather has so far not caught a pass for the Gaiters.

MILESTONES:  Several Gaiters are approaching career milestones:

• Nick Poloniato's 15 interceptions is one off John Gutelius' school record
• Jesse Andrews needs 85 rushing yards to reach 1,000 for his career.
• Olivier Mongeau needs 90 all-purpose yards for 1,500 in his career
• Harrison Maloney needs 6.0 tackles for 100 for his career
• Jesse Andrews needs 389 passing yards to pass Beau Howes (Queen's) for sixth on the QUFL list.

TODAY IN GAITERS HISTORY: The Gaiters have played on October 23 ten times in their history, going 6-4 on the date. The Gaiters' six wins are highlighted by a 55-0 blanking of Royal Military College in 1971, a year in which the Gaiters made their first bowl appearance and were ranked #1 in the country. Their first game on October 23 was an 11-3 loss to McGill II in 1926, and the last October 23 game before today was a 50-17 loss to St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, N.H.

UP NEXT: The Gaiters close out the regular season with a trip to Montreal to face the Carabins on Saturday, October 30. Kickoff at the CEPSUM stadium is set for 1 p.m., and the game will be telecast on Radio-Canada.