Box Score The McMaster football team headed to the nation’s capital to face the winless Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday, and came home with a 45-16 victory.  The win keeps the Maroon unbeaten in the 2012 season.

After some slow starts in the team’s first two games, the Marauders were on fire early against Ottawa, with Kyle Quinlan spreading the ball among his receivers and Kasean Davis-Reynolds tearing off some big runs in his first CIS start.   Davis-Reynolds was filling in for Jimmy Hill, who suffered an injury at practice and was held out of the Mac line-up.

The Marauders got a one-yard TD plunge from Quinlan, and two long scoring strikes from the Marauder quarterback to Brad Fochesato in the first quarter, and added a safety touch to take the early 23-0 lead on the home team.

The second-quarter saw the Gee-Gees fight back and behind quarterback Aaron Colbon, Ottawa scored 13 straight points to get within 10 of Mac at 23-13.  A late Tyler Crapigna field goal from 40-yards out made the score 26-13 for McMaster at halftime.

The third-quarter saw Ottawa’s Matt Falvo add a field goal to make it 26-16, but that was as close as the Gee-Gees could get. Touchdowns from Quinlan on another one-yard keeper and Max Cameron on a 46-yard pass from the Marauder QB extended the lead to 40-16.  Cameron’s major was the first of his CIS career. 

With the game in hand the Marauders gave some extended playing time to the back-ups in the final quarter, and added another field goal from Crapigna and another safety touch to complete the afternoon’s scoring.

The statistical story saw Quinlan complete 21 of 26 passes for 348 yards and three touchdowns.  Kasean Davis-Reynolds rushed for 127 on nine carries with his longest scamper being for 39 yards.  Seven different Marauder receivers caught balls, led by Fochesato who had six catches for 160 yards and two touchdowns, and Robert Babic, who pulled in nine balls for 113 yards.

Defensively, Aram Eisho paced the defense with 10.5 tackles while Steven Ventresca had two interceptions.  The Marauders have made 10 picks in three games to lead the CIS in that category.

With the win McMaster goes to 3 and 0 and will face Queen’s in a crucial OUA match-up next Saturday at Ron Joyce Stadium.  The Gaels are also 3-0 after beating Western 18-11, so next week’s game will be a showdown for first-place.
 
Kick Off is set for 1 p.m.  Get your tickets early.