Richard Ormrod produced a late piece of magic on Wednesday afternoon to send the Marauder men's rugby team through to an unlikely OUA semifinal.
McMaster trailed Brock by a single point at 13-12, and had for the lion's share of the second half. The Marauders' sustained pressure in the final fifteen minutes appeared to have been for naught, but the second-year fullback Ormrod decided otherwise.
He took hold of a loose ball in the final minute of the match and broke through the Brock defensive line on the left, leaving his nearest would-be tackler behind and diving over the end line to dramatically seal a try, and the match, for McMaster.
The final score was 17-13, as Andrew Ferguson's half-hearted convert attempt landed short and the referee immediately blew his whistle to conclude the afternoon.
Ferguson had a game-high 12 points in the win on the strength of four penalty goals. The result sees McMaster await the result of tonight's quarterfinal between the RMC Paladins and Guelph Gryphons to decide the team's next destination. The Marauders will either travel to Kingston or London to take on the Queen's Gaels or Western Mustangs in a conference semifinal on Saturday, October 26.
The host Marauders nudged themselves ahead early in Wednesday's contest, taking a 6-0 lead through the first five minutes on successive Ferguson penalty goals. But the Badgers responded quickly and decisively, as Rece Humnel punched through McMaster's defenders and crossed the line for a try that Edis Mevlutoglu converted to give the visitors a 7-6 lead in the 8th minute.
Ferguson's third penalty goal of the afternoon retook the lead for the Marauders in the 11th minute, but Mevlutoglu notched two of his own to take the Badgers into the halftime interval with a 13-9 advantage.
The hosts made great strides toward a comeback in the very first minute of the second half, as the Marauders were once again awarded a penalty goal that Ferguson duly converted. McMaster was within a point, with much of the half left to play, but Brock stubbornly put up the barricades.
The Badgers were tackling well and keeping the Marauders far from a scoring position as the half wore on, and it wasn't until the final 15 minutes that McMaster's urgency began to push them forward.
The hourglass appeared to have run out on the Marauders' season when play stalled inside the Badgers' half in the last minute of play. But as the ball shifted to the left, Ormrod found a crease and ran in the heroic finish.
