OTTAWA, Ont. - Looking to start the 2022 season with a win on the road, the McMaster Marauders football team travelled down the 401 to contend with the Carleton Ravens Saturday afternoon in Ottawa.
In the first contest of the 2022 OUA season, McMaster faced off with former Marauder Offensive Coordinator, and current Head Coach of the Ravens,
Corey Grant, in his head coaching debut for Carleton.
On Saturday, it was the Ravens coming out on top, handing the Marauders their first loss of the season with a 24-18 scoreline.
McMaster kicked off the opening quarter and held Carleton to just one first down on the opening series. The Marauders started their possession strong, achieving two first downs before Shaiheem Charles-Brown of the Ravens ' defensive line got to
Andreas Dueck. The visitors conceded the safety and Carleton recorded the first points of the game - 2-0 in favour of the host.
The next 10 minutes saw back and forth action from each side but it wasn't until the closing seconds of the first quarter that McMaster's special teams broke through and found the end zone. First-year Marauder,
Jacob Patten, returned a Ravens punt for 53-yards to record the first Marauder touchdown of the 2022 OUA season. After 15 minutes, the visitors led 7-2.
Both teams started the second stanza slowly, exchanging quick possessions. With just over six minutes remaining in the quarter, Benjamin MacDonald converted his first field goal of the day from 21 yards to push the Marauder lead to eight. It didn't take the home team long to respond. Just three minutes later, the Ravens found the end zone on a pass from quarterback Tanner DeJong and followed it up with an unsuccessful 2-point conversion attempt.
With just 3 seconds remaining on the scoreboard before the half time break, Benjamin MacDonald added to his stats with a successful field goal from 38 yards. After two quarters, the Marauders led the Ravens 13-8.
The home team stormed out of the halftime break, holding the ball for nearly 7 minutes on their first possession of the second half before finding the end zone to go up by two. On the ensuing McMaster possession, the Marauders were pinned deep and conceded the safety to make the lead four for the Ravens.
MacDonald kept things close in the final quarter when he recorded his third field goal of the contest, just minutes into the closing 15 minutes. But the Ravens responded with a 7 yard rushing touchdown by Joshua Ferguson. Carleton conceded a safety late in the game but never gave up their lead in the fourth quarter to take the game 24-18.
Andreas Dueck completed 20 of 31 attempts on the day for 246 yards and recorded 1 interception in the contest.
Daniel Bosett and
Jawaun Smith split the running game for a combined 60 yards on the ground.
Jacob Patten led all receivers for the Marauders with 72 yards, including a long of 45 yards and had the best special teams play of the day for the visitors. On the defense,
Tayo Smith and
Eryk Bujalski led the maroon with six tackles a piece.
For the Ravens, Tanner DeJong went 20 for 28 on pass attempts, including one for a touchdown. Joshua Ferguson had 118 yards on the ground and Kaseem Ferdinand recorded 11 catches for 92 yards. The Ravens defense was the talk of the game with six sacks for a loss of 48 yards including three from Shaiheem Charles-Brown.
The Marauders fall to 0-1 on the season while the Ravens move to 1-0.
Next Up
The Marauders return home to Ron Joyce Stadium next Saturday September 3rd to face the York Lions. Game time is set for 1pm and tickets are available at www.marauders.ca/tickets.
