The Tribune

Martlets Soccer-McGill vs. Sherbrooke; Friday, 6p.m. The Quebec champion Martlets open the season in the friendly confines of Molson Stadium against Sherbrooke. In what should be a challenging game against an always fiesty Vert et Or side, McGill will have the chance to show the home fans why they are a top contender for the ultimate prize at the end of the season-the National Championship.

Martlets chalk up another win McGill’s rugby women got the regular season off on the right foot on Sunday, crushing Bishop’s 55-0. Centre Laura Belvedere led the team with four tries, while prop Valerie Evans and fullback Julianne Zussman each scoring twice.

While very few university students can say that they are on their country’s national rowing team, even fewer can say that they have won a medal at the World Rowing Championships. However, Derek O’Farrell can lay claim to both. Over the summer, the U4 physiology student finished third in the Men’s Coxed Pair at the under-23 World Rowing Championship in Eton, UK, becoming the first McGill rower to ever reach the podium at a World Championship.

A year off may have cured many of the ills that plagued McGill’s football program last season, but not quite all of them. Last year, the team’s Achilles heel was an inability to stop the running game and, judging by their performance on Saturday against Bishop’s, not much has changed.

Aside from its claims of Canadian superiority, McGill loves to boast about its international flavour. It is a magnet for many foreign students who wish to study in the West, or more specifically, in Canada. However, the international character has typically been confined to the lecture halls and seldom seen on the soccer pitch.

I guess I’m unpatriotic. Though, born and raised in Canada-and a lifelong fan of the gridiron game-I have never made a secret of my disdain for this country’s knock-off brand of football or its ramshackle convening body, the Canadian Football League. What mystifies me most about the CFL isn’t its poor management, weak talent pool, inferiority complex or laughable quality of play.

There’s an old cliché in sports: “You have to play 60 minutes to win.” McGill found out the hard way on Saturday that there’s still a lot of truth in that expression. Despite going into halftime with an 11 point lead, the Redmen failed to pull off what would have been a huge upset against the top ranked team in the country, losing to the Laval Rouge et Or 43-27 in front of 1,749 spectators at Molson Stadium.

If you’re a sports fan, you’ve stayed up at night fantasizing about scoring the winning goal in the Stanley Cup finals or hitting the World Series walk-off shot. If you’re a football fan, thoughts inevitably gravitate towards becoming a speedy wide receiver or a star quarterback.