After a solid preseason, McGill hosted cross-town rivals UQAM in their season opener on Thursday night. The Martlets (2-0-0) seemed to be focused and poised to continue their preseason domination right from the opening kickoff. Unfortunately, the opening kickoff did not come on time, as one of the referee’s assistants failed to show up. This left McGill scrambling for a replacement. Finally, after all the pre-match antics, the game proceeded without a hitch. In fact, the match unfolded just as the Martlets hoped, dominating UQAM (0-1-0) in both possession and goals, and claiming a 3-0 victory for their first win of the season.

Head Coach Marc Mounicot has noticed a change in his team’s preparation this season. “The difference is that all players came to camp fit and ready to compete because veterans know that we had a good number of recruits with high profiles (9 of them made the team), and recruits knew we had a strong core of older players,” he explained.

Despite the lopsided result, the teams’ play was not as uneven as the score indicated. The Citadins fought hard to keep the McGill attack at bay throughout the entirety of the opening half. Relying primarily upon a defensive formation that limited offensive flair—as well as a few key saves from third-year goalkeeper Constance Laroch-Lafebvre, UQAM seemed destined to play the Martlets to an uninspired 0-0 draw.

Mounicot attributed the slow start to nerves. “We felt that some players were nervous and not at their normal level of performance … Also we know that we can change players in our system if we need more technical skills and we did that in the second half,” he said.

These substitutions paid off midway through the second half, as the Martlets finally broke through the tiring Citadins’ line of defence to find the back of the net. The opening effort came courtesy of third-year midfielder Hannah Rivkin, off a pleasing right-footed strike that just squeezed its way between the posts.

After the game slowed into stretches of controlled playmaking, highlighted by brilliant stretches of passing by the Martlets, Rivkin returned to scoring form, striking in similar fashion just 21 minutes later—giving McGill a two goal lead.

Although the contest was all but over, the Martlets refused to let their feet off the accelerator, scoring their final goal three minutes later, in the 84th minute. This time, newcomer Daphnée Morency of Boulder, Colorado did the honours, finishing for the first time in her young CIS career.

The Martlets were active once more over the weekend travelling to Quebec to take on Laval on Sept. 9. It was another impressive showing and victory for McGill as the club raised its play to achieve a 3-1 favourable result.

This week, the Martlets travel to Concordia to take on the 1-1 Concordia Stingers, where anything less than a victory would be a disappointment.

Looking to improve upon their preseason success, McGill entered Molson Stadium on Thursday night for their season opener against the UQAM Citadins. Ultimately, the Redmen’s confidence led them to a victory, coming away with a pleasing 1-0 result. Although this was not a dominating performance on the scoreline, McGill (1-1-0) put forth a strong, team-oriented effort throughout. The match—which was nothing more than an ice-breaker for the stronger Redmen side—was marked by the possessive style of play preached by new Head Coach Jose Valdes.

This mentality was evident in post-game talks with Valdes. “[Getting] the [win] is our objective and doing it while playing a possession style of soccer is in our philosophy. We are implementing a different style of play… and win[ning] with it is very encouraging for the team,” he said.

The first half in particular, showed the theory in practice—long stretches of play unfolding with the Citadins (0-1-1) unable to get any touches on the ball, as the Redmen calmly controlled the tempo, attempting to pierce UQAM’s defences.

Finally, this patience was rewarded and the deadlock was broken in the 40th minute of play, thanks to the targeted strike by freshman Henri Ashe-Taylor. Ashe-Taylor broke away from his marker in the midfield and used the space to unleash an unlikely effort from far outside the penalty area. Despite the distance, it was well struck; and the UQAM keeper, Gabard Fénelon, bobbled it backwards into the bottom left corner of his net.

In the end, this was all the offensive production the Redmen needed to squeak through with the desired result and start off the season with a bang. The rest was left up to strong defensive performances, headlined by Alexis Pradie, and a few crucial saves by McGill’s keeper Max Leblond, including a necessary one off a UQAM corner in injury time.

“For this system to work, all the players need to stay involved,” Valdes added. “As soon as one element is missing, we notice a weakness in the system and then we cannot succeed. The team did a good job working together and following the game plan.”

Given that it’s still early in the season, it is encouraging to see the Redmen working so well together going forward. However, McGill may need to establish a greater goal tally in their upcoming matches against more challenging foes, should the team wish to return to the CIS Championship. It is still early however, and the starting duo up front, Sebastion Munro and Marc Palaci-Olgun, should be expected to provide more offensive chances as the season progresses.

In other play over the weekend, the Redmen travelled north to take on rivals Laval, but fell short 1-0. McGill journeys across town to take on Concordia on Sept. 14.

After a somewhat encouraging start to their 2012 season, the McGill Redmen (0-2) took to the field last Friday night against the Sherbrooke Vert et Or in their home opener at Molson Stadium. While intensity wasn’t the problem, the Redmen’s first half was a disaster, paving the way for a 46-14 loss.

Head Coach Clint Uttley attributed the first half struggles to a couple of key penalties and the offence’s inability to move the ball. “We didn’t execute on offence. We had two critical penalties—a pass interference and a crowd penalty—and then it was just a case of our freshmen blowing two coverages which resulted in two long gains,” he said.

Sherbrooke (1-1) scored three passing touchdowns of over 20 yards in the first half alone; the longest came in the first quarter on a 62-yard pass from quarterback Jeremy Roch-Doyon to wideout Sebastian Blanchard. Roch-Doyon torched McGill’s secondary all night, finishing with 340 yards and four touchdowns, while Blanchard won numerous one-on-one battles, tallying a game-high of 149 receiving yards. With just 25 seconds left in the second quarter, the two connected on the final touchdown of the half, making the score 30-0.

There isn’t much that a coach can say when his team heads into halftime with a 30-point deficit, so Uttley kept it simple. “I told them to win the [next] half. For me, at that point, it’s a matter of going possession-by-possession,” he said. “I thought the veterans looked at it and were reminiscing of the past few years, and they didn’t fix it until midway through the third.”

In an effort to spark their sputtering offence, McGill replaced starting quarterback Dallon Kuprowski with backup Jonathan Collin at the beginning of the second half. Collin was more effective, leading a couple of drives in the third quarter, one of which led to McGill’s first touchdown of the night—a five-yard run by first-year tailback Luis Guimont-Mota. The Redmen scored another touchdown just a minute and a half later after Charles-Evens Peltrop forced a fumble on a quarterback sack, leaving McGill with great field position. Receiver Sean Murphy caught the second touchdown from Collin, making the score 44-14.

Looking ahead, Coach Uttley was clear that McGill’s quarterback situation must be resolved if the offence is to put together consistent efforts. “We have to settle our quarterback situation. We were inefficient in the first half, even though it had a large part to do with our offensive line [that] wasn’t holding up, so Dallon got banged up a little bit,” he said. “In the second half, Collin did some incredible things, [but] just had too many turnovers. Once we settle that position, we can move from there.”

The fourth quarter saw little action of note and the game ended 46-14.

Other than Collin, who finished with 121 passing yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions, there were some other McGill players who played well. Freshman wideout Shaquille Johnson put together another solid performance, hauling in four passes for 49 yards, while Murphy added 43 receiving yards on four receptions, in addition to his touchdown. Sophomore Yannick Langelier-Vanasse compiled 159 all-purpose yards, 107 of which came on kick-returns. Linebacker Alex Bernard led the Redmen defence with six tackles.

Overall, it was an embarrassing result for McGill football—a program trying to get back on its feet. Coach Uttley echoed this sentiment. “After all the time and effort, the energy, the money put in, to present a result like that for all the home fans is completely unacceptable.”

McGill looks to right the ship back at home on Sept. 14 against Mt. Allison in the annual “Fill the Stadium” game.

In case you were catching up on some early readings or the last glimmers of OAP had you occupied, here’s what you missed this past weekend in the world of sports …

PARALYMPICS — Two silver medals evidently weren’t enough for McGill swimmer Valerie Grand’Maison as she added to her impressive medal haul with a gold medal in the 200-metre individual medley on Friday. Grand’Maison didn’t just beat her fellow competitors in the race, but she also out-swam every visually impaired swimmer in history when she won her event in world-record time. While Grand’Maison’s performances should make Canadians and McGillians proud, Canada otherwise somewhat failed to live up to expectations. Seven gold medals and an overall 13th place finish should be seen as a step back for Canada’s. This was likely a result of the rest of the world increasing funding into Paralympic sport rather than a decrease in talent on behalf of the Canadian team.

FOOTBALL — Upsets reigned supreme south of the border this weekend as a number of teams expected to challenge for titles in both the NFL and NCAA college football crashed to defeat against lesser opponents. The story of the weekend was easily the University of Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, who used a gutsy fourth-down play trailing three points in overtime to pull out a stunning upset of #8 Arkansas. The Razorbacks were expected to be in the BCS Championship mix (thankfully only two more years of that), but dropped out of the rankings after losing to ULM. In the big kids’ league, the Washington Redskins, led by rookie dynamo Robert Griffin III, took out the scandal-ridden New Orleans Saints at the Superdome. On Sunday night, the Broncos knocked off the Steelers in Peyton Manning’s first game in the Mile High City. Peyton’s vintage performance might mean that this was less of an upset than a sign of things to come.

SOCCER — From the reactions on Facebook newsfeeds across this country after the Canadian women’s team’s crushing loss to the U.S. in the Olympic semi-final, one might have thought that we were a soccer-mad country. While we may not be Brazil or Spain, the fervor might carry into 2014 as Canada’s men’s team took a further step towards qualifying for the World Cup in Rio. On Friday night at BMO Field in Toronto, Canada only needed one goal to move past Panama into first place in their group. They are now in the pole position to make it to the final round of qualifying with regional heavyweights Mexico and USA.

TENNIS — The tennis Grand Slam season closed out this weekend at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, NY. Serena Williams won her third consecutive major title, adding the U.S. crown to championships won earlier this season at Wimbledon and at the Olympics. Williams closed out top-seeded Victoria Azarenka to solidfy her place as the undisputed queen of women’s tennis. Elsewhere, Andy Roddick played his final professional match, losing in the quarterfinal to Juan Martin del Potro. After a marathon final match on Monday, Andy Murray emerged with his first Grand Slam title, defeating Novak Djokovic (7-6, 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2).