The Cougars confirmed their victory at the very end of the game, when William Rondeau intercepted a pass from Phoenix quarterback Pepe Gonzalez.
The problem is that Rondeau, after his theft, continued to run with the ball, rather than simply dropping to the ground, to immediately give the ball back to his attack.
Rondeau jumped to make the interception right in front of his team’s bench, before scampering parallel to the sidelines, ignoring signals from his teammates to drop to the ground.
His teammate Christophe Roy, a veteran, knew the risks, and he tackled his teammate to the ground, in order to avoid a potential turnover, after a run of around ten yards.
A never-before-seen scenario for Champlain Cougars head coach Jean-François Joncas.
Unusual scenario
The latter is still laughing.
“It’s a fairly unusual game, which we will remember for a long time. Rondeau is a rookie player. Usually, in these situations, the player must go to the ground. If you get tackled, and you drop the ball, you’re no further ahead. When you make an interception, and it means the end of the game, you throw yourself on the ground,” he said.
“Christophe was running after him, shouting at him to throw himself to the ground. Finally, he tackled him. But that could have created a fumble! It was quite funny! After the match, we teased Christophe, telling him that he had made this tackle for his stats!”
This Saturday victory, which ensures the Cougars advance to the final, was their second against the Phoenix in three weeks.
“Grasset is a mature team, with a talented third-year quarterback. It was clear that we had to go for points as much as possible. We had a slump in the third quarter, on offense, and they took the lead,” analyzed Joncas.
“We had a boost of energy from our offense in the fourth quarter and our defense did the job. We found a way to win.”
Champlain will therefore participate in a first Bol d’Or since 2019; they will face the CNDF this Friday in Trois-Rivières.
Joncas will meet his good friend Marc-André Dion, head coach of the CNDF, in the final.
The Quebec team had a perfect regular season.
“CNDF will be the favorite team at the moment. It will be a good challenge. It’s an excellent team. We played a close game against them, a 23-20 loss, and it ended on one of the last plays of the game.
