For the last match at PEPS in the regular season, the Laval University Rouge et Or and the McGill Redbirds will play big on Sunday, while the championship for some and a place in the playoffs for others will be at stake.
The Rouge et Or must win their last two games and not give up too many points to ensure first place and home field advantage. Laval is banking on a cushion of 39 points, but the Carabins of the University of Montreal have only one game to play.
“It’s a good cushion,” admitted head coach Glen Constantin, “but it can go quickly sometimes with turnovers and special teams play. We would have liked to secure the championship by winning in Montreal last Saturday, but we nevertheless control our destiny. We are happy with our position.”
Constantin wants to ensure that his charges are not overcome by stress or play on their heels. “We have to play good football as we have been doing since the start of the season and be responsible in all three phases of the game. We don’t want to walk on eggshells. The difference in points awarded does not represent a source of stress. We allowed few points all season.”
Arnaud Desjardins doesn’t care about the 39-point gap that favors the Rouge et Or. “I’m not thinking about that,” said the 4th year quarterback. We want to win and play at our level.”
“Like kissing your sister”
Constantin assures that the state of mind of his troop is good despite the 32-31 defeat in overtime against the Blues. “This defeat where we retained the home advantage is like kissing your sister,” he imagined. The guys would have liked to win, but we live in the moment and the energy is good. The players are aware that the work is not finished.”
“At the beginning, I was happy that we retained the home advantage, but the defeat hurts as time goes on,” added Desjardins. It’s going to make us even more excited for the Dunsmore Cup.”
With a victory on Sunday, or next Friday when they host the Concordia Stingers, the Redbirds would secure a place in the playoffs for the first time since 2019. They could also lose twice and sneak into the real season if the Vert & Or of the University of Sherbrooke loses to the Rouge et Or on October 26 in Estrie.
“There are two scenarios, but it would be fun if our qualification went through a victory on our part,” said first-year head coach Alex Surprenant. We would like not to have to watch the Laval-Sherbrooke match to know our fate. Despite the overtime defeat against Sherbrooke, we control our destiny.”
Up 17-10 with less than a minute in the 4th quarter, the Redbirds could have sealed their playoff appearance, but a 115-yard kickoff return from Sherbrooke brought both teams back to square one.
“Morale is good because we have played three extremely close games this year and this is the first time we have found ourselves on the wrong side,” said Surprenant. Five or six players out of 12 made a small error on the punt return, which led to an explosive play.
