Written by Ravens Sports Information
TORONTO – The OUA standings just got a whole lot more interesting after the Ravens fell on the road Sunday night. In a game that started slow but showed impressive firepower in the second half, the Blues outshined the Ravens 28-13.
With the loss, the tenth-ranked Ravens fall to 1-1 and now look to rebound in week 3 when they host the York Lions.
“We know what we want to do and this is a lesson in our journey,” said Ravens head coach Corey Grant. “We’re going to take the lessons from this week and we’re going to apply them to next week, both good and bad and move forward from there.”
The first quarter was a stalemate between two teams who let penalties dictate the pace. After the Blues’ first possession ended in a punt, they drove to Carleton’s 2-yard line on their second drive only for Adam Williams to fumble into the endzone with the Ravens recovering.
As the second quarter continued both teams exchanged short possessions and penalties with no one really proving to gain much momentum.
The Varsity Blues would come their closest all half when they drove deep inside the Carleton half only to miss a 20-yard field goal attempt settling for a rouge. The Toronto single would be the only points of the first half as the Varsity Blues led 1-0 at the break.
The Ravens came out of the half looking more like the team we saw at TAAG Park in week 1. Tanner DeJong and the offence immediately put together a solid drive which included some big runs from Joshua Ferguson before DeJong would find Kaseem Ferdinand deep in the endzone for a beautiful touchdown.
“Coming out flat in the first half, trying to figure out who we are and what we wanted to do,” explained Grant. “The defence held up as we started putting things together. The offence coming out and putting that drive together did a really good drive there.”
The Blues would bounce back quickly as Kinsale Philip would connect over the middle to Nash LeGood who would break a pair of Ravens tackles before scampering in for the touchdown. The Ravens would reply quickly with another strong drive capped off by a Brandon Forcier field goal.
Once again, the Blues’ offence would not wait to respond, as only a couple of plays into the next possession Luka Stoikos would break free down the Ravens sideline untouched for a touchdown and a 15-10 lead after 45 minutes.
After finishing the third quarter with a big pass play, Philip would punch in a 1-yard run to extend Toronto’s lead to 12 only 53 seconds into the final quarter.
The Ravens would open their next drive with a sneaky flea-flicker that saw Tanner DeJong find Frederick Hachey at the edge of the red zone setting up Forcier’s second field goal of the game.
During the Varsity Blues next possession, the Ravens would incur a pair of penalties setting up another Varsity Blues field goal resetting the lead to 12. Toronto would add another field goal before icing the game by picking off Tanner Dejong in the final 90 seconds of the contest.
“Overall, what cost us the game was penalties,” explained coach Grant. “And, playing against a good football team on the road we’ve got to limit those. After the game I let them know, that when it comes down to penalties that’s on me. How we move forward is learning from them and making sure I’m coaching them better so we are keeping ourselves out of situations where those penalties don’t become a problem moving forward.”
The Ravens’ next game is Saturday, September 10 at 1 PM when they host the York Lions.
Tickets for Saturday’s matchup are on sale now and going fast.
