Ravens Sports Info (Photo: Marc Lafleur)
OTTAWA (Oct. 6, 2024) - The Carleton Ravens' late comeback attempt fell short on Sunday afternoon as the Ottawa Gee-Gees narrowly escaped with a 35-32 victory.
Brandon Forcier (L'Ange Gardien, Que.) had his final second field goal sail wide right as time expired as the Gee-Gees held on for their sixth straight rivalry victory.
The Ravens day started well with Elijah Barnes (Ancaster, Ont.) finding Kaseem Ferdinand (Kanata, Ont.) for an opening 32-yard touchdown pass. After Zack Copeland missed a field goal but gained a rouge, Charles Asselin punched the Gee-Gees in from the one to put Ottawa ahead. Carleton didn't back down, turning the next possession into a 9-play, 85-yard drive for a Tristan Ready (Arnprior, Ont.) touchdown.
After making the catch on the left sideline Ready raced along the line diving to break the plane. Carleton wouldn't have to wait long to score again. After the defence forced Ottawa to kick it away, Barnes found Ben Huckabone over the middle for an 11-yard touchdown and a 21-8 lead. Copeland would hit another 25-yard field goal to finish the half with Carleton leading at the break 24-11.
The third quarter was all Gee-Gees. After Forcier nailed a 40-yard field goal to open the scoring Charles Asselin broke off a 28-yard run to cut the lead to six. Two drives later, the Gee-Gees would block a Ravens punt attempt and Daniel Briere would take it 40 yards for the touchdown. The Gee-Gees would strike again to start the fourth quarter as Josh Janssen found Noah Avery for a 9-yard touchdown.
Carleton couldn't find a balance in its attack in the second half, stumbling through the fourth quarter and suffering a couple of painful turnovers before Copeland extended the lead to 11 with 1:07 to play.
Carleton would respond quickly as Elijah Barnes found Frederick Hachey (Laval, Que.) on back-to-back plays, finishing with a beautiful teardrop pass to the endzone to cut the lead to 5. After a penalty on the two-point conversion attempt, Elijah Barnes would push over the pile to cut the lead to 3.
Forcier will nail a perfect onside kick, recovered by Ben Huckabone, and with 44 seconds on the clock, the Ravens had the ball on the Ottawa 49-yard line. After being forced out of the pocket Elijah Barnes scrambled for 9 yards before Matt Morin (Lloydminster, Sask.) tripped up in the backfield gaining only two yards. With a first down, the Gee-Gees broke into the Ravens backfield sacking Elijah Barnes and leaving Forcier with a 54-yard attempt to tie.
With the miss and the loss, the Ravens are now 2-5 as they move into their bye week. They return in week 9 to host the Laurier Golden Hawks at home.