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Nick FitzGibbon ran for 167 yards and scored two touchdowns to help the Guelph Gryphon football team defeat the York Lions, 26-2 on Monday afternoon (Sept. 6) at York Stadium. The Gryphons move to 2-0 on the season.

FitzGibbon led the offence and was busy all afternoon, leading the team with 177 all purpose yards including 167 rushing yards on 22 carries. He scored both touchdowns for the Gryphons on separate one-yard runs into the end zone.

Leading the receiving core was second-year Dillon Dimitroff  (Burlington, Ont.) who tallied three catches for 58 yards, while fourth-year Jedd Gardner  (Niagara Falls, Ont.) finished with two catches for 46 yards. Quarterback Chris Rossetti (Mississauga, Ont.) was 11-for-22 passing for 178 yards and ran for 29 yards on five carries.

The Lions (0-1) earned their only two points on a safety conceded by Guelph in the first quarter.

Both teams got off to a slow start on offence as the game remained scoreless for much of the first quarter. The Lions opened the scoring with the safety nine minutes into the contest. Guelph responded on the next drive with a field goal by first year kicker Julian Tropea (Niagara Falls, Ont.) to put the score at 3-2 after the opening quarter of play. Tropea was given his first start as a Gryphon.

The Gryphons started off the second with a rouge and scored the first major of the game at the 9:05 mark of the quarter on Fitzgibbon's first touchdown to make the score 11-2. Tropea recorded another rouge and his second field goal of the game before the end of the quarter to make the score 15-2 at the half.

The only other major score came on Fitzgibbon's second touchdown of the day just under five minutes into the third quarter. Two other team-conceded safeties by the Lions rounded out the scoring.

The Gryphons were served several costly penalties in the game.  Overall Guelph was given 16 penalties for 138 yards, compared to York's 122 yards on 14 penalties.

The Gryphons will have time to enjoy the win as they sit out for a week before getting back on the field at home on Saturday, September 18 against the Queen's Gaels (0-1).

"We're moving into the hard part of our schedule with a couple of big games coming up and we really need to clean up our penalties and assignment errors," said defensive coordinator Kevin MacNeill.  "We can't afford to not be perfect against the defending Vanier Cup champions."

Guelph and Queens will kickoff Saturday, September 18 at Alumni Stadium in Guelph at 1:00 p.m.