GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons men's rugby team entered 2017 as the team to beat. They will get the chance to keep that title. The defending conference champions booked another place in the OUA finale with a gritty 26-18 win over the McMaster Marauders Friday night at Varsity Field.
 
"We set a goal at the start of training camp," said Guelph head coach Cory Hector. "We all knew this was where we wanted to be. It's a chance to repeat and keep pushing the program forward."
 
The Gryphons will meet the winner of Saturday's match between the Queen's Gaels and the Laurier Golden Hawks in next week's championship.
 
On a night where tries were at a premium, the Gryphons were pragmatic, taking points whenever the opportunity arose. Fourth-year hooker Jack Caylor and third-year fullback Andrew Douglas had Guelph's only tries, while the team added four penalty kicks, three by rookie fly half John Sheridan, and another from third-year scrum half Cody Weese-Burton.
 
"I'm not sure that we kicked a penalty all season," said Hector. "There weren't many opportunities. McMaster was very good tonight."
 
The Marauders got the early jump with a try in the seventh minute, though the convert attempt missed. Sheridan made two straight penalty kicks in the 21^st and 27^th minutes before the Marauders answered with one of their own to go up 8-6 in the 34^th minute.

 

Guelph then began to methodically pull away, relying on their stout defence to hold McMaster off. Caylor got the Gryphons's first try in the 36^th minute for a 13-8 lead. The Marauders took three points back but Guelph then reeled off 13 straight in a span of 14 minutes, a Sheridan kick, Douglas's try, and then a Burton kick, to seize control of the match.
 
"We had a shaky start but as the game carried on, we settled into our process and plan," said Hector. "We just chipped away, took points when we could. And it added up.

'We stuck to our plan on attack and our defence got us out of trouble. Every time they would make some progress, we made a stop or got a steal to gather ourselves."
 
The Gryphons will now focus on winning a second straight OUA championship. Hector, who knows the Laurier and Queen's coaches well, expects a busy week of preparation. And despite going into the final as defending champion, there is no complacency from the Gryphons. Hector preaches for his players to "act like they've been there before" so he knows focus won't be lacking.
 
"We have a lot of fourth-year players and they feel that there's still another job to do," the coach said. "It'll be back to work Monday."