GUELPH, Ont. – A 40-minute drive on Highway 6 is all that separates the University of Guelph from McMaster University in Hamilton. The Marauders will make the short bus trip to Guelph on Friday (Oct. 7) to take on the Gryphons in the inaugural edition of the "Highway 6 Bowl." Kickoff is set for 6pm under the lights at Alumni Stadium, with tickets available online at
gryphons.ca/tickets.
Friday night's matchup carries huge playoff implications for both teams, as the Marauders and Gryphons both enter Week 7 of the 2022 OUA football season with identical 1-4 records.
With just three games remaining in the eight-game regular season schedule, both the Marauders and Gryphons will be fighting for their playoff lives as we reach the final stretch of the regular season schedule, with Friday night's match in Guelph going a long way to determining which of these two proud programs will take a big step forward in their late-season pursuit of a playoff spot. The top seven teams in the OUA football standings qualify for the playoffs. The Gryphons (1-4) and Marauders (1-4) enter Week 7 of the season in a 3-way tie for 8th in the conference alongside the Waterloo Warriors.
The Gryphons enter this week's matchup well-rested, coming off of their bye week. The Gryphons will look to build some late season momentum as they are scheduled to play two of their final three regular season games on their home field, with the lone road trip remaining coming on October 15 when the Gryphs head to Laurier. Both the Gryphons and Marauders enter this week's contest looking to rebound after setbacks against two of the top teams in the country, with Guelph losing to their most recent game to the No. 4-ranked Queen's Gaels, while the Marauders roll into Guelph coming off of a home loss to the No. 1-ranked Western Mustangs.
The Gryphons will face one of the top quarterbacks in the OUA this Friday night in McMaster pivot, Andreas Dueck.
The Winnipeg native is in his senior season with the Marauders after having led McMaster to an OUA title during his junior year in 2019, with Dueck named the recipient of the Dalt White Award as Yates Cup MVP. In 2022, Dueck has continued his strong play, with his 252.2 passing yards per game ranking 1st in the OUA and 4th in the country.
For the Gryphons, the offence in 2022 has been led by rookie running back,
Isaiah Smith. The 19-year-old Burlington native currently ranks 8th in the OUA in rushing yards per game (83.0) and has eclipsed the 100-yard mark in three of his last four games. Another rookie who has shown promise for the Gryphons in 2022 is freshman quarterback, Jack Helfrich. In four games played, the rookie QB and transfer from the University of South Carolina has thrown for 694 yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, while also adding 2 rushing touchdowns. Gryphon receiver
Vyshonne Janusas (Windsor, ON) has been Helfrich's favourite target this season, with Janusas ranking 5th in the OUA in receiving yards per game. OUA All-Star receiver,
Clark Barnes, also returned to the Gryphon lineup on September 24 after being sidelined with an injury for the previous three weeks. When healthy, Barnes has shown the ability to be one of the most explosive playmakers in U SPORTS football, with the Brampton native named a U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian during his freshman season back in 2019. Defensively, the Gryphons have been led by linebackers
Brandon Ferigo and
Scott Murray. Ferigo has recorded 34.0 tackles on the season, ranking him 4th in the country in tackles. Murray meanwhile has recorded 3.5 sacks on the season, ranking him 4th in the OUA among the conference's sack leaders.
The Gryphons will also rely on a pair of 2021 U SPORTS All-Canadian talents on defence to help slow the Marauder offence on Friday night in
Devynn Cromwell and
Harrison Bagayogo. Bagayogo, a U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian cornerback a season ago, recorded his first interception of the 2022 season during Guelph's Homecoming matchup with Queen's on September 24. Cromwell meanwhile has shown tremendous versatility this season, lining up at both halfback as well as outside linebacker while recording a pair of pass break ups and a fumble recovery.
The last time the Gryphons and Marauders met was during the final week of the 2021 regular season in Hamilton.
McMaster escaped with a 27-22 victory that day, but it was the Gryphons who were playoff-bound, while the Marauders were on the outside-looking-in as part of a four-way tiebreaker with Guelph, Waterloo and Laurier. The Gryphon defence impressed during that October 30, 2021 matchup in Hamilton, keeping Dueck in check with the Marauders QB finishing the day a modest 15-of-34 passing on the day, for 213 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. Despite the fact that the Marauders have held the advantage in recent history when it comes to head-to-head meetings versus the Gryphons, with McMaster winning the last seven matchups, the two teams seem to always produce incredibly close contests, with four of the last seven McMaster victories coming in one-score games. The last time the Gryphons defeated the Marauders was back in 2015, a season in which the Gryphons were crowned Yates Cup champions, the fourth OUA title in program history. The Marauders 2022 season has also been
impacted by the use of an ineligible player, which forced McMaster to forfeit their first two games of the season (one of which would have been a win over the York Lions). Following Friday night's home game with the Marauders, the Gryphons will head to Wilfrid Laurier on Saturday, October 15, and will then return home on Saturday, October 22 for a regular season finale with the Carleton Ravens. Fans unable to attend this Friday night's "Highway 6 Bowl" matchup with the Marauders can watch live online at
www.oua.tv, with pre-game coverage getting underway at 5:45pm.
