DORIAN GEIGER
Sports Editor

QUEBEC CITY— It looked as if the Calgary Dinos’ 25-7 lead over Queen’s heading into halftime of the 45th Desjardins Vanier Cup would be enough to propel the team to their first championship since 1995. Not so quick though ­— enter the Cinderella story that is the Queen’s Golden Gaels.

Two weeks ago no one would have guessed the No. 4 ranked Gaels would be playing in the Vanier Cup — never mind triumphantly hoisting the coveted university football trophy.

So when the first half concluded in an 18-point Gaels deficit at Université Laval’s PEPS Stadium in Quebec City, the Queen’s squad was discounted yet again. The Gaels’ fairy tale Vanier Cup victory truly went above and beyond what the term underdog embodies.

Rewind two weeks — everyone was stacking the chips against Queen’s as they prepared to engage in battle against the No. 1 ranked Laval Rouge Et Or in the national semi-final Mitchell Bowl on Nov. 21. Laval, notorious for an illustrious football history and reputable program was not even thought to be comparable to lowly Queen’s. A sub-par performance by the Rouge et Or and a 33-30 Gaels win at PEPS stadium deflated any such speculation.

Both the Dinos and Golden Gaels entered the Vanier Cup match with an air of nervousness and it took the better half of the first quarter for either squad to come alive and shake off any big game pressures.

Calgary was flying high with quarterback Erik Glavic repeatedly marching the Dinos down the field into Queen’s territory for a pair of touchdowns and three field goals in the first 30 minutes of regulation.

The dazzling performances Hec Crighton winner Glavic has delivered of late — such as the 479 passing and 105 rushing yards rushing against Saskatchewan in the recent Hardy Cup — would have given the most dedicated of Queen’s fans a sense of hopelessness for a comeback. However, a minor shoulder injury suffered by Glavic after being brought down on the second drive of the game might have made the difference for the Gaels. Although not a sidelining injury, Glavic went on to have an uncharacteristically average outing for the remainder of the contest.

As for Queen’s, dropped balls, flags, interceptions and jittery play in the first half gave the impression the Gaels were anything but golden or a championship team — that was until halftime came around.

Gael’s head coach Pat Sheahan must have threatened the lives of his players and their families in his halftime lecture because when the third quarter came around a completely different team emerged from the Queen’s locker-room.

“We knew the first half did not go well. There was no trying to camouflage that,” emphasized Sheahan after the game as hundreds of fans, players, family and management chaotically congregated on the field despite police attempts to prevent this.

Sheahan, who claims his first Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship with the win, was not discouraged by his team’s first half woes, knowing it to be typical for his team to have a slow start out of the gate.

“We didn’t react very positively to the wind and we didn’t do very well when we had the wind. We were slow starting — we’ve been a slow starting club all year,” remarked an ecstatic Sheahan. “I challenged them — I said ”˜look, the next thing to do is score, first,’ because if they (Calgary) score they push it into the 30s to 7 and it’s going to be an almost insurmountable challenge.”

And that’s exactly what Queen’s did. Just over a minute into the third quarter Gaels quarterback Danny Brannagan connected with Devan Sheahan to make the score 25-14. Shortly thereafter, a forced safety on Calgary and a Gaels’ field goal by kicker Dan Village brought Queen’s within striking range, tightening the score at 25-19.

On their opening drive of the fourth quarter, the Gaels repeated with a series of pass completions by Brannagan and rushing attempts by running back Jimmy Therrien to surprise the Dinos. The drive led to a Gaels touchdown and their first lead of the game, miraculously bringing the score to 26-25 in favour of Queen’s. The Gaels remained relentless and a Marty Gordon touchdown with 8:34 left in the fourth quarter gave Queen’s a 33-25 lead.

The Dinos came oh-so close, making it 33-31 on an Anthony Parker touchdown with 6:38 remaining in the game before rolling over and playing extinct. In a two-point conversion attempt on the Parker touchdown, Glavic found Matt Walter in the end zone only to have the ball narrowly slip through the receiver’s hands.

“To be honest, it’s still a little bit of a shock because of the way we played the first half, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have won this game,” said an expressionless Parker after the game.

“In the end, it is what it is. I’m still here, fortunately enough, next year. My heart right now is with the guys who aren’t back next year. They had a rough go of it.”

Gaels’ quarterback Brannagan finished the day in style after being named the Ted Morris Trophy recipient for outstanding offensive player. Teammate Chris Smith, who tallied a sack on the afternoon, claimed the Bruce Coulter Trophy for defensive player of the game.

With the victory, Queen’s celebrated its first Vanier Cup since 1992 in front of a sold-out crowd at PEPS Stadium that approached upwards of 18,000 people. The game will go down as one of the craziest comebacks in Vanier Cup history and also marked only the second time the championship has been played outside of Ontario, other than in Saskatchewan in 2006.

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photo: Dorian Geiger