UToronto’s Varsity Blues win first football game in seven years
For the first time in nearly seven years, The Toronto Varsity Blues football team can celebrate a victory — and what a victory it was.
Andrew Lomasney hit a 32-yard field goal with 21 seconds left to lift the Blues to a stunning 18-17 win over the Waterloo Warriors on Monday night, ending Toronto’s 49-game losing streak. The Blues hadn’t won a game since beating the Windsor Lancers 13-11 on Oct. 13, 2001.
The Blues lost last year’s season opener 42-17 to the Warriors, kicking off a season which saw the OUA doormats lose all eight of their games by an average of more than 29 points. The Varsity Blues’ best chance at ending the streak last season came against York, when Stephen
Grochot’s 36-yard field goal with 40 seconds left gave the Lions a 21-20 win.
Blues quarterback David Hamilton ignited the comeback Monday night. Down 17-8 with 2:39 left in the fourth quarter, Hamilton found receiver Drew Meerveld on a 29-yard touchdown pass, and the ensuing convert cut the deficit to two. Toronto then stopped the Warriors (0-1) with enough time to march down the field, setting up Lomasney’s game-winning kick in front of 2,562 fans at Varsity Centre.
Hamilton finished 13-of-27 for 189 yards with one TD and one interception for the Blues (1-0), who haven’t reached the playoffs since 1995.
In other CIS action Monday, it was: Queen’s 35 McMaster 11; and Laurier 15 Guelph 13; and Western 35 Ottawa 31.
At Toronto, punter-running back Mark Stinson added a three-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and a single to open the scoring late in the first.
The game was marred by sloppy play on both sides, with both teams losing three fumbles apiece.
Quarterback Evan Martin was nearly unstoppable for Waterloo, completing 21 of 30 passes for 375 yards and a pair of touchdown strikes to Joshua Svec. Martin’s 53-yard touchdown pass to Svec to end the third quarter gave the Warriors a 17-8 lead.
-with a report from CP