Photos from game 7 - the Queen's University Golden Gaels vs. the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, at University Stadium, Waterloo, Ontario.

In a dramatic 4th quarter, the Hawks came back from a 15 point deficit to pull even with Queen's at 23. With only 79 seconds left, Tom Denison led the Gaels down the field with a 20-yard run and two passes to Craig Spear. Then with just 1 second to go, Chris Napoli kicked his 2nd field goal of the game - a 37-yarder - to seal a 26-23 Gaels win after a tightly fought, loosely officiated battle.

While the Queen's offense was slow off the mark in the first half (a tad too much roast beef the night before?), they did get the job done when it counted. Craig Spear and Andrew Joyner both caught TD passes, while Andrew Smith tallied one on the ground. Statistically, the game was an aberration, as the passing attack accounted for only 271 yards, the run 44 yards, and net offense 290.

With Will Vreugdenhill having to punt 8 times for 330 yards after stalled drives, the Gaels' defense was on the field for a majority of the game. Although they gave up 396 yards in Laurier net offense, they held Derek Medlar, previously the CIS' leading rusher to only 139 yards and helped by numerous penalties, held off a furious Golden Hawk comeback that was able to tie the score before Napoli's winning field goal. Kirby Calvert had one pick while Ross Corley and Andrew Moad each recorded a sack, and Marc Mitchell recovered two fumbles courtesy of Ryan Bechmanis' and Michael Patone's work in forcing the fumbles. Mitchell Smith had a busy day in the secondary with 6 solo tackles and 4 assists.

The win puts the Gaels alone in second place in the OUA with a record of 6-1-0-1.

3,062 hits (1112-11-03)