Like all his Guelph Gryphons teammates, quarterback Tommy Yanchuk was disappointed in the way both Friday night’s game against the McMaster Marauders went and how the Gryphons’ OUA football season has gone.
“I think I could've definitely played better,” he said after a 41-12 loss basically knocked the Gryphons out of playoff contention. “I think all of us could've played better. Made a few plays, made a few bad ones, but regardless we're going to take this weekend off and we're going to come back Tuesday ready to work because that's all you can do.”
With seven teams qualifying for the playoffs this season, the Gryphons haven’t been mathematically eliminated at 1-5, but they’re realistically poised to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2011 when they went 2-6 during the regular season and are just looking to play out the season.
With two games to go, three wins is the most they can attain this year. Windsor Lancers are currently holding down seventh at 2-3 while McMaster improved to 2-4. Carleton Ravens and Toronto Varsity Blues are both at 3-3. The Gryphons have lost to Windsor and McMaster so would lose tiebreakers to both. They don’t play Toronto this year and are to complete their regular season with a game against Carleton at the end of the month.
“All year our biggest enemy has really just been us,” Yanchuk said. “We just have to execute and that's it. It's little mental busts and the little things, going inside versus outside. It's just those little things that have been our demise all year, unfortunately.”
An arts student from Lloydminster, Sask., Yanchuk transferred to the Gryphons from the UBC Thunderbirds where he played in eight games in 2019, but didn’t see any action last year. This was his second year of eligibility so he has three left.
“It was my last opportunity to play football ever again so I just kind of sent them all in without even seeing anything and came down here,” he said. “That was it, I was all in.”
In 2019, he completed 57 of 98 pass attempts for 570 yards and two touchdown, but was intercepted five times.
“Difference wise, I think there's probably maybe a little bit bigger guys (here),” he said in comparing the OUA where the Gryphons play to Canada West where UBC plays. “There are less schools in the Canada West so there's less players to pick from, but playing U Sports, there's good football in every conference so everybody's fast, everybody's big, so it's not too different -- just coverage wise, maybe.”
On thing different in Guelph is the playbook he has to learn.
“Coach (Ryan) Sheahan's playbook by far was the hardest playbook I've ever had to learn,” Yanchuk said. “It's a pro playbook so routes change depending on coverage and things are always evolving so it's lots to stay up with.”
And how long did it take him to learn Guelph’s playbook?
“I spent the whole summer here trying to learn and train and we're in October, five months and counting trying to still learn it.”
Friday, the Gryphons hung with McMaster for three quarters, but the visitors pulled away in the final quarter, turning an eight-point lead (17-9) at the end of the third quarter into the final 29-point margin of victory.
Yanchuk, who had led the Gryphons to a last-minute touchdown when he entered late in their Homecoming Game loss to Queen’s last time out, came in earlier against McMaster and ended up splitting time with starter Jake Helfrich.
In the end, Yanchuk completed five of nine pass attempts for 37 yards and was intercepted twice. Helfrich completed seven of 15 pass attempts for 36 yards and was intercepted three times, once for a McMaster touchdown.
The Gryphons struggled on offence as they picked up a total of eight first downs in the game and two came via McMaster penalties. The Marauders had 20 first downs.
McMaster also had 298 yards of total offence while the Gryphons had 131 and the Marauders scored points all six times they entered the red zone. Guelph was also perfect on converting red-zone possession into points, but only got into the red zone once.
Helfrich scored a touchdown on a one-yard run, Eric Stranz kicked a 32-yard field goal and a convert and the Gryphon defence scored a team safety to account for the points for the Gryphons.
For McMaster, touchdowns were scored by Jawuan Smith on a three-yard run, quarterback Andreas Dueck on a one-yard run, Daniel Bosett on a seven-yard pass from Dueck and Chris Bechkos on a 39-yard interception return. Ben MacDonald converted all four touchdowns and had a rouge and four field goals.
The Gryphons have two games left on their season. They’re to play the Laurier Golden Hawks at Waterloo Oct. 15 and host the Carleton Ravens Oct. 22.
