On a day when the Guelph Gryphons honoured their seniors before the start of their OUA football game at Alumni Stadium, it was senior Kaine Stevenson who scored the final touchdown in their final home game of the regular season.
However, the Gryphons ran out of time in their late comeback attempt as they fell 24-17 to the 10th-ranked Queen’s Gaels.
Stevenson caught an eight-yard pass from rookie quarterback Tristan Aboud with two and a half minutes to play to wrap up the scoring in the game.
“That made me happy, for sure,” Stevenson said.
The Gryphs did get the ball back for the final time with eight seconds to play, but time ran out with the hosts 20 yards from the Queen’s endzone.
Like all seniors on the team, Stevenson felt his time with the Gryphons seemed to fly by.
He came in as a running back and will go out as a receiver.
Stevenson caught two passes in the game, although he was not originally supposed to get the ball on the play that resulted in his third touchdown of the season.
“It was kind of a broken play,” he said. “The QB started scrambling so we kind of just had to make something happen out of nothing. Scramble rules, I went to the back of the endzone and he found me. Sometimes football's like that. That's the way it is.”
Stevenson, who actually has a year of eligibility left, started his time with the Gryphons in the 2019 season when he was second on the team in rushing with 379 yards on 81 carries. He also scored three touchdowns that year.
After the pandemic erased the 2020 season, Stevenson was used sparingly in 2021 before becoming a full-time receiver last year when he caught 14 passes for 139 yards.
For Stevenson and all the other graduating seniors, they find it almost unbelievable that they’ve been with the Gryphons as long as they have.
“Man, it flew by – especially with the little break in between with COVID and stuff,” he said. “It just flew by. It doesn't feel real.”
When he was a rookie, he heard that year’s seniors say the same thing, but didn’t believe that would be the case. Now he’s a believer.
“You've just got to keep going, keep working,” Stevenson said the seniors of 2019 told him. “It comes quick and it's done quick. This is probably my last football game in Guelph, which is crazy, but I'm happy I came here.”
Looking back on his time with the Gryphons, it’s not anything on the field that stands out the most for the Windsor native.
“It's just the camaraderie and being a leader on the team has been great. Leading these young guys, we've got a really good group of young guys. It's been fun. All these young guys make me love the game. Coming off a rough (one-year) season last year, especially, it was a hard season all year. This season, even with the losses, the wins, it's been really fun. That's been my favourite part.”
A few of his former Gryphon teammates are now in the Canadian Football League and are among the players he chats with fairly regularly.
“I talk to Kian (Schaffer-Baker with Saskatchewan Roughriders), Clark (Barnes with Calgary Stampeders), Kiondre (Smith with Hamilton Tiger-Cats), all my receiver guys even though I started off as a running back,” Stevenson said. “I talk to all the guys that were on the team. It doesn't matter what year it was or who they are. Even if we weren't close, it's a brotherhood that you're never going to get anywhere else.”
As far as his schooling, that’s also almost over for the bachelor of arts student.
“It's going well and I'm almost done – if not this semester, next semester,” he said.
The Gryphons never led Saturday. They trailed 8-0 at the end of the first quarter, 15-7 at halftime and 17-9 after the third quarter.
Queen’s had 315 yards of total offence, 21 more than Guelph.
Rookie quarterback Marshall McCray kept his rushing touchdown streak going with one on a four-yard run early in the second quarter. McCray has scored at least one rushing touchdown in each Gryphon game this season and has eight, tops in the country.
Donavin Milloy had 21 carries for 141 yards for the locals while Jared Chisari had 237 yards on 33 carries for Queen’s as the Gaels completed only eight passes.
Defensively for the Gryphons, Devynn Cromwell had 8.5 tackles and Scott Murray had 1.5 sacks.
The Gryphons are to complete their regular season Saturday afternoon against the Carleton Ravens in Ottawa. A win for Guelph will cement a playoff berth for the
Gryphons, but it will be on the road.
The Gryphons could also get into the playoffs with a loss to Carleton depending on the result of a game between the Waterloo Warriors and Toronto Varsity Blues. A win by Toronto puts Guelph in the postseason as the Gryphons would win a tie-breaker with the Varsity Blues.
