As the old saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold. The Montreal Carbines served up a frozen bowl on behalf of their province on Saturday, defeating the Saskatchewan Huskies 30-16 in the 60th Vanier Cup — a week after the Alouettes fell to the Roughriders in the Gray Cup.
Montreal also prevented Saskatchewan from scoring a hat trick in Canadian football at Mosaic Stadium, leaving the host province with only wins in the Gray Cup and CJFL Canadian Cup.
Although the score was relatively close for much of the game, the Carabiners' offense was too strong for the Huskies to overcome. Montreal slowly took over the game throughout the second half.
The Huskies have lost seven straight Vanier Cups. The win is Montreal's third in school history.
Here are the good, the bad and the stupid moments from the 60th Vanier Cup in Regina.
good
Freshman quarterbacks aren't supposed to lead their teams to college football championships, but that's exactly what Montreal's Pepe Gonzalez did.
The Mexico-born, Quebec-raised center played in his first Vanier Cup appearance. The 20-year-old finished the game 27 of 33 for 344 yards and three touchdowns, earning himself a well-deserved MVP award.
It's safe to say the quarterback's play was one of the biggest differences in this game. Gonzalez, who admitted to being a little nervous before the game, eventually calmed down and was able to make several long passes to open up the Huskies' defense. No disrespect to Huskies backup guard Jake Farrell, who did everything he could to get the Huskies to this point after being thrust into the starting job under difficult circumstances, but it's clear Gonzalez is on another level.
I'm willing to bet this won't be the last time we see him under center at Mosaic Stadium.
Bad
If you've followed me throughout the CFL season, you know that I don't like to write about officiating. But after this game, it's pretty hard not to discuss the stripes.
In the final two minutes of the second quarter, Gonzalez made a big catch on second down, or so we thought. The flags fluttered when it appeared he had thrown the ball a good two yards behind the line of scrimmage. The penalty should have given the Huskies another chance to stop the Montreal offense, get the ball back and score before the end of the half.
But that's not true.
Inexplicably, the flag was raised, even though almost everyone watching in the stadium and at home believed Gonzalez was already well past the line of scrimmage. The Carabines would come out on top and would eventually score three more points before the end of the half.
In the end, the bad call didn't cost the Huskies much. The Carabines were simply the better team in the second half and fully deserved to win, but it's disappointing to see something like this happen in the biggest game of the year in front of U Sports' biggest audience.
Blunt
They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and it seems that the Vanier Cup writers were inspired by last week's Gray Cup.
In that game, as you may recall, the Riders got an early interception to open the scoring with a blush. The Riders ultimately prevailed and took home their fifth Gray Cup in team history.
On Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium, it was Montreal who opened the scoring in the first game with a rouge assist. On the very first play from scrimmage after that, Farrell tried to force one of them into double coverage, but he was taken down by Montreal. In the end, it was the Carabins who took home college football's biggest prize.
I guess the moral of the story is that to win the Canadian Football Championship in 2025, all you need is an early interception and a touch-up.
