Gaels' offense pummel Warriors in home opener

Queen's improves to 2 and 0 to start the OUA season.

The Queen's Gaels ran circles around the visiting Waterloo Warriors in their home opener.

Queen's built a big lead and coasted to a 49-22 victory before an announced attendance of over 2,900 at Richardson Stadium on Saturday.

The Gaels established the run early combining for 199 yards led by Jayden Gurdi-MacDonald who had 82 on 12 carries. Jayce Baldwin had the ball eight times for 59 yards.

Gaels head coach Steve Snyder says that opened up the offense a little more for the passing game.

Gaels receiver Logan Walton had two big catch-and-run plays that led to touchdowns. One was a 48 yarder near the end of the first half, the other came midway through the 4th quarter when he took quarterback Alex Vreeken's pass and went 86 yards for the score.

Walton says he had a bit of help in the last touchdown catch.

Vreeken completed 22 of 34 pass attempts for 424 yards with three touchdown passes.

On the other side of the ball, the defense limited Nick Orr and the Warriors' offence to just eight yards in the first three possessions. The Warriors (1-2) had 401 yards of offence in the game.

The Gaels defense also made a pair of interceptions. One was by Iain St. Arnault who picked off Orr and ran it back 35 yards for the touchdown.

He says defense has been playing great of late.

The Gaels improved to 2-0 joining Ottawa (3-0), McMaster (3-0), and Western (2-0) with unbeaten records in the Ontario University Athletics conference standings.

Snyder says he likes the way the team has started but feels there are some areas they can improve on.

As the Warriors lined up for the opening kick off, they had only 11 players on the field in honour of second-year offensive lineman Daniel Molla. The 19-year-old Molla died earlier in the week and both teams paid tribute to him at the start of the game. 

The Gaels head to Carleton to take on the Ravens next Saturday.

Story by Ken Hashizume