Michael Grobe
TORONTO (December 31, 2009) - With the final hours of 2009 year counting down, the Queen’s Gaels added another accolade to their already memorable football season by being voted the fourth top team of the year by the Canadian Press.
The Gaels ranked behind the 2009 Gold Medal Canadian World Junior Team, the 2009 Grey Cup Champions - Montreal Alouettes and the 2009 OHL Champion, Windsor Spitfires.
Queen’s were the top team in Canadian University Sport (CIS) football after winning their fourth Vanier Cup. The Gaels rallied from an 18-point deficit at halftime, the largest in Vanier Cup history, by scoring 26 unanswered points to win 33-31 over the Calgary Dinos.
Gaels quarterback Danny Brannagan of Burlington, Ont. was named the game MVP after completing 17 of 33 passes for 286 yards and three touchdowns.
The Vanier Cup win capped off an extraordinary run for the Gaels who went 7-1 in the regular season, but then marched to the Vanier Cup with an 33-31 upset victory over No. 1 ranked Laval Rouge et Or in the Mitchell Bowl. One week earlier the Gaels knocked off rival Western in the Yates Cup to claim the OUA Championship. That game which featured two of the country’s top quarterbacks saw Brannagan dust Western’s Michael Faulds, 43-39 in one of the most memorable games in CIS history.
- with files from the Canadian Press
