After two years, the Lions football team finally won a game! It comes as a surprise to no one that it’s under Head Coach Dexter Janke’s leadership and guidance that — despite a 0-3 start — the team displayed significant improvements, particularly on the defensive side. While their last official victory was in 2022 over the McMaster Marauders from a forfeiture, this marks their first true on-field win since 2019, which happened to be against long-time rivals, U of T. This makes the moment even more special for the Lions and fans.
The Lions visited the University of Toronto Varsity Blues to play the 54th annual Red and Blue Bowl. From the first kick-off, the Lions were locked in, and at the 10:11 mark, Kicker Tucker Almert scored the first field goal. The Varsity Blues eventually took the lead before half time. That didn’t stop the Lions, though, as they went on to win 19-17 thanks to the precise field goal attempts from Tucker Almert and safety in the second quarter, which again is a testament to Defensive Coordinator Greg Knox’s strategy.
Defensive Back Brody Clark was named the OUA Defensive Player of the Week for his defensive efforts during the game, where he had 3 solo tackles, 1 assisted tackle, and 1 interception. The Lions claimed the 54th Red and Blue Bowl, their first victory over their noisy rivals since 2019.
Janke expresses his joy for the victory over our rivals:“It feels great, I’m extremely excited and proud of our group for the effort that they’ve put in consistently throughout this process. It was a great moment to be able to experience with them and to see how much the victory meant as well.”
The team’s last result against the Lancers didn’t seem to bother Janke and the coaching staff: “We took a step back and evaluated who will be healthy and available to play. We approached it from the standpoint of ‘what can we execute effectively and what areas are we going to focus on the following week?’”
As the Lions head to Ottawa on Sept. 28 to play the Carleton Ravens, Janke says he wants to approach the game “very similar to how we approach every week; we’re going to focus on our process and identify the challenges that presented this win, and ensure we improve on the mistakes we made last week.”
