The offence for the York University Lions football team came alive in the fourth quarter but it was not enough to catch the Queen's Gaels in a 52-34 loss at Richardson Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
 
Third-year receiver Colton Hunchak caught three touchdown passes in the final frame, all from back-up quarterback Matt Krason, as the Lions outscored the Gaels 21-0 in the last 15 minutes of play. But before that, multiple defensive breakdowns and a strong Queen's offence led the way to the Gaels' third straight victory.

"Similar to last week, we gave them a lot of free stuff. When you want to be great, you can't make it easy for teams and that's what we did today," said head coach Warren Craney. "It's tough going into the half down by so much. We came out and played a great second half, but the problem is we had a big mountain to climb. They did a great job trying to fight back."


 
The Lions got on the board first with a pair of singles from rookie kicker Dante Mastrogiuseppe, but Queen's took the lead at 9:14 of the opening quarter and added to it as the game went on. They were up 19-2 after the first quarter and 40-13 at the half.
 
Mastrogiuseppe had a 25-yard field goal in the second and starting quarterback Brett Hunchak completed a seven-yard pass to Alex Daley for York's points. Kadeem Hemmings completed the two-point conversion after the touchdown.
 
York's offence again struggled to get going in the third quarter, and Hunchak went down with an injury late in the frame, bringing in Krason. He led drives of 30, 47 and 89 yards and found Colton in the end zone three times to round out the scoring. Jesse Amankwaa also scored on a two-point conversion after the final touchdown.
 
Krason finished the game 12-of-23 for 122 yards with the three scores and an interception. Before leaving the game, Hunchak was 11-of-23 for 77 yards, with the one touchdown and two interceptions.
 
Running back Kayden Johnson had a big game for the Lions, putting up 124 points on 11 carries. Defensively, Matthew Skoko was all over the field with a team-high seven tackles and three sacks, and he also almost had an interception with a knockdown at the line.
 
Queen's quarterback Nate Hobbs completed 27 of his 41 passes for 362 yards, with four touchdowns and one interception. Two of those scoring passes were to Matteo Del Brocco, who had six catches for 102 yards.
 
Running back Jake Puskas, the reigning U SPORTS and OUA offensive player of the week finished the game with 160 yards on 17 carries, with two touchdowns.
 
The Lions have one more game this season, on the road in Windsor, Ont., next weekend against the winless Lancers. Kick-off is set for 1pm on Saturday afternoon.