The York University Lions football team had its 2019 season come to an end on Saturday afternoon with a 23-2 loss to the Queen's Gaels at Richardson Stadium in Kingston, Ont.
 
As it has done all season, the Lions defence stood tall and gave the team a chance to win. The unit sacked Queen's starting quarterback James Keenan three times and had nine total tackles behind the line of scrimmage, for a loss of 44 yards. They also picked Keenan off once, forced and recovered a fumble and had three pass break-ups.
 
Queen's opened the scoring five minutes in when Richard Burton caught a 17-yard pass from James Keenan for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
 
It was the defence that got the Lions on the board three minutes later. On the first Gaels play of a drive that started on the one-yard line after a perfectly-placed punt by Dante Mastrogiuseppe, Rossini Sandjong stepped up and drilled Rasheed Tucker in the end zone for a safety, making it 7-2.


 
The Lions conceded a safety on their next possession and the score was 9-2 after one quarter.
 
The Lions struggled to move the ball in the second quarter and Queen's capitalized on a number of penalties. First Burton scored his second touchdown of the game and then Ben Hadley kicked a 36-yard field goal, giving Queen's a 19-2 lead at the half.
 
Neither team produced much offence in the second half and the only points on the board came from two conceded safeties by York.
 
The Lions were unlucky with injuries all season and continued to fight the injury bug in the finale as starting quarterback Brett Hunchak, playing in his final game, was forced out of the game in the first quarter after completing 4-of-8 passes for 28 yards. He was replaced by Noah Craney, who finished the game 10-of-22 for 69 yards.
 
Matt Vassos had the best game of his career, leading all Lions with seven tackles, including one tackle for loss, and Kwadwo Boahen joined him atop the list with seven tackles as well. Matt Dean was a monster for the Lions all game with two sacks for a loss of 20 yards and 4.5 total tackles.
 
Keenan finished 16-of-26 for 203 yards and the two touchdowns, and also added 22 yards on the ground. Tucker was a force for Queen's with 149 total yards, 94 rushing and 55 receiving.
 
The Lions finished the season 1-7 and the Gaels ended up 3-5. Neither team qualified for the playoffs.