After a 41-8 season-opening home loss to the Waterloo Warriors, the York University Lions football team was in for another tough test in Week 2 as they made the trek down the QEW to Hamilton to face the McMaster Marauders. 
 
McMaster entered play looking for a bounce-back performance coming off a surprising loss to the Carleton Ravens, one in which they did not score an offensive touchdown. They were also looking for a 23rd consecutive victory over the Lions, having not been defeated by York since 1997. 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The game started well for the visitors, as they picked up their first interception of the year on the first drive of the game. Andreas Dueck's pass went through the hands of Jackson Cooling and was picked off by Matt Dean.
• Unfortunately, the Lions were unable to capitalize and had to punt it away.
• Both offences struggled to move the ball in the opening quarter. That included a 3rd-down stop by the Lions on the second drive for McMaster. The only scoring coming on a couple of conceded safeties by the Lions. 
• McMaster began to drive the ball in the second frame. A big play from Cooling set up the Marauders inside the 10, but they had to settle for a field goal. After another field goal and a third conceded safety made it 12-0 Marauders, they had the football again still looking for their first offensive touchdown of the year.
• They would get it on an excellent display of elusiveness from Jacob Patten – or so they thought. He made three or four Lions miss before getting the edge and sprinting down the sideline for a 66-yard score. However, the play was called back on a holding penalty, taking the major off the board. 
• They didn't let the penalty stop them, and, after another big play from Patten, eventually found paydirt. That play set McMaster up inside the York 10-yard line, and Dueck found Dima Ignjatovic in the final seconds of the half. He was able to fight and dive to the cone for the touchdown. leading to a 19-0 halftime advantage for the Marauders.
• The only point of the third quarter came from a missed field goal by the Lions, making it 19-1 after three. On the final play off the frame, Jawaun Smith busted off a 23-yard run, which set up a touchdown connection between Dueck and Nicholas Adair on the opening play of the final frame. That made it a 26-1 game in favour of McMaster.
• The Marauders added to their lead in the fourth off two Noah Craney interceptions with a pair of field goals off the leg of Benjamin McDonald.
• They then scored a late touchdown with under two minutes to go as backup quarterback Keegan Hall found David Bazzo for a 15-yard hook-up. That rounded out the scoring as the hosts win it going away by a score of 39-1  

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• Craney once again carried the brunt of the offensive load at quarterback against the Marauders, going 13-for-25 in passing for a total of 125 yards.
• Nathan Walker fielded most of the punts for the Lions, averaging more distance on his kicks than anyone else in the game. He finished with an average of 40.0 yards, with his longest being a 61-yard howitzer.

The Lions will look to regroup before heading to the nation's capital next Saturday, Sept. 10, to face the Carleton Ravens at 1 pm.