Vandervoort's four touchdowns lead Marauders past Toronto 55-33

After a shaky first half the McMaster Football team dominated in the second half and defeated the Toronto Varsity Blues 55-33 in the OUA opener for both teams.

Heading into the 2015 season, the McMaster football team knew that there would be some growing pains because of the youth that had to be injected into the line-up. The amount of growth from the first half to the second was impressive.

The first half saw the Marauders struggle at times, committing turnovers and penalties that allowed the Varsity Blues to extend several scoring drives.  

WATCH: Divante Smith's 19-yard rushing TD! #UofT up 23-17 in the 2nd @OUAsport pic.twitter.com/BPyplHTZcn

— Varsity Blues (@Varsity_Blues) August 30, 2015

The Blues held a 26-17 advantage late in the second quarter, but a late major on a pass from Asher Hastings to Danny Vandervoort trimmed the Toronto advantage to 26-24 at the intermission.

Kicking off to start the third quarter, Marauder Steve McNicholl absolutely blew up Toronto receiver  Domenic Battistella, causing a fumble which McMaster recovered deep in Blues' territory.

McMaster took advantage of the turnover with Vandervoort catching his third touchdown pass to put the Maroon ahead 31-26.

The Marauders continued to apply pressure on both sides of the ball, and before the end of the third quarter Hastings had hit Vandervoort for a fourth touchdown and connected with Dan Petermann for another major score. After three quarters, Mac was in control 48-33.

In the final stanza, McMaster added a touchdown from Wayne Moore while keeping Toronto off the scoreboard.

Vandervoort catches his 4th TD of the day. Marauders now lead 41-26 with 4:43 left int he 3rd Q.

— McMaster Athletics (@McMasterSports) August 30, 2015

There were many statistical highlights for McMaster.  Danny Vandervoort showed his All-Canadian form with 10 catches for 168 yards and four touchdowns.   In his first career start, quarterback Asher Hastings completed 26 of 34 throws for 383 yards and five major scores.  Along the ground, Moore rushed for 100 yards on 20 carries and a touchdown.

Defensively, the Marauders sacked Toronto's Simon Nassar four times.  Cole Munden led the team with eight tackles, while Robbie Yochim and Adam Poole had interceptions.  It took the opening two quarters to get their legs under them, but the Mac defense held the Blues to just seven points over the final two quarters.

McMaster will enjoy a bye week in the schedule and then prepare to face the Ottawa Gee-Gees in the home opener on Saturday, September 12 at 1 pm.

Source: McMaster Marauders