Box Score
 
MONTREAL -- Rookie quarterback Frederic Paquette-Perrault came off the bench to throw two touchdown passes as McGill rallied from a 15-1 deficit to surprise Queen's 22-17 in CIS preseason football on a rainy afternoon at Molson Stadium, Sunday.

The result leaves the Redmen -- who went 3-5 in the Quebec conference last year -- with a promising outlook for their 136th campaign as the Gaels dropped to 101-75-5 lifetime against McGill, in a series that dates back to 1884.

Queen's, which posted a 5-3 record in the OUA conference last season, led 3-1 after the opening quarter, took a 6-1 lead into halftime and stretched that to 15-1 in the third before McGill mounted a comback. Trailing 15-8 heading into the final stanza, the Redmen offence outscored the Gaels 14-2 down the stretch.

Paquette-Perrault, a 6-foot-2, 212-pound product of College du Vieux-Montreal, completed seven of 13 pass attempts for 114 yards. The 20-year-old accounting freshman hooked up with rookie receiver Dominic Perron for a 17-yard TD catch to cap a six-play scoring drive at 8:05 of the third quarter, reducing the deficit to 15-8. He then found rookie receiver Joel Soucy on a one-yard TD toss just 19 seconds into the final stanza, knotting the score at 15-15.

"We're happy about the direction the team is going in," said Ronald Hilaire, in his third season as head coach at McGill. "We had a very grueling training camp and it's good to see that we had the spirit to fight back today. In the first half, it wasn't pretty but the guys kept believing and came back. Our offensive line did a very good job and we ran the ball well. Defensively, we played very well and didn't give up many scoring opportunities aganst a pretty good team in Queen's. It was a good test for us."

After Queen's took a 17-15 lead on their third safety of the game at 4:56 of the fourth quarter, McGill trumped that with the deployment of a third quarterback -- sophomore Matthew Mannarino -- who found rookie Dominic Perron in the endzone for the winning TD on a nine-yard scoring strike with just over five minutes remaining. Mannarino was 5-for-8 passing for 74 yards and Perron led all receivers with 58 yards on four receptions.

Sophomore pivot Nicolas English started the game and was 4-for-10 for 67 yards. Despite the wet conditions, none of the three McGill quarterbacks were picked off and they combined to direct an offence that amassed 348 yards compared to 243 by the Gaels. There was only one fumble in the game -- by McGill -- and the Redmen also maintained a lopsided 23-12 edge in first downs.

"We have the luxury of having three quarterbacks with the potential to lead this offence, so that's an interesting race going on in that position," noted Hilaire, who dressed 60 players, 12 more than normal for a regular season game, while Queen's had 84 players in uniform.

The lone Gaels scoring major came early in the third quarter when starting quarterback Nate Hobbs found receiver Peter Hannon for a two-yard toss to put the visitors up 15-1. Hobbs was 15-for-22 passing, for 151 yards but was sacked six times by a voracious McGill defence that posted a 7-3 edge in quarterback sacks, including two apiece by defensive linemen Philippe Carrier and Ousmane Guindo. Carrier was credited with a team-high five tackles.

The Gaels open up their 2016 OUA campaign next Sunday when they travel to Waterloo to take on the Laurier Golden Hawks. McGill opens their RSEQ season on Friday, Sept. 2 when they host cross-town rival Concordia in the 48th annual Shaughnessy Cup game. Kickoff was moved up to 4:30 p.m. to accomodate a large student turnout as part of Frosh Week.

REDMEN RAP: McGill freshman Donavan Martel led all rushers with 82 yards on 11 carries before suffering a lower-body injury in the final quarter... Other Redmen to collect QB sacks were Alexandre Ghaly, Scott MacDonald-Ducharme and Anis Kali... McGill currently has 82 players on their roster, including 44 freshmen, 19 sophomores, nine juniors and 10 seniors... Among the accredited media at the game was a camera crew from ESPN.