Football POWs: Ford, Gray, Bagayogo take home quarterfinal honours on the gridiron
Burlington, Ont. – Tre Ford, Kurtis Gray, and Siriman Harrison Bagayogo have been named Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Football Players of the Week for the period ending October 27, 2019.
Offensive Player of the Week – Tre Ford, Waterloo Warriors
It was another stat-stuffing kind of day for Tre Ford and the Waterloo Warriors offence, but with his latest on-field contributions, the third-year quarterback helped his team do something they hadn’t done in 20 years.
Showing off both his arm and his legs, Ford finished the day with 16 completions for 225 yards and 15 carries for 122 rushing yards for a total of 347 yards on the day against one of the conference’s top defensive squads. The reigning MVP got the scoring started with a seven-yard touchdown run less than five minutes into the game. He would then secure his first passing major of the day to open the second half, connecting with Brandon Metz for a 15-yard score. He went back to the ground game for his third major of the day, running it in from 23 yards out to get his team’s lead back to a two-score spread before following that up with a three-yard pass to Rushon Dagelman.
When the dust settled on Waterloo’s 44-21 win, Ford had amassed four touchdowns on the day – two passing and two rushing – to go along with his 347 all-purpose yards, all helping the black and gold secure their first postseason win since 1999.
Defensive Player of the Week – Kurtis Gray, Waterloo Warriors
Kurtis Gray was all over the field for the Warriors in their 44-21 quarter-final win over Ottawa on Saturday, giving the team a boost on the defensive side of the ball when they needed it most.
The fourth-year linebacker made his first big play with a sack of Ottawa QB Matt Mahler late in the first half for a loss of six yards. He would get to the Gee-Gees pivot for a second time in the third quarter, this time for a loss of three, but he wasn’t done there. His biggest play of the game came only a few minutes into the final frame, when he picked off a Mahler pass at his own 39-yard line and ran it back all the way for the touchdown – a 75-yard return off the interception.
Gray finished the day with an ambitious line of 3.5 tackles (including three solo), two sacks, and an interception to help lead his Warriors to the postseason victory and set up a semifinal matchup with the two-time defending Yates Cup champion Western Mustangs on Saturday (1:00pm).
Special Teams Player of the Week – Siriman Harrison Bagayogo, Guelph Gryphons
Without a doubt, the biggest play of the Guelph Gryphons 2019 season was provided by rookie defensive back Siriman Harrison Bagayogo, who stepped up when his team needed him most.
The 21-year-old Montreal native came up with a crucial punt block late in the fourth quarter against Carleton, and also recovered the block in Carleton’s endzone to turn a one-point Gryphon deficit into a five-point Gryphon lead. Bagayogo, an arts major who has also featured in the Gryphon defence all season long as the team’s starting halfback, provided the late heroics on special teams to propel the Gryphons into the OUA semifinals. After the game Bagayogo, who starred as a defensive back at Champlain-Lennoxville College (CEGEP) in Quebec prior to arriving at Guelph, would say that the late touchdown versus Carleton marked the first touchdown of his football career.
Thanks to their standout rookie DB, the Gryphons will now head to Hamilton on Saturday (Nov. 2) to battle the McMaster Marauders with a spot in the 2019 Yates Cup on the line.
