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| A www.LycomingFootball.com Photo |
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – With a young group that will feature just 13 seniors, the Lycoming College football team will get its first taste of international football when it heads to Vanier College in Montreal, Quebec for a 1 p.m. game on Sunday, May 21, at the College’s turf field.
The game will be an unusual affair for the Warriors, as they will play in the primarily French-speaking city and outside the United States for the first time in program history. The game will be played under Canadian football rules – complete with a longer and wider field (110x65 yards to America’s 100x52), deeper endzones (20 yards to America’s 10), 12 players on each side of the ball, three downs to gain 10 yards for a first down, the allowing of any non-lineman to move before the ball is snapped and a point will be awarded each time a kicked ball goes out of the end zone.
Lycoming will make the trip with 67 players, departing on Thursday, May 18, before arriving by mid-day May 19 in Montreal. On Friday and Saturday, the team will have opportunities to sightsee while fitting in a Saturday practice at McGill University. The team will tour Old Montreal, which dates back to 1604 when Samuel de Champlain set up a fur-trading post in the Quebec city. Several 17th century buildings still exist in the old city, as well as the Old Port and Champ de Mars, a large public space. The team will return to the United States following the game on Sunday afternoon.
The Warriors are coming off a 3-7 season, in which eight of their games were won by eight points or less. The game will give a chance for senior Chase Williams (Damascus, Md./Damascus), junior Collin Wright (Secane, Pa./Ridley), freshman Elisiah Bayne (Birdsboro, Pa./Reading) to audition for the open quarterback job after the graduation of two-year starter Chase Whiteman ’17. Sophomore Nick Costello (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) will lead the receiving corps after posting 34 catches for 625 yards and five touchdowns in 2016. The defense will be paced by senior Mike Ward (Edgewater, Md./South River), who led the nation with five fumble recoveries while also posting 73 tackles and two interceptions.
Vanier College is a publically-funded English language pre-university college, commonly referred to as a CEGEP in Quebec. Although similar to a junior college, a CEGEP’s Diploma of College Studies is required for admission into a university in the province. The second-oldest English speaking CEGEP in Montreal, founded in 1970, Vanier is home to 6,700 full-time students.
Competing in the RSEQ’s College Football Division 1, Vanier posted a 6-5 record during the 2016 campaign, reaching the provincial semifinals before falling to Notre Dame-de-Foy, 30-24. The Cheetahs were led by Dimitrios Sinodinos in 2016, as he passed for more than 2000 yards, notching 16 touchdown passes and eight interceptions. Samuel Emilus led the receiving corps, posting nine touchdowns and 803 yards. Tyris Lebeau, a Division I University of Massachusetts commit, led the defense with 49 tackles, three sacks and two interceptions.
The Cheetahs will be completing a four-day spring training camp with the scrimmage against the Warriors. Vanier has also played McDaniel College and Albright College in the past.
Under NCAA rules, teams are allowed to travel outside the United States to play a spring season game once every three years. They are also allowed an additional 10 practices in preparation for that contest.
