Saturday’s season opener against the rival Western Mustangs will be the tough loss against which all the Queen’s Gaels will measure any other disappointments in their football careers.

That’s at no risk of overstatement. The top line of the scoresheet, UWO 45 Queen’s 42 OT, only hints at the heartbreak.

Maybe other losses will be close and maybe one or two will go to overtime. But on this day a single play unraveled what had looked like for most of the afternoon like a win for Gaels that would set a heady course for their 2025 OUA campaign. Yes, as unlikely as it sounds, a game with 87 points on the scoreboard turned on one down.

With barely four minutes left in the fourth quarter, Queen’s had a 26-10 lead and had the ball looking at third down and short on the Gaels’ 30-yard line. The

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