Running back Mack Jones got his chances to play and he delivered for the Gryphons in their season-opening win over the Toronto Varsity Blues Sunday at Alumni Stadium.
Jones had 92 yards rushing, another 16 receiving and scored two touchdowns to help the Gryphons to a 41-22 victory.
“Our starter went down and I was expected to go in. Our (offensive) line did really good and opened the holes for me and I was just pushing,” he said. “When it was my opportunity I took it and seized the moment.”
The performance helped Jones realize the work he put in at his home in Port Colborne during the summer was worth it as last season had been a disappointing one.
“I had high expectations to play in my first year and I ended up pulling my hamstring on the second day of training camp,” he said. “I was out four weeks, came back and didn’t contribute in Queen’s and ended up hurting my other hamstring the next day. It was kind of a letdown so I think I kind of want to bounce back and be myself.”
The injuries last season meant Jones had to do plenty of work during the off season to make sure it wasn’t a repeat performance of the injuries this season.
“I was getting massages, deep flushes every week,” he said. “Just flush my legs out, fix my hamstrings. I was stretching daily and going to the gym daily, just getting that work in.”
The Gryphs led 13-1 at the end of the first quarter, 36-1 at halftime and 39-1 after the third quarter before Toronto rallied in the fourth quarter to close the gap a bit.
“Week 1, obviously there’s some things we want to clean up but the good thing is that an ugly win is still a win,” interim head coach Kevin MacNeill said. “That’s what we’ll take away from it. We’ll look at the film and make sure we clean up the little things that kind of allowed them to come back in the game.”
MacNeill was sure he’d get of his first OUA win as a head coach against Toronto, but knows there’s work to be done. This is the starting point.
“I was pretty confident coming into the game,” he said. “I think we’ve got a great team. I was happy with the W, but eager to get back to work to clean up the mistakes that we committed.”
The Gryphons will work on keeping their intensity throughout the game and will also look to cut down on their penalties. They were assessed 80 yards in penalties on seven calls.
“It wasn’t the prettiest win,” fifth-year defensive back Tristan Doughlin said. "We’ve got some growing pains and we’ve got plenty of things to fix, but when we fix that stuff, we’ll be balling out again.
“Next week we’ll be more sound and ready to go.”
What do the Gryphons have to work on?
“Handling some adversity, making sure that when some things happen, not to get too down,” MacNeill said. “Be steady and not to be too up and down. The big thing is the unforced errors, the mental mistakes. Those are the ones that we’ve got to look at and make sure that we don’t commit those as we go forward.”
Mack Jones, Daniel Palmer-Salmon and Jamal Hooker each had 11 carries for the Gryphons while starter Johnny Augustine had five carries, 29 yards and a touchdown before being sidelined with an ankle. Palmer-Salmon also had a touchdown.
Quarterback James Roberts completed 22 passes for 262 yards while Ryan Nieuwesteeg caught seven passes for 43 yards. Thomas Bresciani caught five and Colton Jones caught three apiece.
Gabe Ferraro kicked three field goals and four converts and also had three of his 11 punts land in the red zone.
The defence scored a safety in the fourth quarter and Colin Manditch had an interception. Lukas Korol had eight tackles and Riley Baines and Matt Delmas each had a sack.
Next game for the Gryphons is a Labour Day match with the Windsor Lancers at Windsor. Game time is 1 p.m.

Written by Rob Massey