When the Queen's University Gaels face off against the Calgary Dinos in the 2009 Desjardins Vanier Cup Saturday, they will be counting on support from an unlikely source; the Laval fans.
Queen's crashed Laval's sold out Vanier Cup party despite being in the minority of those who thought they could beat the No. 1 ranked Rouge et Or in last Saturday's Mitchell Bowl. Now Laval will be forced to watch the Vanier Cup awarded on their home field.
"Maybe (the Laval fans) like us because they got to see us play," said Queen's quarterback Dan Brannagan. "Maybe there's a mutual respect there."
Gaels offensive lineman Matthew O'Donnell added: "There's an old saying in football that you cheer for the team that beat you. If they win, you look better so I hope they're cheering for us and not Calgary"
O'Donnell said that the spark that lit the team's fire was the confidence Laval had heading into the Bowl game.
"We knew they were selling tickets to all their fans already," said O'Donnell. "Nothing against them, but we don't appreciate being overlooked like that. As much as people thought that we were the underdog in that game, we thought we came in very confident and knew we were going to win."
The Gaels bring that confidence into this weekends showdown even though they again are underdogs versus No. 2 ranked Calgary.
"It doesn't matter what the media thinks," Queen's defensive end Shomari Williams said. "The only people that matter are the people inside the locker room. That's the only people we're worried about."
But because host Laval sold out the event so quickly in anticipation of their team being in the championship game, Gaels supporters were in essence pushed to the sidelines. As of Thursday, Queen's fans had access to 1,000 standing room spots beside the field and players and coaches had 234 tickets to split amongst their families.
"It kinda sucks that maybe not all of the fans who wanted to come up here can, but any support is good support," added Williams.
Saturday's duel will be the second meeting in history between Calgary and Queen's. Calgary prevailed 31-21 in the 1983 Vanier Cup in front of 18,324 spectators at Toronto's Varsity Stadium.
Catch the championship match live on TSN, Saturday at Noon et/9am pt and on-demand at TSN.ca following the conclusion of the broadcasts.