For young Carleton Ravens, Tunde Adeleke’s record-tying touchdown in Panda Game another peek at their promise

First Tunch Adeleke started stepping lightly after catching a missed field goal in the back of the end zone, moving toward the goal line gingerly like a young adult trying not to wake up his parents after coming home late. Then the Carleton Ravens' 18-year-old cornerback kicked into high gear, slicing through the Ottawa Gee-Gees field goal team as a murmur built to howling. He seemed to run into a tackle with a cut near midfield, but squirmed out of Aaron Colbon's tackle at midfield and completed a 129-yard missed field goal return, just the third of its kind in Canadian university football annals.

That vignette was what one wanted to see Saturday in the nation's capital, during the first Panda Game between ambitious OUA newcomer Carleton and the established Ottawa Gee-Gees. Ottawa was always going to win, since it had first-year Carleton outmanned and out-experienced at nearly every position. But Adeleke's runback, the lone touchdown Carleton mustered in a 35-10 loss as it fell to 0-6 in its yearling season, was the talker. It's not often the must-get post-game interview subject is a cornerback on a winless team that allowed 651 yards total offence, but the Ontario league hasn't had a first-year entry such as this in generations.

"I wanted to make a play," Adeleke, a hometown Ottawa kid who played with the Myers Riders club program and a St. Francis Xavier high school. "I saw an opening and I was able to keep going. I was dead tired after 50 yards and was looking back hoping no one would catch me. Fortunately the wall of white jerseys kept me safe, they did a great job of blocking for me so I can't take all the credit.

"That run was nice, but at the end of the day, we play to win and one play isn't going to make me happy."

The record-tying runback midway through the second quarter got Carleton to within 14-10. The optimism was fleeting, as Ottawa, paced by 204 receiving-rushing yards by tailback Brendan Gillanders and Colbon's 295-yard, three-TD day through the air, pulled away after the half.

Carleton, of course, will take a baby-step moral victory wherever it can find one as coach Steve Sumarah's team, with an average age of less than 19 years old, pays its dues in the OUA. Having one of the newbies, particularly a hometown recruit in Adeleke, tie a CIS record fit the bill quite nicely.

"I was kind of like, uhhhhh, because he was kind of taking his time and I was starting to panic a little bit," Sumarah said of that play. "But then once he started to get into gear I knew he had the sideline. I didn't think he'd score, but I knew he'd get out to the 30, 35-yard range and then it was the 40, 45 ... and then breaking the tackle was incredible.

"And that's what we are. We're a bunch of young guys trying to figure it out. When you see a play like that, you think, 'we can compete out here.' That's the big thing.

"That return was as spectacular a football play as you'll see anywhere, at any level."

The Gee-Gees historically had the better of the rivalry, going 31-13 from 1955 to '98 before Carleton discontinued football. Now the Ravens are back, with a well-heeled program bankrolled by alumni such as Ottawa property developer John Ruddy, who's also a partner in the CFL's Ottawa RedBlacks. Whether they can fully mirror the success the Laval Rouge et Or enjoy is debatable, since the Quebec City powerhouse's ability to be self-sustaining is aided by being based in a non-CFL city while having an 18,000-seat stadium, four times the size of Carleton's Ravens Field. (There is talk the 2014 Panda Game will be held at the refurbished Lansdowne Park, creating the chance to draw a crowd in the 12,000-15,000 range.)

In the here and now, Carleton certainly has Ottawa's respect. The Gee-Gees didn't go vanilla like teams often do in mismatches. Ottawa onside-kicked while up 14-0. It also tried a double-reverse flea-flicker and a no-look pass on the goal line, where Colbon imitated a bride's over-the-shouder bouquet toss. Adeleke ended up getting an easy interception on that play, one of five Ravens takeaways on the afternoon. Linebacker Nathaniel Hamlin, his high school teammate, also took down an INT.

"They gave it a great run," Colbon said. "They really gave us a run for our money."

"With a healthy thumb I probably would have made that tackle," Colbon, who dislocated his thumb on Sept. 21 vs. Queen's, added in reference to the touchdown return. "I probably still should have made that play. But he's an excellent runner and made a great play."

The win still resonated deeply for Ottawa after a week full of retrospective coverage of Panda Games past, both the on and off-field happenings. (On Saturday, it was clean on the field and mostly sober in the stands, although a streaker managed to elude the first security-guy tackle.) Ottawa's win was a reminder that the traditional older sibling is still there, still vital, even though several Ravens coaches have Gee-Gees ties.

"They made it official two years ago that they were coming back," said Gillanders, whose 907 yards from scrimmage (648 rushing, 259 receiving) leads the OUA. "So they did a year of talking and building up the program. This game means a lot in terms of recruits and getting players from Ottawa. And it also means a lot to all the past players from this team.

"I do think Carleton has a bright future, we know a lot of members of their coaching staff, obviously," Gillanders added. "And they have some playmakers and that helped them keep it close for a while."

It was rather kismet that Adeleke was Carleton's man of the match. He and Hamlin were also part of a start-from-scratch high school program four years ago at St. Francis Xavier in the Ottawa suburb of Gloucester. By their fourth season, they came close to unseating long-time power St. Peter as the city champion, losing a one-point heartbreaker in the final.

"It was like this," he recalled. "We started off with a new team and had not the best first season. Then we started playing well because our chemistry was just ridiculous in the second, third and fourth year, When I'm here practising, I know I've been through this before, and I know that later on, it's going to be amazing.

"Most of us are first-years and we're keeping up with CIS teams sometimes [for short stretches]," Adeleke added. "In two, three years, we're going to have the skills and the experience from having played so much in our first years. We're going to be really, really molded."

Ottawa and Windsor (each 4-3) have Thanksgiving weekend off before an Oct. 19 matchup that will decide the playoff position for those two teams and McMaster (3-3), which faces hard-luck Laurier (1-6) before finishing off vs. Carleton. The bye could not come at a better time for Ottawa.

"We really need the bye, we have a lot of players who need to get healthy in time for Windsor," Colbon said.

Carleton will play out its 2013 string vs. No. 4-ranked Guelph and McMaster, the two-time Vanier Cup competitor who's in a transitional season. There was always a foreknowledge this would be an 0-8 year just like the debut seasons for the last two CIS newcomers, Montreal (in 2002) and Sherbrooke (in '03). But Carleton's boy-men are going to have their moments.

"Sometimes it's intimidating," Adeleke said of facing players four to five years olders. "But you have to get in there and remember it's football.

"Somebody chose you to be there."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.