#OnlyInCIS: McMaster uses quick-kick touchdown to oust Ottawa

The McMaster Marauders, truly, use wide receiver Daniel Vandervoort in interesting ways.

There the Marauders were on a shivering-cold September Saturday, caught in the no-man's land at the 34-yard line, slightly out out of field-goal range yet not deep enough for a third-down gamble, during the final minutes of a scorefest with the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Then they remembered one of the uniquely Canadian twists on football, that every kick is onside and may be recovered by a player who behind the kicker, or the kicker himself. Receiver Mitch O'Connor came in motion and took the shotgun snap, then pooched a high hanging punt that Vandervoort corralled in stride at the 10-yard line and ran in for a touchdown.

Officially, that goes into the record books as a 10-yard fumble return.

That touchdown with 2:18 left in the fourth quarter capped off a wild 57-42 Marauders victory against Ottawa. The 99 total points made it the highest-scoring game in the Hamilton university's football history. It also gave Vandervoort, one of the best pass receivers in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, a three-touchdown day. The Barrie native was on the receiving end of two of quarterback Asher Hastings' five TD passes.

Of course, in American football, a team can only recover a kickoff and cannot advance the ball. It never ceases to amuse when U.S. media are fascinated that the Canadian game has retained the rugby-style elements that were long ago killjoyed out of the four-down, fair-catching simplification of the gridiron game. However, the onside-punt stratagem is an ever-present reality and McMaster found a novel way to employ it by doing it from a standard offensive formation.

Along with a receiver-to-receiver quick-kick touchdown, last weekend's Ontario University Athletics football action also included a 115-yard missed-field goal return touchdown from a quarterback. Typically, teams don't use a QB on return duties. However, the York Lions' versatile Jahmari Bennett, who has 21 pass attempts this season, did the deed against Guelph.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @naitSAYger.