LONDON, Ont. – It was the first game under the lights at TD Stadium this season, and the Mustangs welcomed Western’s new crop of students with a dominating 71-4 win against the Carleton Ravens.
While it was the Mustangs first game at home this season, this game marked the Ravens first game in 15 years. The young team from Ottawa is playing their first season since it was announced that the football program would be revived.
After the convincing victory, Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall said it was a difficult game to navigate, considering the high score.
“Carleton is a really young football team so it’s one of those games that’s really hard to manage in the second half,” he said after the game. “In the first half we wanted to play our game. In the second half what we tried to do is just try to manage the score.”
During the romp, Mustangs second-year running back Adam Sinclair scored two touchdowns – his first ever in an Ontario University Athletics game – and racked up 114 yards. Running back Garret Sanvido added two touchdowns of his own, while also tallying 125 yards.
The Mustangs again relied on quarterback Will Finch to lead the offence. The second-year quarterback completed 26 of 32 passes for 409 yards and three touchdowns. He also added a one-yard rushing touchdown.
On defence, linebacker Beau Landry led the Mustangs with 5.5 tackles while fellow linebacker Pawel Kruba followed with four. Ravens linebacker Leon Cenerini led all defenders with 11.5 tackles.
After a shaky opening few minutes that saw both teams turn the ball over, the Mustangs offence began to show their experience against the young Ravens midway through the first quarter.
Western opened up the scoring 6:17 into the first quarter when Finch found a wide-open Brian Marshall for the 18-yard touchdown, putting the Mustangs up 7-0.
The Ravens were able to get a single point on the board after a deep punt from kicker Andrew Banerjee caused Yannick Harou to go down in the end zone.
But it didn’t take long for the Mustangs to find the scoring touch again. With the Mustangs deep in Ravens territory, Matt Uren caught an 11-yard pass from Finch to get the ‘Stangs second touchdown of the quarter. Mustangs kicker Lirim Hajrullahu converted on the extra point to give the Mustangs a 14-1 lead after the first 15 minutes.
Western’s offence continued to rack up points against the young Carleton team during the second quarter.
Early on in the second, a Mustangs touchdown was called back after a holding penalty, but on the same drive Garret Sanvido drove the ball four yards for his first touchdown of the night, extending the Mustangs lead to 21-1.
The Mustangs would record two more singles before Finch added his own one-yard rushing touchdown to stretch the Mustangs lead, which was then extended further after Carleton conceded a safety to make it 32-1.
On the Mustangs next drive, Sinclair ran the ball 26 yards for his first official touchdown. In a rare occurrence, Hajrullahu missed the conversion attempt, however, the senior kicker picked up a single point on the kickoff.
With just 19 seconds remaining in the first half, receiver George Johnson caught an 18-yard pass from Finch and barreled past the Ravens defence to squeeze his way into the end zone for his second touchdown of the season, giving the Mustangs the dominating 46-1 lead at halftime.
The third quarter was more of the same with both Sinclair and Sanvido each picking up their second rushing touchdowns on the day, and another single point from Hajrullahu gave the Mustangs a 61-1 lead entering the final 15 minutes of play.
In the final frame Western quarterback Stevenson Bone notched the first touchdown of his OUA career, scoring on a two-yard rush just over two minutes into the fourth quarter. It would prove to be the final major of the day as Banerjee nailed a 40-yard field goal to give the Ravens their first points since the opening quarter, while Hajrullahu closed out the scoring with a 20-yard field goal of his own to make it a 71-4 victory for the Mustangs.
Despite back-to-back lopsided wins, coach Marshall said he isn’t worried about playing a strong team like the McMaster Marauders next week.
“We know we’re going to have to play the McMasters and Queen’s at some point. We’ve got three good opponents coming up so we’ll find out how good of a football team we are.”
The Mustangs will travel to Hamilton on Saturday, September 7, to take on the 1-1 McMaster Marauders. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. at Ron Joyce Stadium.
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Ottawa 44 Waterloo 32
Quarterback Aaron Colbon (Ottawa, Ont.) threw for 452 yards and the Ottawa Gee Gees put up an impressive 670 offensive yards to defeat the Waterloo Warriors 44-32 at Warrior Field on Labour Day afternoon.
Colbon was 28-for-40 with four passing touchdowns and one rushing while Warrior starting quarterback Jamie Cook (Collingwood, Ont.) was poised all afternoon going 24-for-40 with 297 passing yards of his own.
Colbon didn’t waste any time putting his Gee Gees on top throwing a 78 yard strike to receiver Ben Fisher (Kingston, Ont.) before calling his own number on a 1-yard run for the major only 2:18 into the game.
Ottawa would pad their lead on a field goal before Waterloo gave the home crowd something to cheer about as Cook laid in a perfect pass for Paul Cecile (Azilda, Ont.) into the endzone making the score 10-7 for the visiting Gee Gees.
Following a single by Waterloo kicker Jake Fiorucci (Niagara Falls, Ont.), the Warriors found themselves on top for the first time thanks to a 17-yard field goal by Fiorucci.
Waterloo’s first lead of 2013 would last all of two minutes before Brendan Gillanders (Orleans, Ont.) would coral a 3-yard pass to put the Gee Gees up 17-11. Ottawa would add a rouge late in the half to take an 18-11 lead into the break.
The flood gates would open for both squads in the third quarter with Ottawa capitalizing first on Colbon’s third passing touchdown of the game. His 25-yard bullet to Gillanders put Ottawa in front 25-11.
On the ensuing possession the resilient Warriors would march down the field setup by a tremendous catch by Brandon Eaket (Kitchener, Ont.) in triple coverage setting up a 1-yard run by Danny Silvestri to cut into the Ottawa lead.
Ottawa would make a statement late in the third quarter scoring two touchdowns in the late going of the third quarter to take a commanding 43-18 lead. The first coming off a 6-yard pass from Colbon to Nicolas Dagher (Beirut, Lebanon) and the second a perfect 52-yard strike to Simon Le Marquand (Gatineau, Que.).
The black and gold would be ignited before the end of the busy third quarter as Miklos McMaster (Niagara Falls, Ont.) would pick off Colbon and turn it back down field 30 yards. Following several Ottawa penalties Cook would leap over his offensive line for the major.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Waterloo would once again march down the field led by second year running back Glorian Ganza (Kitchener, Ont.) who on his third touch of the drive would punch it in from 1-yard to cut Ottawa’s lead to only 11.
The Warriors offence would have one more crack at the end zone but Ottawa’s defence stood tall and after adding a single would take the game 44-32.
With the win Ottawa improves to 1-1 on the season and will host the Toronto Varsity Blues (0-1) next weekend while Waterloo (0-2) make the long trip to Ottawa to face the Carleton Ravens (0-0), their first home game since their return to the OUA.
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No. 7 Guelph 24 Windsor 23
At Guelph, Ont., kicker Daniel Ferraro hit a 17-yard field goal with three seconds left to give the Gryphons (2-0) win over the Lancers (1-1). Ferraro had three field goals on the day.
No. 2 Queen’s 31 No. 6 McMaster 24
At Kingston, Ont., defensive back Yann Dika-Balotoken picked off two passes and returned them for touchdowns to lead the second-ranked Gaels (2-0) to victory over the No. 6 Marauders (1-1).
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Toronto 27 Laurier 20
At Waterloo, Ont., QB Chris Jugovic threw two TDs for 259 yards and running back Aaron Milton threw a 20-yard touchdown pass as well as the Varsity Blues (1-1) downed the Golden Hawks (0-2).