WATERLOO — The Western Mustangs will get a chance to defend their Yates Cup championship.
The two-time Ontario university football champions will look for their third in succession next week when they take on Queen’s Gaels in Kingston.
The Mustangs got there with an impressive 26-16 win Laurier Golden Hawks Saturday in Waterloo in an OUA semifinal.
It was impressive in many ways for the Mustangs.
Nathan Riva ran an OUA record 42 times gaining 279 yards allowing the Mustangs to control the game. He had touchdowns of 22 and 55 yards during his most excellent day.
The Mustang defence limited Laurier to 252 yards, most of them on a final drive in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of reach.
The Mustang offensive line did a job on a tough Laurier defence. Not only did they allow Riva to run wild but they also protected quarterback Michael Faulds.
Faulds looks like he’s being held together with medical tape. He went out on the first series in the game hurting and already injured knee and while he came back and played the rest of the game, his limp was noticeable.
But the offensive line limited the number of hits he took.
Matt Norman played both the offensive and defensive line for most of the day. It was an impressive performance for him as well.
“It was a gratifying win the way we did it,” said Mustangs’ coach Greg Marshall. “Michael got banged up a little bit and it was hard because I didn’t want to put him in a situation where he had to run out of the pocket.
“So we had to run the football. Laurier knew we were going to run it and the offensive line did a great job blocking.”
Faulds has to be one of the toughest players to ever wear a Mustang uniform. He would limp on and off the field and still managed 238 yards passing.
But it was Riva who carried the day. His 279 yards was third best in Mustangs history, behind Randy McAuley’s 285 and his coach Greg Marshall’s 317 yards 28-years ago to the day.
Marshall’s total was an CIS playoff record until it was broken by Ottawa’s Davie Mason in 2008 with 327 yards.
“He was beating my record,” laughed Marshall about Riva. “That record is getting further and further first to the Ottawa guy now it’s just a Western playoff record. That’s why we didn’t give him any more carries in the end.
“Nathan Riva ran hard. He took that shot at halftime and there was a lot of yelling from the other team. I told our guys, ‘it’s a 60-minute game. Not time to be celebrating yet.’ Our guys came out and took it to them in the third quarter. He ran hard.”
Riva was hurt in the first quarter and then was helped off the last play of the first half.
The Hawks came out of the half leading 9-6.
The first half became a test of physical wills. The strong wind made throwing the ball difficult so both Laurier and Western decided the safe thing to do was run the ball.
Western did it almost exclusively with Riva who carried the ball 22 times for 144 yards.
The Hawks ran everyone, including quarterback Evan Pawliuk who ran the ball seven times for 48 yards. Burly back Mike Montoya hammered away six times for 31 yards.
Neither team was particularly successful passing the ball. The Hawks especially had a lot of trouble. Pawliuk only managed three pass completions and until late in the first half, had managed only one.
But Pawliuk made his passes count. With six seconds left in the first half and going into the wind, he lofted a perfect 30-yard strike to Dillon Heap for a touchdown. Heap beat Mustang Aaron Handsor. It gave the Hawks a 9-6 halftime lead.
That score was more than reflective of the lack of offence.
The Mustangs did manage to move the ball better than the Hawks. But whenever it looked as if they would do something, they weren’t able to execute.
The Mustangs failed to convert on a third and one deep in Hawks territory. It was those types of missed opportunities that hurt the Mustangs.
But it was a different Mustang team in the second half.
They didn’t make mistakes and terrorized Pawliuk, scoring 17 points in the third quarter.
“Coach Marshall just gives us a talk and gets us focus and ready to go out there and take control of the game,” Norman said. “He said ‘it’s up to you guys now. It’s in your hands. Do you want to walk out winners or losers?’”
“The line did a great job blocking all game,” Riva said. “They opened a lot of holes for me and it feels great. This is a great time to play football in November. It’s the playoffs. You win or you go home and now we have a chance to redeem ourselves in Kingston and play for a Yates Cup.”
The Mustangs lost to Queen’s in Kingston by a point during the regular season.
Until Norman was interviewed after the game, he had no idea that Queen’s had defeated McMaster.
“Awesome,” he said when he found out. “Beautiful opportunity. Can’t wait.”
