You’d think both teams had already given up.
In a game that had ‘playoffs’ written all over it, the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks and the Waterloo Warriors battled as if they both knew they’re not going anywhere.
Regardless, a comedy of errors led to a final of 12-0 for the Golden Hawks, improving their record to 3-3.
“Today we were just trying to work hard,” defensive tackle Asante Mizan said. “We were trying to bounce back from the loss we had last week. Just working hard.”
The Warriors now drop to 1-5, making it mathematically impossible for them to make the playoffs. With Laurier and the University of Toronto Varsity Blues currently in a tiebreaker position, Waterloo has no chance of contention. Laurier, meanwhile is clinging to slim playoff hopes, needing either an upset win over McMaster or Western or the University of Toronto to lose out.
At the half, the Hawks had retained a 3-0 lead. Ronnie Pfeffer found the goal posts at 32 yards to give Laurier the lead, but that was as much that would be mustered in 30 minutes.
Midway through the third quarter, second-year kicker Pfeffer made a season best and career high 44-yard field goal to put the Hawks ahead 6-0.
“It’s more our offence. Our offence drove us down the field,” Pfeffer said regarding his performance. “All you gotta say is my line held perfect. [Mitchell] Bosch had perfect snaps every time I kicked a field goal. It held perfectly for me.”
Felix Odum picked up the home team’s first interception of the game shortly after, and only their second of the year. This would be added onto later in the game when Chris Ackie would stop a deep pass in the Hawks’ endzone to diminish Waterloo’s last-minute chances.
Before the end of the quarter, Pfeffer made his third kick from 39 yards to push the Hawks ahead 9-0.
Both teams continuously produced turnovers, with seven occurring before the end of the first half.
By the midway point of the fourth quarter, the Hawks mustered enough energy to get to the 42-yard line before Pfeffer kicked his fourth field goal of the night to close out the scoring.
Pfeffer was 4-4 on his field goals, and punted seven times for 240 yards.
The Hawks will have nine days off until they head to London to take on the Western Mustangs in another must-win game.
“We’re just going to keep fighting hard,” Mizan said. “We’ve always had bad blood but we’re just going to keep hard, stay on our assignment, work hard and just keep fighting.”
