Coming into today’s game, the Golden Hawks knew what they had to do to secure their fate and – in dominant fashion – they made it clear what their destiny would be.
The game started out with both McMaster and Laurier’s teams playing good defense – and a lot of penalties. On Laurier’s third possession of the first quarter, there was one point where there were four straight plays with penalties.
The fourth play would be where the tide would turn.
The penalty was a defensive pass interference on a 39 yard catch made by Brentyn Hall to the McMaster 21 yard line. A couple of plays later, Tristan Arndt, making his first start, opened the scoring, throwing a 27 yard touchdown to Kurleigh Gittens Jr.
Besides a McMaster 98 yard touchdown by Dan Petermann, which made it 14-7 for the moment, the game was all Laurier.
The defense would have a field day, racking up five sacks, two interceptions and a forced fumble that was recovered. Two of those sacks would come from Robbie Smith, who broke the Laurier single-season record with 10.5 sacks.
In addition to that, Kurleigh Gittens Jr. would break the Laurier single season record with 953 yards and the U Sports single season record with 75 catches in the year.
And finally, in his triumphant start at quarterback, Tristan Arndt would finish going 18-23, 213 yards and three touchdowns, as well as rushing for 65 yards and another touchdown.
The final score was 40-15.
“Massive win,” head coach Michael Faulds said, “This is the first time both O[ffense] and D[efense] came together – and both played well in the same week – and this just proves what we can do if we do that.”
This important win earns the Golden Hawks a first round by in the OUA playoffs.
This article was edited on Oct. 23, 2017.
