A whole new team walked onto Columbia Ice Field Saturday evening.
The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks came into the game 0-3 and were looking of their first win of the season.
But instead of just winning a game, they made a statement, in a 41-10 win over the crosstown rivals, the Waterloo Warriors.
“We had a statement to prove. We worked hard a practice and came to do what we could do,” said running back Dillon Campbell following the game.
The Hawks came into the Battle of Waterloo an entirely new team. From the opening kickoff, the visitors kept themselves composed and fell behind quarterback James Fracas, who was getting his first career start.
“Fracas has worked hard,” head coach Michael Faulds said. “Julien did a little better in training camp so we decided to go with him, but I was proud of James. He took it really well and he said coach, I’m going to be ready. And this week his name was called and he was ready.”
The Hawks’ offence started early, as Campbell would get one of his two touchdowns of the night at 12:13 of the first quarter. But merely two minutes later, third-year kicker Ronnie Pfeffer would convert a 31-yard field goal to put Laurier up 10-0.
But that wasn’t the end of Laurier. With less than seven minutes left in the quarter, Fracas would jump into the endzone for another seven points on the Hawks’ tally.
Pfeffer would add a 32-yarder by the end of the quarter to put Laurier up 20-0 over the Warriors.
The second quarter stayed relatively quiet for both teams, as the only offence came from a Warrior field goal, when third-year kicker Jake Fiorucci would notch a 16-yard field goal and put Waterloo on the board.
Ahead 21-0 going into the third, Faulds asserted to his players that they had to play four quarters.
And so they did.
Campbell would run his second touchdown of the night into the endzone on a 27-yard rush, and then Pfeffer would put up another field goal to put Laurier ahead 31-3 before the beginning of the fourth.
It would take until 11:40 of the fourth quarter for Waterloo to finally cross into the endzone, as Cody Tapsell received a five-yard pass from Brian Chris. However, Laurier’s offence would take over again, putting Rashad La Touche to work on a eight-yard rush. Pfeffer’s 35-yard field goal would round out the scoring for the night, and the Hawks won their first game of the season.
Fracas would go 15-26 and 170 yards, while Campbell registered two touchdowns and 180 yards on 25 attempts.
This was also head coach Faulds’ first-career win as a Golden Hawk.
“Our offence, we had a great game plan coming into the game,” Fracas said. “Obviously our running attacking was phenomenal. Dillon Campbell played the best I’ve seen a running back play and we really rode his back and that helped with this game.”
Laurier now looks ahead to their next matchup, which is with the current Ontario University Athletics (OUA) hothouse, the Western Mustangs.
“I’ve already broken down three games of Western, so we’re already getting ready for them,”
