Hawks shut out Warriors in ‘Battle of Waterloo’

The Wilfrid Laurier University men’s football team convincingly overcame their cross town rivals, the Waterloo Warriors, on Saturday afternoon by a final score of 44-0.

Sitting at 0-3, the Warriors have now given up a total of 110 points and have yet to score in their first three games.

The Golden Hawks now climb to 2-1 with their victory, which was head coach Michael Faulds’ first win at home.

15 of Laurier’s 44 points came from field goals off the foot of kicker Ronnie Pfeffer, who tied the school record with 5 field goals in one game. He also recorded the longest field goal in school history in the second half with a 50-yard kick.

“Honestly what is working for me this year is just our line. Everyone is doing a great job,” he said. “Jake Gassler went into the game, and it’s his first time holding and he did a great job. I’ve got to give him all the credit.”

Running back Dillon Campbell continued his strong campaign with 204 rushing yards Saturday, totalling 674 so far this season – well above anyone else in Ontario University Athletics. He was pulled from the game early in the third quarter to rest, as Laurier was already leading 31-0.

“It’s the hard work I put in. Nothing’s really changed, it’s the same offense and the same guys up front,” he said

Laurier’s large lead allowed them to use a lot of their bench and rest their starters, heading into the bye week.

Backup QB Eric Morelli saw some action in the second half, including a 40-yard scramble. Backup running backs Chucks Okafor and Eric Guiltinan both had significant opportunities to carry the ball late in the game as well. Okafor recorded the first touchdown of his career in the last minute of the game.

Faulds was glad to see the team record a win going into their bye week.

“It’s good to go into a bye week having won a game because then you would have two weeks of straight practices if you had a loss. It was good, we played well. Kudos to our defense getting a shutout,” he said.

After the bye week, Laurier hosts Carleton University for Homecoming on Sept. 27 at 1 p.m.