The Laurier Golden Hawks faced off against the Western Mustangs in what ultimately was a competitive game, but the Hawks fell out of contention late in the third quarter.
The final score was 45-26. This puts the Hawk team into a 4-1 record.
The team’s defence kept them in the game, with a fumble returned for a touchdown, and an interception from Godfrey Onyeka in the first half. It was a close game until a third quarter passing attack made the Golden Hawks fall behind.
A deep pass down the sideline was one last offensive push to keep Laurier in the game. Second-year wide recover, Brentyn Hall connected with quarterback Michael Knevel for his fist career touchdown.
The Golden Hawk ground game was held to a slow start with Eric Guiltinan as the lead back. However, Levondre Gordon was productive on his touches, giving the team a needed offensive spark.
Head coach Michael Faulds knew things needed to be corrected for Laurier to make a push in the playoffs.
“They know we run the ball a lot, so they were really stacking the box.”
Faulds continued to say how this gives the receivers one-on-one coverage.
Several deep passes were incomplete from Michael Kneval.
“We weren’t quite connecting, we had Curly on a deep one that was a bit overthrown. We had Curly in the end zone that went kind of through his hands … and then in the second half those completions, we started to get them,” said Faulds, regarding the team’s slow start to the passing game.
A talented Western front took the run off the table for the Laurier offence. In situations like these, a passing game becomes critical to lean on to balance the defence. For the Hawks, the completions in the passing game came too late to salvage the match.
“We’re going to build off this,” said Faulds, as the Hawks are scheduled to face the University of Toronto next week.