Western Mustangs win battle of unbeaten teams over Laurier Golden Hawks

The Western Mustang football team is alone at the top of the OUA standings. And now they have some room to spare.

The Mustangs went into University Stadium in Waterloo on Saturday and beat the 4-0 Laurier Golden Hawks 29-13 to remain the only unbeaten team in the OUA.

In fact, Western is the only team in the country with a 6-0 record.

It took their most impressive effort on the ground, coupled with a bend-not-break pass defense to make it happen.

Western finished the game with 361 yards rushing, led by quarterback Chris Merchant, who ran for 143 of those yards on just 11 attempts. The Mustangs only went to the air 16 times in the game.

On the other side of the ball, Western’s defense was able to allow star Golden Hawks’ receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr. 18 catches for 174 yards, but kept him out of the end zone all afternoon.

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In fact, the only Laurier player to cross the goal line was third-year receiver Daniel Bennett.

Mustang running back Cedric Joseph scored both Western touchdowns as part of an 80-yard day. All-Canadian running back Alex Taylor piled up 124 yards.

While the Mustang offensive line was opening holes, Western continued the success they have had using a rotation on their defensive line.

Defensive tackle Jimmy Hawley summed up how big the victory was following the game, saying, “We’ve been boiling on this for a long time now… coach Gleason, credit to him, coach Marshall and all the coaches for getting us prepared. We had a bunch of different packages, you could see different guys subbing in almost every down.”

Jordan Beaulieu led Western with seven solo tackles.

Mustang head coach Greg Marshall was complimentary of his team’s play.

Perhaps the most underrated part of that team is the guy with the golden boot. After going six-for-six a week ago against Queens, kicker Marc Liegghio kept his streak of field goals alive with a 5-for-5 day.

Next up for the Mustangs is a game at home to the Carleton Ravens on Friday, Oct. 6 at TD Stadium.

Carleton is coming off a thriller in the Panda game against the Ottawa U Gee Gees on Saturday, that saw the Ravens win 33-30 in double overtime.

Carleton is 2-3 on the season.

Following that game, Western will have a bye week before hosting the Gee Gees in their final game of the regular season.