Mustangs earn playoff bye after 8-0 season

Break OUA record for points scored in a season

As former sports editor of The Woodstock Sentinel-Review ('92-'98) and a long-time broadcaster with many credits for Western Mustangs football on Rogers TV, I tackled a season recap story about OUA football at Western for the Canadian Press. 

The story has appeared in many papers over the past couple of days.

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Western completes OUA football schedule at 8-0

By Mark Schadenberg

For THE CANADIAN PRESS

LONDON, Ont – In OUA football, the best two teams can rest on the first weekend of playoffs.

With an unblemished 8-0 mark, the Western Mustangs not only earned the bye past the quarter-finals stage in Ontario University Athletics football, the No. 1 team in the CIS rankings seemingly week-by-week dominated, combining to outscore its opponents 458-148.

In seven of eight games, the Mustangs put 50 or more on the scoreboard, including an 83-27 romp over Ottawa, out-pacing the (eventual second-place) 7-1 Queen’s Gaels 50-31, and capping the campaign this past weekend 50-10 over the York Lions.

Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall, who was the CFL coach of the year with Hamilton in 2004, instituted a new play book at spring workout sessions, but didn’t introduce it on the field until Western’s third game of the season.

“You have to take the schedule week-by-week, but we felt if we were 3-1 after playing (MacMaster) and Ottawa in our third and fourth games, that would be a good start,” said Marshall. “Instead we got off to a great start and built some momentum, and the offence played with more and more confidence.”

“Against Mac we introduced the new formation – a unique set for our offence where the quarterback (Will Finch) is in shotgun and we have three receivers in the backfield in motion. It’s been effective and we’ve done a pretty good job of balancing the run and the pass.”

Western would beat the defending OUA Yates Cup champions in Hamilton, 58-15.

The schedule did include one stumble, but not a complete-game fumbled as Western trailed Wilfrid Laurier on Sept. 21, 17-5 late in the second quarter, but responded with a 45-24 victory.

“After that game, I told the players it was good to go through some adversity and it was a learning experience,” said Marshall. “In that game, we had shot ourselves in the foot early on offensively. We were playing out of rhythm. We had to settle back down and play more patient.

“In the second half, I think Will Finch had a stretch where he threw 10 consecutive receptions at one point.”

Recording Records

Along the eight-game sweep, several OUA records were surpassed, including most points in a season (458), eclipsing the 2004 McMaster Marauders (424), which interestingly were also coached by Marshall.

Compiling 130 points, Mustangs kicker Lirim Hajrullahu earned the third highest number ever and also became the OUA all-time leader with 422, passing the Neil Lumsden standard of 410 from 1972-75. To top it off, Hajrullahu also now owns the OUA career field goals record with 77.

The Mustangs potent offence is certainly paced by quarterback Finch, who set a national CIS record for completed yardage (3,047), passing a former Mustang in Michael Faulds, who today is head coach at Laurier. Finch, who is just a second-year player, has favourite targets in George Johnson (60 catches, 982 yards led the OUA, 5 TDs), Brian Marshall (34, 753, 9 TDs), and slotback Matt Uren (17, 254, 1) who is healthy now but missed four games due to a hamstring injury.

Marshall describes Uren as “maybe the most dynamic athlete on the team.”

The Finch stats would logically suggest he could be a nominee for CIS MVP – the Hec Creighton Award, which Marshall garnered in 1980 as a running back for Western.

“Will Finch certainly could be a candidate,” agreed Marshall. “He could possibly represent (the OUA) for that honour. He’s had that type of season. He shows such poise and leadership as he directs the offence.”

Finch feigns some of his fame by complementing the receivers.

“The O-line has been great all year, and the receivers are great at running their routes and catching the ball,” says Finch. “Everyone on this team puts in the same hard work to create the chemistry – a real team bond. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing for a high school football championship or trying to win a Vanier Cup.”

Injuries have taken a toll on the offensive backfield as Western lost Garret Sanvido to injury versus Laurier, and Adam Sinclair in the Queen’s contest. Yannick Harou is now the last of three main ball carriers standing as Marshall feels Sinclair’s season is over and Sanvido is doubtful for any of the playoffs.

Including points from the defence, Western had 17 different players with at least one major, including fifth-year linebacker Pawel Kruba with a 50-yard interception return versus Ottawa.

“We have a really cohesive team,” said Kruba, who as a student-athlete also realizes he is a student of the game. “We watch a lot of game film with coach (defensive coordinator Paul) Gleason to break down the tendencies of our next opponent and then execute it on the field.

“It’s fun to watch our offence from the sidelines, so we know our job is to get the ball back for our offence.”

Kruba noted the defence hinges on the play of Beau Landry, Rickey Osei-Kusi, Sean Blake, Rory Connop, Daryl Waud, Preston Huggins and others.

“We’ve had high expectations for ourselves since the beginning of the year and we knew we had a good team,” Kruba continued.

Marshall adds a reason the team has had success with a generally young squad, is the work of recruiting coordinator Chris Bertoia, who is also the offensive line coach.

“Last year, we graduated four off the offensive line. On offence last week, we started nine or 10 second-year players,” said Marshall as he prepared for a semifinal opponent of either Ottawa, McMaster or Windsor at home on Nov. 2.  

Quarterfinal Matchups

The OUA quarterfinals are Saturday with Ottawa Gee-Gees (5-3) at McMaster Marauders (5-3) at 1 p.m. in Hamilton, and Windsor Lancers (4-4) at Guelph Gryphons (7-1) at 8 p.m. 

(Pictures / logos from www.westernmustangs.ca)