Mustangs win their 30th Yates Cup Championship

LONDON  – Although Greg Marshall wouldn’t say for certain, this just might be one of the best football team’s Western has ever fielded. But what is certain is these Mustangs can say they are the best football team in the OUA this year after defeating the Queen’s Gaels 51-22 to claim the 106th Yates Cup.

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“This team is one of the best teams I’ve had the pleasure to coach,” said Marshall.

This marks the 30th time Western has hoisted the Yates Cup. The last time the Mustangs took home the championship was in 2010.

Amazingly, it’s also the 18th Yates Cup victory for Marshall, who’s hoisted the trophy four times as head coach of the Mustangs, another four times as head coach at McMaster, seven times as a Mustangs assistant coach, and three times as a Western player.

Mustangs receiver Matt Uren was awarded the Dalt White Trophy as Yates Cup MVP. Uren looked to be out early in the game after taking a hit on the opening kick-off, but the fourth-year receiver bounced back and caught two touchdowns—including a phenomenal stretching grab in the third quarter—and had 128 yards receiving in the win.

Uren has battled injury the entire season and said being recognized as the MVP “feels great.”

“The win’s the most important, but this feels great,” Uren said, adding he was in a considerable amount of pain throughout the game but “was confident I was going to be able to come back.”

Mustangs quarterback and OUA MVP Will Finch had another strong performance, throwing for 252 yards, with three touchdowns and adding another 77 yards on the ground.

Finch credited his teammates’ effort after the game.

“Our whole team played awesome,” Finch said “My o-line bought me so much time and the receivers made some fantastic catches, so that’s all you can ask for as a quarterback.”

On the defensive end, linebackers Pawel Kruba and Preston Huggins led the team with eight tackles, with Huggins also adding one interception on the day.

Queen’s quarterback Billy McPhee had 275 passing yards and threw for two touchdowns with two interceptions.

On their opening drive, Mustangs kicker Lirim Hajrullahu nailed a 23-yard field goal to put the team up 3-0. After failing to score, a Queen’s punt took a fortuitous bounce and the Mustangs started their drive deep in their own territory, eventually conceding a safety to narrow their lead to 3-2.

Queen’s kicker Dillon Wamsley added a 30-yard field goal to give the Queen’s the 5-3 at the end of 15 minutes.

However, the Mustangs offence woke up in the second quarter. After Hajrullahu kicked a 31-yard field goal, Mustangs running back Yannick Harou carried the ball three yards into the end zone for the first major of the day. The Mustangs would add a rouge immediately after to go up 14-5.

With Queen’s threatening on the next drive, Huggins came up with a huge interception at the Queen’s 50-yard line to give the ball right back to the Mustangs. Hajrullahu again came up huge a few plays later, nailing a long 49-yard field goal to extend Western’s lead to 17-5.

Finch would connect with Uren late in the quarter with a 16-yard pass and Hajrullahu would get another single to bring the score to 25-5 after two quarters.

The Mustangs continued to press in the third quarter further extending their lead with a touchdown pass to Brian Marshall in the corner of the end zone to make it 32-5 in favour of the purple and white.

Following a single, both Harou and Uren would earn their second touchdowns of the game on the next two drives, putting the Mustangs up 47-5. Hajrullahu would cap off the scoring in the third with another single, putting Western up 48-5 with one quarter remaining.

Early in the fourth, McPhee connected with Justin Chapdelaine, who carried it into the end zone for the Gaels first touchdown. The Gaels would add a two-point convert, to narrow the score to 48-13.

Hajrullahu would come in again to kick a long field goal, this time a 41-yard attempt, to help the Mustangs eclipse the 50-point mark for the eighth time this season.

The Gaels added a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Mustangs took the game 51-22.

After the game, coach Marshall said this victory was a complete team effort.

“That was as big and as solid as a team victory as we’ve had here in a long time,” he said.

However, even after securing his fourth Yates Cup as head coach of the Mustangs, Marshall said the team still has work to do if they want to win the Vanier Cup.

“We got to get back to work tomorrow and take the next step, but this was a great win for our football program and our football team.”

The Mustangs will be heading west next weekend to take on the Hardy Cup champion Calgary Dinos in the Mitchell Bowl. The winner then moves on to compete in the 49th Vanier Cup on November 23 in Quebec City.

Photo credit:  Michael P Hall

Source:  Kaitlyn McGrath, Western Mustangs Sports Information
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LONDON – The No. 4 Queen’s Gaels could not make their way back after falling behind to the No. 1 Western Mustangs at TD Waterhouse Stadium in London. The Mustangs took the 106th Yates Cup 51-22 in front of 5,805 fans.

“Our goal was to get to the Yates Cup game, many of the kids would have been disappointed had we not got here,” said head coach Pat Sheahan after the loss. “We did get here and we competed for a championship. Sometimes you have to win some big games on the road and these were the two we couldn’t win against the best team. It was a terrific year there is no question about that.”

The Gaels were undone by a strong offensive effort from Western QB Will Finch and the Mustang offense. On the day Finch hooked up with Matt Uren on seven occasions with two coming for touchdowns. Gaels quarterback Billy McPhee (Burlington, Ont.) was 21 for 35 for 275 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Receivers Justin Chapdelaine (Abbotsford, B.C.) and Doug Corby (Burlington, Ont.) both finished with 82 yards receiving and a touchdown for the Gaels.

Justin Baronaitis (Rexdale, Ont.) led all defensive players on the day with 13.5 tackles. Preston Huggins had eight tackles and an interception for Western.

After the Gaels put up a 5-3 lead after the first quarter, the Mustangs then exploded for 45 straight points to put the game out of hand. Western running back Yannick Harou ran for his two touchdowns during that span and finished with 98 yards rushing on 20 attempts on the day.

The Gaels managed to get their offense going in the fourth quarter but it was too little too late by that point. McPhee hooked up with Chapdelaine for a score and two point conversion and followed up with a 22-yard pass to Corby to bring it to 51-21. The Gaels added a rouge and for the final score of 51-22.

With the win the Mustangs have claimed their 30th Yates Cup championship, the most amongst any school. Queen’s has won 23 Yates Cup championships in their history along with seven Dunsmore Cup titles for a total of 30 league championships.

Source:  Shawn MacDonald, Queen’s Golden Gaels Sports Information

Photo credit:  Michael P Hall