OUA PREVIEW: Lions kick off 2015 season against Laurier on Sunday

TORONTO  – The York University Lions football team will officially kick off 2015 on Sunday afternoon when the regular season gets underway against the visiting Laurier Golden Hawks.  

Opening kick-off is set for 1pm at York Stadium, and the game can also be seen live online at OUA.tv. Fans can purchase tickets for the game online at yorkulions.ca/tickets or at the gate on game day.

The new season has brought plenty of optimism for the Lions thanks to a stellar recruiting class and many impressive showings from veterans throughout training camp. For the first time since head coach Warren Craney took over in 2010, the Lions will mostly be led by a solid group of talented veterans and will not have a large reliance on the freshmen.

As part of training camp, the Lions hosted the Windsor Lancers in an exhibition contest on Friday night, a game that resulted in a 28-12 Windsor victory. The Lions dressed nearly every player on the roster for the game and, overall, looked vastly improved over last year. The score was 12-9 in favour of the Lancers at the half and 14-12 after three quarters before a more experienced Windsor team took control at the end.

The Golden Hawks also played a pre-season game last weekend, travelling to Saskatoon to face the Saskatchewan Huskies on Friday night. The Huskies got the best of the Golden Hawks, winning 33-10 in a rematch of the 2005 Vanier Cup, which was won by Laurier.

Laurier is coming off a bounce back year in 2014 in which they posted a 4-4 record and qualified for the playoffs as the sixth seed. Their record improved by three wins from the 2013 mark in head coach Michael Faulds’ – York’s former offensive coordinator – first season.

The Golden Hawks topped the Lions in the lone meeting between the two teams last year, winning 27-10 on their home field in Waterloo, Ont. The last time the two squads met at York Stadium, the Lions defeated the Golden Hawks 33-20 in their first contest on the new turf.

On offence, the Lions have many new pieces they are building into the rotation at the skill positions, while the offensive line is the team’s most veteran unit, featuring fifth-year tackle Jordyn Moore (Whitby, Ont.), fourth-year guard Jamal Campbell (Toronto) and fourth-year centre Chris Kolankowski (Etobicoke, Ont.).

The defence will be led by fourth-year safety Josh Small (Pickering, Ont.), the reigning team MVP after finishing second in total tackles (41.5), and fifth-year defensive end Hussein Hazime (Toronto), who was the team’s leader in tackles (49.5) and sacks (six).

Laurier’s leader is running back Dillon Campbell, who won last year’s OUA most valuable player award and was the nominee for the Hec Creighton Trophy after leading the CIS in rushing and rushing touchdowns.

As part of the game-day festivities, there will be a Pizza Pizza contest, a string bag toss, a Rock Your Red draw for a $200 Best Buy gift card and a “best seats in the house” contest. Before the game, the peewees from the Vaughan Football Club will be playing on the turf.

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