Mustangs ride past Windsor

By Jonathon Brodie/London Community News / Twitter: @jonathonbrodie Ontario University Athletic (OUA) fans came to the Matt Uren show and a football game broke out between the Western Mustangs and Windsor Lancers at TD Waterhouse Stadium on Saturday (Oct. 27). Mustangs’ Uren dived for catches to pick up 166 receiving yards, ran long distances to gain 135 yards on punt returns and even rushed the ball three times to get 40 yards on the ground to help lead Western to a 56-35 win in the quarter-final playoff matchup. Just about the only thing the second-year Mustang receiver didn’t do was throw the ball to himself on his four touchdown catches. Going into the game he only had two touchdowns this season. “The whole offence did pretty well. (Quarterback) Will Finch did a good job distributing the ball and other receivers had a pretty good game, but the ball just found its way to me more often than not,” Uren said, his four touchdown tying an OUA single game playoff record. “It’s nice to hear about the rewards. I go there to win the game and this would mean nothing if we didn’t win the game.” The Mustangs have scored the bulk of their points in the second quarter this season, contributing 100 of their 327 points in the frame and Saturday’s game was no different. Uren and the rest of Western did most of their damage in the second quarter when the London native picked up three of his touchdowns before halftime. Running back Yannick Harou also marched into the end zone in the second, while Lirim Hajrullah kicked a 31-yard field goal to round out the 31 points Western put up in the frame. “We took the win in the third quarter because being up what we were in the first half we thought if we score another touchdown or another couple points and the game is over going into the fourth quarter,” said Mustangs’ head coach Greg Marshall of his team’s 44-12 lead after 30 minutes. The Lancers charged back a bit in the second half scoring 23 more points before the final whistle, but the hole the Mustangs dug for Windsor proved to be too much to overcome. Known as traditional pocket passer, Finch had showed off his speed in the last two games of the season when he rushed for 224 yards collectively. In Saturday’s matchup he returned to his roots and finished the game completing 20 of his 29 passes for 334 yards and only getting 12 yards on the ground. “Today (the Lancers) didn’t really let me run and they contained me well,” Finch said. “If I just stay in the pocket and make my reads you can always torch a defence.” Western’s defence gave up a total of 470 yards in the air and on the ground, but came up big when they picked off three passes from Windsor’s quarterback Austin Kennedy—the OUA’s regular season leader in passing yards (2,637) and interceptions (15). Going into the game the Mustangs had only four interceptions all season with three of those coming in their matchup against Kennedy on Sept. 19 in a 46-23 win. Western will travel to Hamilton on Saturday (Nov. 3) to take on the unbeaten McMaster Marauders with kickoff at 4:30 p.m.  The game will be televised on TheScore. The Mustangs played the Marauders in their homecoming game on Sept. 29 where Western lost 33-27 and starting quarterback Donnie Marshall was sidelined with an ankle injury. Donnie hasn’t played a game since the injury, but he did dress for the first time in the quarter-final matchup. He’s not expected to start against McMaster. “I really believe we match really well with McMaster,” Greg Marshall said. “They’re a good team and we’re a good team. Let’s just hope for good weather.” [gallery link="file"] Find us on Facebook: London Community News