LONDON, Ont. - Kyle Quinlan led the McMaster Marauders to four first-half touchdowns to pace his squad to a 42-35 upset over the No. 2 ranked Western Mustangs at TD Waterhouse Stadium on Oct. 3, spoiling Homecoming at TD Waterhouse Stadium for 9,266 mostly-Western fans.
Stats
Western trailed 28-0 at the half with the Marauders completely dominating the game. Western had 194 yards of total offence but had failed to score.
With the loss, Western falls to 4-1, while McMaster improves to 3-2.
Quinlan (South Woodslee, Ont.) ran for 72 yards and three touchdowns and was 17/22 for 272 yards and another three touchdowns in the win. Jordan Kozina (Brantford, Ont.) was also superb, running 11 times for 69 yards and adding a pair of catches for 47 yards.
"It feels great," the Marauders pivot said following the game. "It was so important for us with this crowd to build an early lead and we had to silence them."
They executed their game plan almost to perfection - and had some help from key injuries to Mustangs personnel including lineman Mike Van Praet who may have broken his fibula in the opening drive.
It was all McMaster early with two touchdowns, an interception, a blocked field goal and a fumble recovery in the opening quarter. They led 14-0 after the first quarter.
"We knew Western was a heck of a team coming in," Quinlan said. "We knew their defence would not give us easy yards, but our offensive line really made the difference today. They were great."
Greg Marshall, Western's head coach who is now 0-2 against his former McMaster team in three seasons, was disappointed with the overall Mustangs effort.
"Not a lot went well," he said. "Lots has been made about us being the No. 2 ranked team... I'm not naive. We have to get better. Our defence needs to get better, our special teams need to get better."
Marshall said injuries played a factor, especially the loss of Van Praet. Andy Rady the starting centre was out and Conor Elliott (London, Ont.), Zach Bull (Port Colborne, Ont.) and several others also missed considerable action with their own bumps and bruises.
But he would not make excuses and said the inconsistency of the offence and "lack of identity" on special teams gave McMaster the edge.
"And to their credit, they are a very well coached football team. They outcoached us today and I don't like to say it but it's the truth," Marshall said. "Our offence needs to be more consistent and needs to score points so we're not digging ourselves out of a hole."
Michael Faulds, who lacked solid protection again and was forced to scramble, gave Western life in the second half.
The senior from Eden Mills, Ont., finished with 56 rushing yards and was 30/48 for 491 yards with one interception and two touchdowns in the air. But he was sacked four times and hurried throughout the game.
He did his best to lead the Western offence in the third quarter, giving Western three touchdowns in just over five minutes.
"I was mad with our players... we got them on their heels and our kickoff team pinned them and we had them, and then they drove the field and scored."
"We didn't work hard enough. We'll go through watching film tomorrow and it will be worse than going through a tough practice."
Western pulled within seven points midway through the third quarter after a Da'shawn Thomas (Conyers, Ga.) two-yard touchdown run, but Quinlan engineered a master drive, connection with receiver Matt Peressini for a huge 39-yard play that set up a one-yard Quinlan touchdown run.
It put a stop to Western's comeback bid and took the crowd out of the game for good.
Nathan Riva (LaSalle, Ont.), who led Western with 10 rushes for 65 yards and added three catches for 41 yards, scored a late touchdown on a 12-yard run to pull Western within seven points again with 1:16 left, but Western turned the ball over on downs on their next possession and McMaster ran the clock out.
Sean Fahey scored two touchdowns - one to open the scoring on a 12-yard pass from Quinlan and the other a 9-yard pass for the winning points.
Western's Lirim Hajrullahu (St. Catharines, Ont.) had two field goals blocked in his CIS debut, while Craig Butler (London, Ont.) moved to punt return to replace the injured Ryan Tremblay (London, Ont.).
A first-quarter Butler fumble off a punt gave McMaster excellent field position and Quinlan scored on a second-down attempt from one yard out to make it 14-0.
Receiver Kevin D'Hollander (London, Ont.) made it 21-0 catching a 24-yard strike from Quinlan with 12:45 left in the second quarter and Quinlan scored his second major of the day, on another one-yard run with 3:19 left in the half to make it 28-0.
Nick Pasic (London, Ont.) was outstanding on the day pulling in five passes for 67 yards, but the receiving corps as a unit had "too many dropped balls," according to Marshall.
Western's comeback bid in the third was orchestrated by Faulds who hit Dan Duff (London, Ont.) on an eight-yards screen pass, capping off a three play 55 yard drive to make it 28-7.
Western forced a two and out of their own, including a bad snap to Quinlan, and got the ball back inside the McMaster half.
Faulds hit Nick Trevail (London, Ont.) on a 44-yard strike, beating his man deep in the secondary, and just like that Western was back within two touchdowns, 28-14.
Thomas added Western's third touchdown in five minutes, running in to cap off another quick, three-play and 70-yard Western drive to make it 28-21.
But on the next McMaster possession, Quinlan scrambled and ran for a first down, and McMaster was lucky to recover the ball after a fumble on the play, and eventually they scored on Quinlan's third touchdown run of the game and never looked back.
Western's next home game is on Thursday Oct. 8 when the Mustangs host the winless York Lions (0-5) at 7 p.m. at TD Waterhouse Stadium.
"We just couldn't get over the hump today," Faulds said. "We need to be better, and we played a lot better in the second half."
Other Week 5 OUA Games
Guelph 34 Waterloo 24
Queen's 42 Windsor 13
Toronto 45 York 27
Ottawa 27 Laurier 25
