LONDON, Ont. - After two amazing games in 2009 - a one-point Mustangs regular-season road loss and a heartbreaking Yates Cup loss in one of Canadian university football's finest moments - the Western Mustangs are looking for some revenge.

And what a better weekend to exact that revenge than on national TV with a sold-out Homecoming crowd looking on. (Read about how to help your Mustangs out by making noise when Queen's has the ball)

MEDIA
TV: The Score
RADIO: AM Newstalk 1290, CJBK / 94.9 FM CHRW Radio
ONLINE VIDEO: www.thescore.ca
ONLINE AUDIO: www.cjbk.com / www.chrwradio.com/listen/
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/uwo/football/index.htm
LIVE BLOG:  http://westernmustangs.ca/news/2010/10/1/FB10_1001104019.aspx

The No. 5 nationally ranked Western Mustangs (4-1) look to put it all on the line when they welcome back running back Nathan Riva on Oct. 2 in the Homecoming clash with the desperate Queen's Gaels (1-3) a team much stronger than their record would indicate. (WEEK 6 Game Notes)

"They are as good a team as there is in our conference," said Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall who is 2-1 in Homecoming games since becoming Western's head coach in 2007. "If you look at the best teams on any given day there is no clear-cut dominant team in the OUA this season.

Coming off a deflating overtime home loss to the No. 2 nationally ranked Ottawa Gee-Gees - a contest in which Queen's outworked and outplayed the visiting squad and arguably should have won the game - Queen's hopes to pull out a road victory in London, Ont., before closing out the season with Toronto (1-3), Laurier (2-2) and York (0-4).

The three blemishes on the Queen's record could have gone either way - a five-point road loss to McMaster, a six-point road loss to Guelph and last week's home loss to Ottawa.

After being down 14-0 in the first quarter, Gaels quarterback Justin Chapdelaine - a first-year starter in his second year with Queen's - put together a 12-play, 97-yard drive to score to cut the score to 14-7 at the half.
Veteran kicker Dan Village scored a rouge on the first drive of overtime but Ottawa's Matt Falvo kicked the game-winning field-goal to win the game, allowing the Gee-Gees to improve to 5-0.

"Our record could be better but as a team we are more or less on schedule,” said Queen's Gaels head coach Pat Sheahan. "We expected the growing pains early in the year, but by the end of the season we wanted to be a tough team to beat."

"We’re pretty much on track and the guys have proved to be quite resilient. They’re definitely hungry, and they practice hard; and I think their attitude and the way they have responded has been appropriate.”

Reigning OUA offensive football player of the week and rookie receiver Giovanni Aprile leads the Gaels with 21 catches for 317 yards. In the loss to Ottawa, Aprile finished the day with seven receptions for a career-best 179 yards and one touchdown. The team is led by young yet capable quarterbacks in Chapdelaine and Billy McPhee. Their defence, although they lost a number of starters, has been strong too. Sheahan has addressed the anticipated extra pressure in playing at Western with his young team.

“It’ll be an interesting challenge and you need to have experiences like this for the development of the team,” said Sheahan. “There could be times when it’s hard to hear a play but the best way to fight it is to play well early and take the crowd out of the game.”

The Mustangs lead the league in team rushing with an average of 221 yards a game for a total of 12 touchdowns. The next closest team in rushing touchdowns sits at seven, the same total as Jerimy Hipperson has alone.

Hipperson and quarterback Donnie Marshall have an average of over 90 yards per game each and have combined for 10 of the teams 12 rushing touchdowns.

To make things worse for the Gaels, last year's top Mustangs rusher, junior running back Nathan Riva, is expected to return to the lineup after missing the first month of the season with a hamstring injury suffered in training camp.

“Our offensive line is playing pretty well and it’s what we wanted to do this year,” said Marshall. “Nathan’s injury put a bit of a wrench in the plans and we had to modify our offence. Having him back and Hipperson playing well will gives us the ability to do different things and bring Nathan back gradually. He’ll play; we’re just not sure how much right now.”

Sheahan said he is wary of the Mustangs offensive ability - and with Riva returning, he knows the defence will have its hands full.

"Western has showed the capacity where they can really turn it on," Sheahan said. "They scored 50 against McMaster. They still move the ball and they have a lot of weapons."

"As long as we get one more (point) than them, then I don't care if it's low scoring or high scoring," Sheahan added with a chuckle.

The Old Four rivalry continues to produce great games and both teams want to win. Losses in this rivalry are even harder to swallow because of the tradition between the programs - one that extends beyond the playing fields and into academics, institutional pride and prestige.

"It still hurts (last year's Yates Cup loss). We don't lose easy," Marshall said. "There's lots of motivation to play well against Queen's. This game is about pride - it's about playing a good football game against a quality team like Queen's."

Despite looking comfortable for a spot in the OUA semifinals - with the final two regular-season games ninth-place York and eighth-place Toronto after a bye week - the Mustangs want to improve their chances of a first-round playoff bye and keep the chances of catching first-place Ottawa open. The Gee-Gees would need to lose at least one of their remaining three games to Toronto, Laurier and Guelph. But they do not need any extra motivation to play well to feed their desire to beat Queen's.

"Our guys are going to be up for the challenge and I’m sure Queen’s is as well,” said Marshall. “Queen’s controlled the game against Ottawa last week and our guys only have to watch film to see how well they are playing. There is no lack of focus. They see what I see on film, and that is that Queen's is a good football team."

"It’s going to be a heck of a football game here on Saturday and I would expect nothing less when we play Queen’s.”