Tale of the Tape: Western Mustangs @ the Ottawa Gee-Gees
 
All-time head to head:
Western leads 14-5
Last meeting:
Western 41, Ottawa 13, (Sept. 17, 2011)
Series Streak: Western has won 2 in a row
Last 10: Western 7-3
Next Games:
OUA Quarterfinals October 27^th 1pm, TBA

The Western Mustangs conclude their 2012 regular season in the nation’s capital Saturday afternoon as they take on the resurgent Ottawa Gee-Gees. Ottawa has won two straight games in convincing fashion since making a coaching change and removing former interim head coach Gary Etcheverry after five games. The ‘Stangs are coming off their most dominant performance of the season, a 56-3 trouncing of one of their biggest rivals; the Laurier Golden Hawks.

Western held Laurier to only 162 yards of offence while rookie quarterback Will Finch had his best day as a Mustang throwing for 339 yards and four touchdowns. On the ground Garret Sanvido ran for 94 yards landing one yard shy of 1,000 on the season.

The defense was equally impressive with Dylan Ainsworth racking up 3 sacks brining his season total to 9.5 a new Mustangs record in only seven games. Special teams got a shot in the arm with a long kick-off return by receiver Matt Uren and Lirim Hajrullahu had a solid day connecting on three field goals and averaging 45.8 yards per punt. With a win Western clinches fourth place and a home playoff game in the quarterfinals.

Western and Ottawa have quite a history with one another since the Gee-Gees entrance into the OUA in 2002. Western has defeated the Gee-Gees twice in the Yates Cup. Western first bested Ottawa 31-15 to claim the Yates in front of a home crowd. The again in 2010 Western captured the OUA crown 26-25 thanks to a last second 34-yard field goal by Lirim Hajrullahu in a contest that went back and forth.

Many of the players from the 2010 Yates Cup final are on both sides and Ottawa needs to win this year’s contest to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Gee-Gees are coming off a 61-0 pounding of Waterloo and feature a strong running game featuring Brendan Gillanders, and a skilled return game featuring OUA Special Teams Player of the Week Vincent Campbell, the Mustangs will be facing a confident opponent as they gear up for the post season. The game provides another opportunity to Will Finch to get more snaps under his belt and for players such as Kalvin Johnson and Jerod McCrory to get back into the lineup at 100%.
 
Offensively Ottawa will be led by fourth-year passer Aaron Colbon and fifth-year tailback Gillanders. Both, despite slow starts to the season, have caught on fire lately. Colbon eclipsed the 1000 yards passin mark this past week against the Warriors and Gillanders has quietly put up over 600 yards on the ground.  Western will feature CIS leading running back Garret Sanvido who will run past the 1000 yard mark early on in the game and will look to OUA Offensive Player of the Week Brian Marshall in the receiving game. Marshall, who caught for touchdowns and had 187 yards receiving this past weekend, tied a Western record with the four touchdown receptions in a single game.

Defensively both teams can get after the quarterback. Ottawa is led on the front four by Ettore Lattanzio who enters the game with seven sacks and Tyler Sawyer leads the line backing core with 40 tackles. For the Mustangs Ainsworth is coming off a three sack performance, and look for the Western defense to build on their CIS best 34 sacks with the likes of Beau Landry, Daryl Waud, Pawel Kruba and Brent Wheeler leading the way.

Special teams will play a big factor in the outcome at Beckwith Park on Saturday. Ottawa boasts one of the CIS’s best return men in Campbell who opened up their contest versus Waterloo this past Saturday with a 107-yard touchdown return.  In the kicking game this will be the final outing for Matt Falvo who holds many of the Gee-Gees field goal records and is currently tied with Western’s Frank Jagas for the all-time lead in the OUA for career kicks with 70. On Western’s end Lirim Hajrullahu is coming off a strong performance increasing his season totals to 14 field goals in eighteen attempts. Matt Uren sparked a dormant return game taking the opening kick-off of the second half to the Laurier red zone.

Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. in Ottawa. Fans can watch the stream live on SSNCanada.ca or listen live on NewsTalk 1290 CJBK with Tom McConnell and former Mustangs head coach Larry Haylor calling all the action.