The Mustangs travel to Hamilton this weekend for their toughest test of the young 2013 season as the team will take on the McMaster Marauders on Saturday afternoon at Ron Joyce Stadium.
Western enters Saturday's contest with a perfect 2-0 record after posting dominant wins over Toronto (50-14) and Carleton (71-4) to start the season. The Marauders come in with a 1-1 record, defeating Ottawa to start the season but losing a hard-fought game against Queen's on Labour Day, where the Marauders led the stat sheet, doubling Queen's in total offense with 495 net yards, but turnovers and penalties helped give Queen's the victory.
With the departure of former all-stars Kyle Quinlan and Ben D'Aguilar the Marauders will have a slightly different look than they've had for the past few seasons, but despite those and other losses McMaster still ranks amongst the nation's top teams and come into Satuday's game listed in sixth on the latest CIS Top 10 rankings. Marshall Ferguson steps behind centre to guide the team's offence and star wideout Michael DiCroce returns for his final season to try and wreak havoc on opposing defensive backs.
The Mustangs are ranked fourth in the CIS after the first two weeks of the season and hold down the top spot as the highest scoring team in all of CIS football, racking up 121 points in two games. Second-year quarterback Will Finch has thrown for 715 yards and five touchdowns while receivers Brian Marshall and George Johnson both rank in the top ten of the country's receivers, averaging 123 and 132.5 yards per game respectively.
Veteran running back Garret Sanvido, who held the title of the nation's leading rusher last season, put up two touchdowns for the Mustangs against Carleton in Monday's home opener while also running for 125 yards. Running back Adam Sinclair also put up some impressive numbers against Carleton rushing for 114 yards and two touchdowns – his first ever in an OUA game.
Although early in the season, the Mustangs have been firing on all cylinders so far and will be looking to take down the Marauders as they prepare to face the team for the first time since Western's loss to McMaster in last year's OUA semi-final.
Saturday's matchup will be one to watch as two of the OUA's top programs meet in what could be an early playoff preview. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. at Ron Joyce Stadium and fans can watch live around the country on Sportsnet 360 (formerly known as The Score). Fans can also listen live on 94.9 CHRW Radio, and on NewsTalk 1290 CJBK with Tom McConnell and legendary Mustangs coach Larry Haylor calling all the action.
