WATERLOO, Ont. — A tight race at the top of the OUA West Division standings just got tighter, as Julie Maheu scored her second goal of the game in the 84th minute to help the defending OUA champion Laurier Golden Hawks down the Western Mustangs women's soccer team 3-2 at University Stadium.
 
Laurier entered the day third in the West Division, one point behind second-placed Western and two points behind first place York. With the win, Laurier overtakes Western and now sits in a tie for first place with the Lions, who they defeated 1-0 on September 28.
 
The Golden Hawks have been on fire since suffering their only loss of the season to Western on September 6, stringing together a 10-game undefeated streak that has seen them go 2-0-1 against their biggest competition in Western and York. With just three games left in the OUA regular season— games that will see Laurier face off against three of the bottom five teams in their division— the Golden Hawks have given themselves a strong chance of entering the playoffs in the top seed.
 
However, heading into Wednesday's match in Waterloo, Laurier's hot play as of late wasn't the only storyline. With the OUA's leading scorers in Western's Amanda Boyle and Laurier's Emily Brown both strapping on their cleats, the game promised an intense battle between two of the top talents in the OUA, and it certainly didn't disappoint.
 
Boyle got the show going in the first half, capitalizing on poor defence from the Golden Hawks for a tap-in goal— her 19th of the season— in the 32nd minute. Brown would do her part before the end of the half too, firing a shot past Tori Edgar to tie the game heading into the intermission and pull her within one of Boyle in the OUA scoring race.
 
Not one to be outdone, Boyle would add her second of the game just four minutes into the second half to re-establish a two goal lead in the scoring race and put the Mustangs up 2-1. The two strikers made sure to live up to their hype in the match, trading goals and demonstrating why they're so often listed as two of the top players in the OUA.
 
But if Boyle and Brown were putting on a show early, Laurier's Julie Maheu would steal that show in the second half. The veteran midfielder scored her third and fourth goals of the season— the latter of which came with just six minutes left in the match— to send the Golden Hawks past the Mustangs in both the game and the standings.
 
Next up for the Mustangs (10-2-1) are the McMaster Marauders (3-6-3), who will roll into London on Saturday, October 11, to take on Western at Mustangs Field. Western will have one more home game after that, as they welcome Guelph (4-6-1) on October 18 before finishing off the season the next day with a tough match in Toronto against York (10-1-2).