GUELPH, Ont. – A strong game from running back Rob Farquharson helped lead the Guelph Gryphons to a 51-26 win over the Western Mustangs in an OUA Semi-Final matchup on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Stadium.
 
With the win the Gryphons move on to the Yates Cup final, where they'll face off against the McMaster Marauders next Saturday in Hamilton.

"I'm disappointed for our boys, our boys deserved a better fate," said Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall. "They work hard, they train hard, they do everything that we ask of them and I'm really, really proud of them. There is a lot of adversity this year and our guys came out and battled today."
 
Farquharson led the Gryphons offence with 232-yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries. Backup quarterback James Roberts played well after stepping in late in the first quarter for an injured Jazz Lindsey, finishing with 238 yards passing along with three touchdowns and one interception on 12-for-21 passing.
 
Western's offence was led by the duo of quarterback Stevenson Bone and Yannick Harou, as they accounted for 203 yards passing and 110 yards rushing respectively. Bone, who threw two touchdown passes on 14-for-33 passing, also picked up 87 yards the ground while running the ball 13 times.
 
Bone's favourite target in the pass game was Justin Sanvido who caught seven passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns.
 
Defensively the Mustangs were led by John Biewald who totaled 10 tackles on the day, while Preston Huggins had one of the defensive highlights for the day, picking off Roberts for a 36-yard interception return in the fourth quarter.
 
Western opened the scoring on Saturday as after the Gryphons conceded a safety on their opening drive the Mustangs didn't waste any time putting more points on the board, as Bone connected with Shaquille Johnson on a 36-yard pass, to set up a 24-yard touchdown pass from Bone to Sanvido.
 
Despite some solid production from both sides, neither was able to break anything open for the majority of the quarter, with the Gryphons picking up a single off of a missed field goal, and scoring two points when a bad snap forced the Mustangs to concede a safety.
 
Daniel Ferraro rounded out the scoring in the frame, hitting a 33-yard field goal to cut Western's lead to 9-6 entering the second quarter.
 
Just as the Mustangs got on the board early in the opening quarter the Gryphons did the same in the second, as Roberts hit receiver Lucas Spagnuolo on a 62-yard touchdown pass just over two minutes into the frame to give Guelph a 13-9 lead.
 
They made it an 11-point lead a few minutes later after a long run from Farquharson put the Gryphons on the Mustangs three-yard line, where Roberts hit Alex Charette in the end zone for his second touchdown pass of the day.
 
Not to be outdone by his fellow quarterback, Bone led the Mustangs down the field on the ensuing drive, finishing things off with another TD pass to Sanvido, this one from 32-yards out, to pull the Mustangs within four points.
 
Continuing the mini-game of 'can you top this' between the two QBs, Roberts led the Gryphons on a 93-yard scoring drive, taking a 27-16 lead on a 39-yard pass to Spagnuolo for his second major of the day. 
 
Just prior to the end of the half Farquharson picked up his first major of the day, scoring on a one-yard run to give the home side a 34-16 lead after two quarters.
 
Despite momentum seemingly being on the side of the Gryphons, the Mustangs came out firing in the second half, starting things off with a 78-yard scoring drive that was capped off by an eight yard run from Adam Sinclair to reduce Guelph's lead to 34-23.
 
Unfortunately for the Mustangs that was as close as things would get as both teams traded singles and safeties before Farquharson added two touchdowns to give the Gryphons a 51-26 victory.
 
More to follow.