LONDON, Ont. — A strong start in front of a purple clad Homecoming crowd gave Western all the offence they would need on Saturday afternoon, as the Mustangs scored three tries in the first 13 minutes on their way to a 55-10 victory over the Laurier Golden Hawks at Alumni Field.
 
"Overall, the guys played much better than they did last week," Mustangs head coach David Knowles said of the effort after the game. "It was a good rebound after last week so I'm really happy with it."
 
Armin Gurdic, Peter Gray, and Jesse Richardson helped Western charge out of the gates, each registering a try to stake the Mustangs to a big early lead. But while the Mustangs wouldn't let Laurier onto the board until the second half— finishing the first up 29-0— there was a period when the Golden Hawks seemed to gain control of the play.
 
"It's very typical in games— you get out to such a quick lead and you think 'oh this is going to be an easy game' and then they kind of take their foot off the pedal and relax," said Knowles of the momentum shift. "It's common with a lot of teams— the good teams are the ones that can keep it going. We had a little bit of a lull but then we picked it back up at the end of the half and carried it on into the second half."
 
And carry it they did, increasing their lead to 34-0 just 4:30 into the half with a brilliant effort from Josh Bald before adding another try and a conversion just 10 minutes later. Frederico Cisneros Sanchez was responsible for the conversion, as he entered the game in the second half for the Mustangs and finished the day with three conversions to his name.
 
It would take Laurier 64 minutes to register their first point of the game, as Brandon Kostyk ran in the Golden Hawks' first try of the game before Matthew Sneath added a conversion. Laurier would get back on the board in the 72nd minute, when Sneath made the only penalty goal of the game to push his team to double digits.
 
But Western would still win the half, with Gray adding his second try of the game at 68 minutes before Rothman put the cherry on top with a try in the 73rd minute.
 
When asked after the game what his team needed to take from this game into their matchup against Waterloo next week, Knowles had a simple answer.
 
"Just momentum— we had a tough loss last week . . . and we just need to move on," he said. "Today was a good stepping stone. It's just momentum."
 
Knowles was also excited about another fact— that the men's rugby program fielded three teams on the same day.
 
"The other big thing to me— I think this is the first time in the school's history we've fielded three teams [in one day]," Knowles said. "[The 5 p.m. match against Laurier was] the third game going on— our third team was in Stratford today and won 22-10 and hopefully we're going to win [in our second game against Laurier tonight]. It's the first time in the school's history that three men's rugby sides fielded on the same day."
 
Next week's matchup against the Warriors will take place at Alumni Field on Saturday, September 27. Game time is set for 3:00 p.m.