LONDON, Ont. – With the support of the Homecoming crowd, Western women's rugby team defeated the Laurier Golden Hawks 75-13 on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Field.
 
With the win, the Mustangs improve to 2-1 standing on the season and move up to second place in the Shiels division, while the Golden Hawks drop to 1-2 and remain in fourth place.
 
Setting the tone for the remainder of the game, the Mustangs were first to get on the scoreboard, with second-year player Tegan Williams scoring the first try less then five minutes into the game. Lori Josephson followed up with an additional try for the Mustangs less than ten minutes later to give the home side an early 10-0 lead.
 
Laurier responded a few minutes later with a penalty goal from Jennifer Gilmour, before Ashley Snider struck back with another try for the Mustangs in the 23rd minute. The two teams continued trading points as Natalie Snyder recorded a try for the Golden Hawks, followed by a conversion by Gilmour, to cut Western's lead to 15-10. However the Mustangs were undaunted, responding to Laurier's try with two tries and two conversions of their own to give them a 29-10 lead at halftime.
 
The Mustangs controlled much of the second half, only allowing an additional penalty kick from the Golden Hawks, while continuing to put points on the scoreboard. The purple and white offence added eight tries and three conversions in the second half to seal a 75-13 victory.
 
The game's top scorers were Western's Breanne Nicholas who contributed two tries and three converts for 16 total points, while Josephson recorded 15 points off of three tries.
 
"I was really pleased with Lori Josephson" says coach Mike Hopper. "She's our fifth-year captain, she really took the team on her back there when things were a little scrappy and scored a bunch of tries for us and really helped settle the whole team down." Hopper was at the helm for today's game as Mustangs head coach Natascha Wesch was in Montreal being inducted into the Concordia University Sports Hall of Fame.
 
The Mustangs are back in action on Sunday, September 28, when they travel to Waterloo to take on the Warriors. Coach Hooper is optimistic about next week's matchup, saying "if we play the way we can play, we're going to do alright."