LONDON, Ont. – The Mustangs stayed true to program tradition on Saturday afternoon, topping the RMC Paladins by a score of 36-22 to progress to the OUA semi-final.
 
"We ended up getting the win which is important […] but honestly the intensity wasn't really there," said Cole Sopik about the team's performance. "We lacked detail, and were dropping a lot of balls and getting a lot of penalties. Towards the end of the game we played very physical, and defensively we played well, but it was tough."
 
"Today we showed some flashes of really good things," noted William Sauder. "A couple of our tries were really amazing. It was good rugby, but a couple times we got really tested. They scored on us a couple times, so it was definitely ups and downs all game. We responded well at times, and at other times we got down."
 
Cole Sopik and Glen Thomson-Bullock split the top spot on the scoresheet with two tries each, while Trevor Noskiewicz and Mark Denton each pitched in one major, with Denton and Mitchell Brant also recording converts.
 
Much like the regular season contest between Western and RMC, the Paladins were first on the board. Jacob Venne set the tone of the game just two minutes in when he powered through the purple and white defence for the first major of the day. From that point onward the game can only be described as hard-fought.
 
"It's quarterfinals, people are more prepared to play," said Sauder. "They just brought it to us really well and at times we weren't ready."
 
Western went into the half with a narrow lead at 10-5 thanks to a pair of tries from Thomson-Bullock and Noskiewicz.
 
The second half saw RMC remain characteristically resilient and continue to challenge the Mustangs.
 
After several minutes of playing along the goal line, Timothy Lo punched through to the purple and white in-goal area to tie the game at tens. RMC point leader Matt Courtney followed up with a convert to regain the lead.
 
Those seven points early in the second half seemed to serve as a wakeup call, as the Mustangs would record four more tries before the end of the game. Two of those came from Sopik, and were within two minutes of each other. 
 
"He's an amazing runner, a good player to have on your team," said Sauder. "He doesn't go down. You can always give him the ball and know he's going to get yards. He's a great player to have, I think he's scored in every game."
 
RMC could only muster one more try, allowing the Mustangs to take the game by a score of 36-22. Since joining the league in 2009, the Paladins have fallen to Western in all nine meetings between the two teams.
 
The Mustangs will be back in action next weekend, when they travel to Kingston to take on the Queen's Gaels in a rehashing of one of the OUA's oldest rivalries.
 
"First and foremost, winning and getting out to finals is our biggest concern, but with the rivalry it's a good game to have. We're really excited for that game," said Sauder.
 
"Next week is going to be huge," said Sopik. "We're going down on Friday and are going to spend the whole weekend training and preparing for them. We know we can beat them, but playing at Queen's is always a tough thing.
 
"We had the tie here when we played them at home, but I think we definitely have a chance. We're the underdogs now, third place going up against the second place team, but I think it'll be a big week for us."