The Western Mustangs will return to action this weekend as they travel to Ottawa to take on a determined Carleton Ravens team.
 
The Mustangs will be aiming to start the season 2-0, building on their 78-6 season opening win against the Windsor Lancers. In that impressive performance, the Mustangs offence had 616 total yards with 35 first downs, both tops in the OUA after one week of play.
 
"It was a good first test for us," said Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall of his team's first win of the season. "They're a young football team, and for us we didn't play an exhibition game, so there was a little bit of rust that we needed to shake off. I thought overall our defence played very well, at times offensively we did some good things and our receivers made some big plays. We have to get a little more consistent running the ball. Of course our special teams did a really good job, those three blocked punts were a big momentum boost for our football team."
 
Western took full advantage of their 55-man dress roster, getting a wide variety of players into the game, including at quarterback. Veteran pivot Stevenson Bone went 9 for 16 for 113 yards, while transfer Chris Merchant went 7 for 12 with 178 yards and two touchdowns. London native Ben Bergamin also saw action on Sunday, getting into his first CIS contest and performing well, throwing for 79 yards and a touchdown.
 
Both Bone and Merchant showed off the potential to pick up yards with their feet, but feature backs Cedric Taylor and Alex Taylor will be counted on to do the lion's share of the work on the ground. Against Windsor, the pair combined for 110 yards and three touchdowns in limited touches. Going forward, the development of the run game will be crucial for the Mustangs offence to run smoothly.
 
The Mustang defence did well against Windsor, holding the Lancers to only six points and limiting any sustained drives. The purple and white defence forced four turnovers in the victory, recovering one fumble and racking up three interceptions. Western's linebackers led the way in terms of tackles, with Jean-Gabriel Poulin recording nine, while Philippe Dion and rookie Chris Ellis recorded 8.5 stops of their own.
 
Although both the offence and defence had strong games, special teams stole the show, particularly the Mustangs punt rush squad. Western broke through the Windsor line and blocked three punts on Sunday, returning two of those for touchdowns, in a stellar performance.
 
While the Mustangs enter Sunday's matchup fresh off of a big win, Carleton comes into Sunday in the opposite position, coming off of a 40-10 road loss to the McMaster Marauders.
 
Big plays cost the Ravens in week one, giving up TD passes of 69 and 86 yards, as well as two interceptions and five sacks. Although Carleton may have come out on the losing side against the Marauders, coach Marshall knows that Carleton are a good, experienced squad with home field advantage on their side this weekend.
 
"Carleton's a pretty experienced team now, they're made up of players that have started and played for four years," said Marshall. "They're a good football team. They didn't play well against McMaster, McMaster hit some big plays on them, but they played Laval very, very tough. If you remember the end of last season, they took it to Queen's in the playoffs, and were right there with Guelph in the semi-final game.
 
"We're expecting that they'll bounce back. They're playing at home, it's a soldout crowd, we're expecting a hostile environment, but we we will be prepared."
 
Led by starting quarterback Jesse Mills, the Ravens passing game is a threat. 429 of their 493 offensive yards against McMaster were in the air. The veteran pivot went 22 for 38 with 346 yards and two inteceptions in week one, leading the OUA in passing yards.
 
Western will need to be on the lookout for Mills spreading the ball around as both Kyle Van Wynsberg and Nathaniel Behar recorded 134 and 105 yards receiving last week, while Dexter Brown came in just behind his teammates with 95 yards.
 
This game may very well play out in the secondary with Mills going head to head with Westerns defensive backs, led by Jordan Beaulieu, Malcolm Brown and Jesse McNair. Brown recorded an interception against the Lancers and will be looking for more this Sunday in Ottawa.
 
Kickoff is set for 7:15 p.m. at MNP Park, and can be seen live on OUA.tv. Fans can also tune in on Newstalk 1290 CJBK with Tom McConnell and legendary Mustangs coach Larry Haylor calling all the action.