LONDON, Ont. – In one of their finest performances of the season so far, four different Mustangs players recorded goals to lead Western to a 4-1 win over the McMaster Marauders on Friday night at Mustangs Field.
"I feel pretty awesome, that's the best our team has played all year," said Mustangs head coach
Rock Basacco. "You can't underestimate Mac, they've had a great program over the last five or six years, so it's been a long time coming for us to finally get a good win against them."
The win avenges the Mustangs loss to McMaster in the season opener, and moves the purple and white to 5-2-3 on the year, good for third place in the OUA West Division. McMaster falls to 4-4-2 keeping them in fifth place.
"It actually goes a lot deeper than just that first loss," said
Amad El-Houni when asked about defeating the Marauders. "We've been having a rough streak against Mac, I think the last 10 games they've edged us out, so this one goes way back and it feels good to get the 'W' today."
A quartet of Mustangs found the back of the net on Friday night, with
Jeremy Arnold, Christain Douglas,
Parker Seymour, and
Christian Devia all marking their names on the scoresheet.
Kirit Mascarenhas got the win in net for Western, turning aside three shots.
"Totally, totally pleased [with the offence]," said Basacco. "We created so many opportunities in so many different parts of the field, [and had] four different goal scorers. We've been trying to focus on our finishing and trying to get those chances - then scoring when we get them. It's finally paid off for us, so I'm really happy for the guys."
Western controlled the play for the majority of the first half, keeping the action contained in the McMaster end and outshooting the visiting side 6-3. Arnold opened the scoring 17 minutes into the contest, firing a shot past Marauders netminder Kieran Doyle-Davis off of a pass from El-Houni.
Both Arnold and El-Houni were in on the Mustangs next goal as well, with Arnold sending a cross into the box to El-Houni who moved the ball over to Douglas for the goal.
Up by two after 45 minutes, the Mustangs increased their lead to 3-0 just under 30 minutes into the second half thanks to a goal from Seymour, who converted a pass from Braden Gee after a long run by the duo.
Despite a late goal from McMaster's Simo Vrakela, it was the Mustangs who finished off the game's scoring, with Devia converting a pass from Gee to give Western a 4-1 win.
Friday night's victory was the Mustangs 10th regular season contest of the year, and with only six games remaining on the schedule the season is entering the home stretch with playoffs approaching quickly.
"Heading towards playoffs we have to keep it up, if anything we have to build momentum," said El-Houni. "The OUA West playoffs are pretty tough, so what we need is full momentum going into it, everyone on the same page, that kind of stuff. I think everyone on this team definitely believes that we can go all the way this year."
Next up for the Mustangs is a return match with the Brock Badgers, a team the purple and white defeated 2-0 back on August 28 to jump start what would become a six game unbeaten streak. Game time is set for 3:15 p.m. in St. Catharines on Sunday, October 2.
