London, ON – The Mustangs completed a third straight undefeated season Saturday afternoon with a 32-23 win over the uOttawa Gee-Gees.
Western had an early lead but had to battle in the second half to hold on for their eighth win of the season.
"We were fortunate today, our defence played great," said Mustangs Head Coach Greg Marshall "We made some plays when we had to and found a way to win, that's what championship teams do. We need to continue to improve on a few things and get a few defensive guys back but the guys who played today did a wonderful job,"
Mustangs kicker Marc Liegghio opened the scoring with a field goal to make it 3-0. The play was even more important as with the play Liegghio moves past Lirim Hajrullahu as the Mustangs all-time leading point scorer with 425.
"It's nice to be up there with all the great names who have been out there over the years," said Liegghio "I've got to give a lot of credit to Brett (Ellerman) and Zack Zynomirski, they've been perfect all season and we keep working at it every week."
Western would get their first major of the day when Jonathan Femi-Cole punched in a 1-yard run to take a 13-0 lead.
Around the mid-way point of the 2nd quarter the Mustangs would drive the field again, this time for 70 yards and finish with another 1-yard TD, Chris Merchant kept it himself and jumped into the end zone to take a 20-0 lead.
With just over two minutes remaining in the half, Merchant would give up his first interception of the day. Ottawa's Cody Cranston would pick the ball off on the 12-yard line and would take it in for the score, cutting the Western lead to 20-7.
"We didn't have our best game, credit to them for playing well but we have to be better than that," said Merchant "I made a couple of mistakes today and need to be better and that's on me."
After another Liegghio field goal, the Mustangs took a 23-7 lead into the locker room at half-time.
The only scoring in the third quarter was an Ottawa 5-yard TD reception from Jordan Burgher to make it a 23-13.
In the fourth quarter, Liegghio was busy yet again. He added three more field goals, the third one with 1:13 remaining was his second record-breaker of the day as that totaled 92 career field goal completions which surpasses the U SPORTS career record for Field Goals.
"I was hoping there would be more touchdowns today but it's good we got field goals," said Marshall jokingly "It's great for Marc and he has had a great season for us and has done everything for us, we're proud of him."
Even with another undefeated season, the Mustangs are all business looking forward to the playoffs.
"There's a lot of good teams in the OUA right now and a lot of good playoff teams. Whoever we have, they're going to bring their best, so we have to be ready for it," said Merchant
KEY STATS
QB Chris Merchant – 20 completions for 341 yards. 1 rushing TD
WR Malik Besseghieur – 6 receptions for 103 yards
K Marc Liegghio – 6 for 7 on FG's on the day. 6 punts for 220 yards averaging 50 yards each.
RB Trey Humes – 8 rushes for 52 yards
NEXT GAME
The Mustangs get a bye through the quarterfinals of the playoffs by finishing 1st in the league standings. Western will host the OUA semi-final game on November 2nd, the opponent will be determined next week.
Check back to westernmustangs.ca for all the information on the OUA Playoffs.
