Waterloo, ON – A weather delay and the first road trip of the 2022 season couldn't stop the Mustangs as they overpowered the Laurier Golden Hawks to a 34-19 win on Saturday night at University Stadium in Waterloo.

"We made big plays on offence, defence and special teams but we just weren't consistent enough," said Mustangs Head Coach Greg Marshall "The frustrating part is when its mental errors where we practice something and go over it and then someone blows an assignment on a game we've gone over all week,"

The Mustangs would open the scoring midway through the 1st quarter when QB Evan Hillock connected with Savaughn Magnaye-Jones on a 28-yard catch and found his way into the endzone for the opening score.
 
After the Golden Hawks put up a field goal, the Mustangs would again see the Hillock- Magnaye-Jones connection come together again, this time on a short pass that Magnaye-Jones would spin to the outside and take it in for his second TD of the half and make it a 14-3 Mustangs lead.
 
"A player like Savaughn, you've just got to get the ball in his hands, he's so fast and so dynamic you just get him the ball and he will do the rest and makes me look good," said Mustangs QB Evan Hillock "He had a great game today and showed why I think he's the best receiver in the country today."

"Savvy turned a couple short gain plays into some big plays for us tonight and we've seen time and time again that he has the ability to do that," said Marshall.

With just under two minutes left in the first half the skies opened up and a weather delay of approximately an hour ensued.

The remaining time (1:50) from the 2nd quarter was added to the second half of play after the delay and play continued around 9:00 PM.
 
The weather delay didn't seem to bother the Mustangs though as Hillock came right out of the dressing room and connected with Magnaye-Jones would connect on the first play for a 40-yard touchdown that gave Western a commanding lead at 21-6.

"As soon as the delay happened the whole team just kept saying how we need to stay locked in and stay ready," said Hillock "Shout out to Coach Gates (Geaten Richard) who made a great call there (to start after the delay) and Savaughn did the work on that one."

The connection between the two is no secret as their synergy has been on full display as they've connected on 7 TDs in less than a year of playing together and hundreds of yards gained.

"Evan's the best quarterback in the country, Hec Crighton nominee, you heard it from me first," said Magnaye-Jones "Evan did his thing today, such a great player, brother and friend that I have out there, I was just able to execute and we made some big plays out there tonight."

Another highlight of the first two weeks of play has been the defense and defensive line that some had questioned coming into the season as being slightly younger and inexperienced. As the game wore into the 4th quarter and Laurier was looking to find some momentum, a pair of QB sacks on the Golden Hawks from the trio of Bruce Maas, Ma Von Muehldorfer and Soren Hallschmidt shut that down.
 
"We heard those rumblings going around and frankly we didn't like it, we had a d-line meeting and said we could really make an impact here," said Von Muehldorfer "We might be young and haven't quite got the experience yet but we are still ballers and we can play. We may have lost some key guys, but we all learned from those guys and watched those guys, and we plan on keeping things on the same pace that Western fans have come to see and expect."

The Mustangs return to Western Alumni Stadium next Saturday night (Sept 10) when they host the Queens Gaels for a 7:00 kick-off.

"We're just taking it a week at a time as we always try to do but we're going to need to be better than we were today in order to beat them," said Marshall "I've told the players that and they know they need to be better especially if we want to get to where we think we are going to be at the end of the season, we need to play better and more consistent football than we did today."

The September 10^th game will be our "Saturday Night Lights" game which will feature the special edition black jerseys and a post-game light show. Fans can buy their tickets at WesternMustangs.ca/Tickets and can watch all the action on OUA.tv.

STATS SHOWCASE:

QB – Evan Hillock – 15 for 20 with 249 yards and 4 TDs
REC – Savaughn Magnaye-Jones – 5 receptions for 145 yards and 3TDs
RB – Keon Edwards – 127 yards on 14 carries
RB – Edouard Wanadi – 101 yards on 17 carries
REC – Justin Nickson – 5 receptions for 53 yards and 1 TD
K – Brian Garrity – 2 for 3 on FG
DB – Robert Panabaker – 5 tackles and 1 INT