London, ON – The crowd was one of the largest in recent memory and the Mustangs spread out the offence in a 50-17 win over the uOttawa Gee-Gees on Homecoming Saturday.
In front of 13,000+ the Mustangs saw six different members of their offence score a touchdown in a game that Western had 329 yards throw through the air and 321 yards on the ground in the win.
"I thought we took control of the game offensively in the second half, we played better and more consistent on offence and guys made some big plays," said Mustangs Head Coach Greg Marshall "Defensively we need to play better though, simple as that, a few too many penalties that we need to keep working on,"
The Mustangs offence was led by QB Evan Hillock who threw for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns on the day including some deep passes in the win.
"I have the utmost confidence in our entire receiving core out there, those are my guys, they're fast, they've got great hands, good rout runners they make my job a lot easier," said Hillock "It's tough for secondaries when we have so many good players so I just try to get the ball in their hands,"
GAME RECAP
Ottawa got on the board first in this game on just the fourth play of the opening quarter, RB Amlicar Polk would rush the ball for a 59 yards TD to give the Gee Gees the early lead.
The Mustangs would respond later in the opening quarter when Hillock would connect with Savaughn Magnaye-Jones on a 7 yard TD catch to finish off a 69 yard drive and even the score at 7-7.
Ottawa would kick a field goal as time expired in the first quarter and take the 10-7 lead.
A highlight of the day came midway through the second quarter when the Mustangs appeared to be had a 2
nd & 1 scenario and it looked like QB Jerome Rancourt would come in to try and run a QB sneak to get a fresh set of downs. Instead of making the dive forward to get a new set of downs, Rancourt pulled the ball and split towards the Western sideline side and ran the ball for a 22 yard touchdown.
"It felt so good, I've been waiting for that moment for a couple of years now," said Rancourt "We flipped the script a little bit there, I can run more than just a yard, even at my size I can still move,"
Western would hold a 14-10 lead going into the dressing room at half time.
In the 3
rd quarter Hillock came out firing, after opening the quarter with a TD on the opening drive to advance the lead to 21-10, Hillock would showcase the long ball on the next second Western drive by connecting with Mohsen Jamal on a 51 yard completion, he followed that up with a 31 yard completion to Seth Robertson for another Mustangs touchdown.
"I missed one right before the half to Seth and I had to think about it all throughout half time," said Hillock "So when we called those two (plays) up I wasn't going to miss those,"
The Western offence continued to show their power throughout the remainder of the game especially on the ground as RB Keon Edwards would add a pair of touchdowns of his own and Troy Thompson would add a TD of his own late to finish off the 50-17 win.
KEY STATS
QB Evan Hillock – 23 for 27 with 318 yards completed and 3 TDs
RB Keon Edwards – 12 rushes for 126 yards and 2 TDs
REC Mohsen Jamal II – 7 receptions for 112 yards and 1 TD
REC Savaughn Magnaye-Jones – 7 receptions for 75 yards and 1 TD
REC Seth Robertson – 4 receptions for 59 yards and 1 TD
QB Jerome Rancourt – 3 rushes for 50 yards and 1 TD
DB Chris Cameron-Kogler – 1 INT for 28 yards & 3.5 tackles
DB Jordan Murphy – 1 INT for 18 yards & 1.5 tackles
NEXT GAME
The Mustangs head back out on the road next Saturday as they travel south on the 401 to take on the Windsor Lancers.
"I grew up with those guys, (JP, Joe & Mike Circelli) more important than football, they're just great people that I have a lot of respect for and they are doing a great job with that program because they're doing a great job coaching," said Marshall "There is a lot of people saying they've got a lot of American kids and all this other stuff but if you watch what they are really doing it's all about being well coached on both sides of the ball, I'm really looking forward to that game,"
Game time is set for 1:00 PM, fans can watch the action on OUA.tv.
