London, ON – The Mustangs racked up over 550 yards of offence while scoring ten touchdowns in a 71-3 thumping of the Waterloo Warriors on Sunday night.
In front of a capacity crowd of over 7500 fans, the Mustangs scored early and often, building up a 43-3 at halftime alone.
"Ev (QB Evan Hillock) made some really good throws today; we got him in a rhythm early on and it really set the pace to this one," said Mustangs Head Coach Greg Marshall "He was confident in his throws today and it really looked like he picked up where he was at last year and that was great,"
Hillock finished the game going 18 for 23 with 281 yards passing and 4 touchdown completions.
"It definitely was a team effort tonight, the O-Line (Offensive Line) played great and protected me all night. We got great receivers and Coach Gates (Offensive Coordinator Gaetan Richard) called a great game," said Hillock.
The defence also had a solid performance on the night including four sacks, while limiting Waterloo to just 180 yards of total offence.
GAME RECAP
The Mustangs scoring surge began just ahead of the 10 minute mark of the 1
st quarter when Keon Edwards picked up a 6 yard TD rush to put Western on the board at 7-0.
On the next Mustangs possession Hillock would connect on a 4-yard completion with Seth Robertson and push the lead to 14-0 midway through the opening quarter.
Western would round out the 1
st quarter when Keanu Yazbeck took a 6-yard rush to the wide side of the field and the Mustangs led 21-0.
In the second quarter, the Mustangs would keep the offence pressure going with a trio of touchdowns in the last 2:21 of the quarter. First Hillock and Robertson would connect for the second time, this time for a 13-yard TD, which was followed just over a minute later when Hillock & Mohsen Jamal completed a 29-yard TD completion.
And then, with 9 seconds left in the half, Jérôme Rancourt took the ball in from the one yard line to give Western a 43-3 lead at halftime.
The Mustangs would get a pair of big plays in the 3
rd quarter, starting with the second Hillock to Jamal TD completion of the day, this time it was 51 yards.
"We didn't mean any disrespect or anything by completing that play, we just saw an opportunity to practice those throws and we want to make sure we are prepared for those to happen in some big games, hopefully later in the season," said Jamal of the completion "Now that Savvy (Receiver Savaughn Magnaye-Jones) is gone there is definitely some more opportunities for me to step up and I definitely want to do my best to help out our group,"
Just under two minutes later, Ethan Dolby took the ball 38 yards for his first TD of the season.
In the 4
th quarter, Rancourt would show off his ability to pull the ball and run with a 14 yard rushing TD giving Western a 64-3 lead.
The Western offensive effort finished with a Marcell Phillips 23 yard rushing TD with 2:07 left on the clock to give Western the 71-3 advantage.
"It was great to give some opportunities to some of our younger guys tonight and we definitely saw some good things out of them," said Marshall "A guy like Thompson Silcox did a great job at Free Safety, Seni (Seni Adekunle) had a couple of good breakups as well and who knows when we might need guys like that later in the year so it was great to see them get a chance.
KEY STATS
QB Evan Hillock – 18 completions with 4TDs
WR Mohsen Jamal – 113 yards on 5 receptions with 2 TDs
WR Seth Robertson – 86 yards on 5 receptions with 2 TDs
RB Keon Edwards – 9 rushed for 72 yards and 1 TD
QB Jérôme Rancourt – 2 TD rushes for 32 yards
DB Chris Cameron-Kogler – 1 INT, 3 Tackles & 2 pass breakups
DB Richard Aduboffour – 1 INT & 1 Tackle
LB Max Nixon – 2 Sacks & 7 Tackles
NEXT GAME
Western moves to 2-0 on the season with the win. It's a short turn around for the Mustangs as they will host Carleton next Saturday afternoon for a 5 pm kickoff at Western Alumni Stadium. Fans can buy their tickets at
WesternMustangs.ca/tickets. A reminder that Western students get free admission to all regular season games by presenting their Western ONECard at the gates.
