AROUND OUA: Mustangs take down OUA-leading Gryphons
LONDON, Ont. – Fighting against the OUA's top team and near freezing temperatures, the Mustangs proved that nothing would slow them down, defeating the Guelph Gryphons 12-10 on Saturday night at Alumni Field.
SCOREBOARD
With the win the Mustangs improve to 5-1 on the year, while the Gryphons suffered their first loss of the year to move to 6-1.
"I would have liked to see a little more scoring, but it's a win. I'll take it," said Mustangs head coach David Knowles. "It was the battle I thought it was going to be, and we were on the right side this time."
Mark Denton continued to prove that he's indispensable by topping the score sheet once again with one try and one convert. Glen Bullock - with a try of his own - was the only other Mustang to post points.
Bullock's points were arguably what set the Mustang machine in motion, with the play concentrated in the purple and white end prior to his try. Dodging through multiple red and yellow defenders, he broke through the Gryphon line just seven minutes in to give Western an early lead.
Denton followed up with a kick straight through the uprights to register the convert.
Guelph retaliated less than five minutes later with a try of their own, but were unable to make the kick.
As snow began to come down, both teams increased the intensity. Guelph and Western both managed strong runs, threatening to put another several points on the board.
It wasn't until Bullock cleared a lane for point leader Denton's try that Western was able to further extend their lead.
Refusing to go down without a fight, Guelph managed to sneak in their second try of the night near the thirty-minute mark to bring the score to 12-10. The red and gold try was the last points scored of the night.
Returning to the field for the final forty, the desire for a win from both teams was palpable. While the score didn't move, there was plenty of action on the field.
"Their scrums and their mauls were really pushing us early on, but I think we adjusted," said Bullock about their win. "We knew we needed to buckle down. They have some very big forwards, but our forwards played great and came back really hard. We kept that aggression up throughout the whole second half."
Guelph and Western both picked up penalties resulting in kicks – though none were successful – while the play continually switched from being concentrated deep in the purple and white half to equally as deep in the red and gold.
However, Guelph almost had a leg up on the Mustangs when they believed to have scored a try that would put them in the lead, but the points were nullified by the officials.
At the final whistle, the score remained the same as it had been at the 28-minute mark, with Western defeated last year's OUA silver medalists and 2015's top ranked team 12-10.
The Mustangs are back in action and will be looking to pick up another win on October 24, when they head to St. Catharines to take on the Brock Badgers in their penultimate matchup of the regular season.
Source: Western Mustangs
Marauders hammer Waterloo 54-0
The McMaster men's rugby team got tries from nine different players and routed the Waterloo Warriors 54-0 in OUA action Saturday afternoon in Hamilton.
Marauder scoring runs came from Adrian Wadden, Aaron Mabbott, Mitch Richardson, Richard Ormrod, Mike Waldock, Eric Lickers, Mike Jones, Adam Brice, and Graham Dobbs, who also added three converts and a penalty goal to lead the scoring.
The win keeps McMaster in fourth spot in the OUA standings.
The Marauders will wrap up the OUA regular season schedule with a trip to Kingston to face the Queen's Gaels on October 31st.
Source: McMaster Marauders
Gaels with a big 60-20 win against Laurier
KINGSTON, Ont. (October 17, 2015) – The Gaels (5-1) clinched their fifth consecutive win this Saturday afternoon against the Laurier Golden Hawks (2-4) 60-20.
The Gaels were on their heels right after the kick-off but Jeff MacDonald (Toronto) didn't let the Hawks get comfortable as he grabbed an intercept three minutes into play to run end-to-end putting down the first try of the game. A good convert by Alex Colborne (London, Ont.) completed the play, giving the Gaels the early 7-0 lead. With the pace set for the rest of the half, the Gaels were back on the board with another try from MacDonald as well as a try and conversion combo from Colborne marking the first try of his Queen's rugby career. Kainoa Lloyd (Mississauga, Ont.) matched their trend, breaking away with a 40 yard run try followed by tries from Colborne and Will McArthur (Brantford, Ont.), stretching the Gaels lead to 36-0.
The Hawks managed to find a seam in the Queen's defense and got down their first try of the game by Ryan Gamm 34 minutes deep in the first half. Captain Lucas Rumball (Toronto) answered immediately with a try for the Gaels. With less than a minute left in the half, Teddy Taggart (Ottawa) wrapped up the strong Queen's performance pushing across one more try to put the Gaels up 50-5 at halftime.
Queen's opened the second with a quick try by Kevin Rush (Aurora, Ont.) with his first try of the game. The Gaels started to slow then, as the Hawks found some traction with Robert Cini coming through with the second try of the match for the Hawks. The momentum continued to swing in favour of the Hawks as they got another try down, this time by Mitch Shiels getting them up to 15 points against the 55 for the Gaels.
The Gaels picked it up, getting another try down by Matt Beukeboom (Bobcaygeon, Ont.) but Laurier found their way back onto the board with a try by Darnell Marks. The Hawks couldn't catch the Gaels though and Queen's met the final whistle with a 60-20 win over the Golden Hawks.
Source: Queen's Gaels
