Here is how Week One's game report from last season began:

"A few years ago the OUA changed the schedule. There used to be a pre season game prior to a seven game schedule. After sitting through this one I'm thinking they should bring it back."

It's deja vu all over again. It's a good thing that the OUA only creates a new schedule every two years with home and away being flipped the second year. By all accounts, Western really needed an 0-8 opponent for this one.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to travel to Windsor to catch this one (who would willingly travel to Windsor for anything?) So here is the game report by Steve Coad of the London Free Press.

WINDSOR -- Really, this one belonged to the Windsor Lancers.

Everything but the victory, that is, which the Western Mustangs snatched away right at the end.

Down all day, Mustangs quarterback Michael O'Brien and wide receiver Tim Hatfield hooked up on a 58-yard touchdown pass with 2:42 remaining to give Western an 18-15 victory over the Lancers yesterday in the Ontario University Athletics season opener for both teams.

The play to Hatfield is called a quick fade, where he and slotback Ryan Chisholm line up to O'Brien's left, then simply fade to the sideline.

They did and both Windsor defenders went for Chisholm, who had picked up 12 yards on the previous play, the exact same call.

"I was wide open," said Hatfield, who had six catches for 107 yards on the day, his first game after missing all of last season with a knee injury.

"When I saw the ball coming I thought, honestly, where's the defender? All I had to do was catch it and go."

The play stunned the crowd of 1,200 spectators, many of whom had gleefully written off the Mustangs, and caused the Lancers to hang their heads at the bench.

Windsor head coach Mike Morencie, whose Lancers were 0-8 last season, wasn't pulling punches in the aftermath: "I don't think Western beat us. I think we beat ourselves, plain and simple.

"We can't feel sorry for ourselves but we didn't give (quarterback Morgan Gallagher) enough time. We didn't didn't protect him well enough."

The Lancers led 15-7 after three quarters, but cracks were beginning to show.

A big momentum swing came right at the beginning of the fourth quarter when the Lancers gambled on third down from the Western 10, going for a touchdown rather than kicking a field goal.

Gallagher's pass was incomplete, giving the ball to the Mustangs. On their next play, O'Brien found James Prescott for a 46-yard gain.

Prescott? Yep, the same guy who caught a 75-yarder against the Lancers in last year's opener at J.W. Little Stadium that lit a fire under the Mustangs, who went on to turn a 10-1 deficit midway through the third quarter into a 32-10 victory.

"That was a drastic exchange of real estate," Morencie said of his team having the ball on Western's 10, then, two plays later, Western working from the Lancers' 54.

Seven plays later, O'Brien kicked his third field goal in as many tries, a 26-yarder, to bring the Mustangs to within 15-10 with 9:33 to play.

Asked why he didn't try to kick a field goal from the Western 10, Morencie said his team was aiming for the kill on the Mustangs.

"A touchdown would really have put us in good position," he said.

Mustangs head coach Larry Haylor wasn't buying the bit about the Lancers losing more than Western winning.

"Windsor played well, they did, but they didn't have their way all game," he said. "They didn't have it their way in the fourth quarter. Our guys deserve credit for not giving up. There were times out there and things happening where we could have, but our guys didn't quit."

Haylor wasn't kidding about the second-half resurgence. O'Brien, seven-for-20 for 64 yards in this first half, finished 17-for-31 for 265 yards.

On the ground, fullback Fabian Rayne gained 60 of his game-high 80 yards after the break, although the Mustangs slowed themselves down by fumbling four times.

The offensive line, where only right guard Mike Chuk returned from last season, got better as the game went on, although it paid a price for Windsor's relentless rush and blitz as both Adam Rumball, a linebacker moved to the o-line this season, and Banting grad Dennis Beuerman sustained leg injuries.

"There rush early was overpowering," Hatfield said. "I mean they were sending eight guys sometimes, which really makes it tough on Mike (O'Brien) and the line.

"But they adjusted as the game wore on and with them sending so many guys after Mike, it opened some other things up." Hatfield smiled, referring to some of Western's outside and deeper patterns.

It opened up the fade for sure.