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Western's defence had it's usual outstanding game. Waterloo repeatedly tried to run the ball through the line and were repeatedly stopped for little or no gain. If it wasn't for Warrior quarterback Ryan Wilkinson's ability to scramble, the final score may have been a little more lopsided. The key defensive play came in the third quarter. After Western had driven the length of the field, running back Fabian Rayne fumbled on the Warrior 1 yard line. Waterloo then managed to slowly drive back down the field to about the Western 7 yard line. It was third down with one yard to go. Waterloo chose to go for it rather than take the easy three points and a tie game. Mustang safety Alexis Sanchagrin came up to make the hit at or behind the line of scrimmage and, with his uncanny ability to finish one-on-one tackles, held the Warriors for a loss. First and ten Western. But there were other key plays. One of the most exciting was "the great scramble." The play was a broken naked bootleg. Mustang quarterback Mike O'Brien, with two Warriors bearing down on him and his blockers on the other side of the field was forced to run for his life. I, and likely many others, expected him to tuck in the ball and run down field as he has on so many other occasions. But, after avoiding a couple of tacklers, O'Brien looked up and found tailback Scott Crawley with a pass. Crawley then took the ball over the goal line for 6 points. The key play of the day, however, came with less than a minute to go in the fourth quarter. Western was facing a punting situation. Most onlookers were likely expecting a typical booming shot from the Mustang punter into the end zone for a single point thus negating the field goal for a tie. But Mike O'Brien has other things in mind. He deftly angled the ball toward the near sidelines putting it out of bounds at the one yard line. With less than one minute to go, Waterloo was facing 109 yards of artificial turf and the Mustang defence. The offence had a good day with fullback Fabian Rayne leading the way. He carried 20 times for 141 yards. Tailback Scott Crawley ran for 113 yards while James Prescott caught four balls for 80 yards. Notes With a second quarter Warrior touchdown, the Mustang defence had their streak of preventing a touchdown broken at 16 consecutive quarters. Prior to this one, the Mustangs had not yielded a major score since the first quarter of the season. Waterloo attempted a two point convert in the fourth quarter with the score 20-17. It failed. The mustangfootball.com player of the game is Alexis Sanchagrin. In the safety position, Sanchagrin is often the last man between the opposing ball carrier and the end zone. With his great ability to make and finish one-on-one open field tackles, they rarely get past him. He demonstrated this on numerous occasions against the Warriors. Honourable mention goes to Mike O'Brien for is all around play passing, scrambling and punting. Next week is "inter-conference week." Western will be hosting their purple and silver cousins from Bishops. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly The Good - What can I say? The win! It was a good all around effort by defence, offence and special teams. The Bad - Waterloo's decision to concede a safety. Had they not conceded and kicked from the end zone, and had the defence held, and had they gone for the single point convert instead of the two, it would have been a tie ball game. Isn't hind sight great? I just don't like conceding anything. Little points add up to make big points. The safety and the failed convert effectively add up to four Western points and, as we know, they won by three. The Ugly - OUA and CIAU football is a great game that is continually being undermined by pathetic officials. This week's Ugly is the pass interference call against Western DB Jamie Ewart. The replay showed that the Warrior receiver fell down and that Ewart had not even touched him (it wasn't even that close.)
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