The Western Mustangs men’s football team were looking to win their third straight and improve to 3-0 after two dominant wins over the The Laurier Golden Hawks and the Queens Gaels, 32-19 and 40-23 respectively.

It would be a tough feat however, going up against the perennial contenders McMaster Marauders who were also 2-0 coming into the game.

The Mustangs improved to 3-0 after they grinded to a 34-17 win.

The Mustangs came out firing scoring 10 points in the first Quarter, thanks to a 12 play 86-yard opening drive, that was caped off by a 1 yard running touchdown by starting quarterback Chris Merchant. Marc Liegghio then hit a 42 yard field goal to finish off the first quarter. On a rare occasion Chris Merchant did not pass for a touchdown in today’s game, however he did score two rushing touchdowns and he did rush for 103 yards. After the game he has this to say about his rushing performance “..they dropped in the coverage a bit today, and we had to change a couple of things the past few years that forces the linebackers to drop off a bit, it opens up some running lanes, the O-line and full backs also did a great job giving me time to run”.

The second quarter saw the Marauders get back in the game as they quickly scored 10 points to tie the game. But the mustangs drove down the field with less then two minutes in the half and scored on a 3-yard touchdown run by running back Trey Humes.

The Marauders scored one touchdown on the opening drive of the second half, thanks to a34 yard touchdown pass from Andreas Dueck to Esaie Mboko. After that it was all mustangs, as they finished off the game by scoring 17 unanswered points.

The most impressive scoring play was a play that the mustangs called the “Pony-Express”. A play in which wide-receiver Brett Ellerman received an end-around then threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to quarterback Chris Merchant. This play was similar to the famous “Philly-express” from super-bowl 52, in which the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots. “..Coach Marshal talked about potentially running it in the game, we obviously never ran it so we thought it would catch people off guard. Me and Chris were really pushing for it to happen and were glad we did….” said Brett Ellerman after the game about running the “Pony-Express”.

The Mustangs next game will be next Saturday the 14nth of September for the annual black-out game, in which the Mustangs will be wearing their all-black uniforms. For this game the Carleton Ravens will be coming to town.

The game starts at 7:00 pm and coverage for the game will start at 6:50pm.