The Western Mustangs are Yates Cup Champions for the 36th time in program history. The Mustangs beat rival Queen’s 36-27 at Richardson Stadium in Kingston, Ont. Saturday to win the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) title. Western dominated both the second and third quarter taking a 3-0 deficit and turning it into a 36-3 lead before surrendering 24 points in the final quarter. It was a game full of big plays for Western who had a 105-yard interception return for a touchdown by game MVP Thomson Silcox, an 80-yard touchdown reception by Emmett Charles added a 77-yard punt return score by Brenna Keba. The win gives head coach Michael Faulds five career Yates Cup titles, two as a Western player and now his first as a Mustangs head coach. “It feels incredible. I told our guys, I’ve been to many Yates Cups as a player and as a coach,” Faulds told media after the game. “Although we’re going to play a bigger game next week and we hope to play a bigger game in 2 weeks, Yates Cup Day is my favourite day of the year.” Western will move on to host the Mitchell Bowl against St. Mary’s University, who won the Loney Bowl, next Saturday at 12 p.m. at Alumni Field. Faulds is proud of his team to grind out a title against the 11-team OUA. “It’s a gruelling conference, and our pathway to the Yates Cup meant we were playing 3 teams Laurier, Windsor, and Queen’s, for the 2nd time,” said Faulds. “Our guys showed so much resiliency, and you can see that, for a young team that just played their 11th game in a row, each and every week we truly are getting better.“ ”Just a huge credit to our defence, Coach (Paul) Gleason, Coach (Craig) Butler, really putting our guys in a good position. You can see we got pressure on their quarterback and didn’t make it easy for them in the first half," said Head Coach Michael Faulds. ”Offensively, we did pretty well in the first half, mainly the one explosive play by Emmett Charles, which everyone’s getting used to. Coming out in the 3rd quarter, we knew we wanted to take the wind and show our dominance. You’ve got the big touchdown there by Emmett, followed by Keba’s big return touchdown, and that kind of opened the floodgates. Western’s offence finished with 228 passing yards (QB Ben Casselman) and 144 on the ground with Ethan Dolby accounting for 106 rushing yards on 12 carries. Keba’s big punt return gave Western a 26-3 lead. “I just trust in my blocks all the time and I know the guys are always great and at any moment we can score on them,” said Keba. “I’ve had a couple that have landed inside the 10 and been tackled. It’s finally great to get the monkey off my back and finally get in.” Western had a 29-3 lead in the fourth quarter when Queen’s looked to be headed into the endzone for the first time. That’s when Silcox intercepted Gaels’ quarterback Alex Vreeken and took it back the other way for the score which iced the game. “The guys up front putting pressure on their quarterback, making him air the throw out, and I just wanted to capitalize on it,” Silcox said after the game. “Towards the end, I was starting to get tired; our guys were doing a great job blocking because I think their receiver was catching up to me.” Knights drop fourth straight game in loss to Saginaw The London Knights lost a third period lead in Saginaw Saturday to drop their fourth straight game overall. In a wild third period that saw eight goals scored, the Spirit beat London 6-5. Trailing 2-1 going into the final 20 minutes, Thomas Zocco scored two goals within 27 seconds to give the Knights a 3-2 lead. Just 20 seconds later, the Spirit tied the game at three. That’s when things started to get a bit crazy. The Spirit would score to take the lead at the 12:15 mark and in the final 1:44 of the game, there would be four more goals, two by each team. Knights forward Jaxon Cover cut the deficit to just one but when London pulled the goalie for an extra attacker, the Spirit scored again. Marcus Nordmark would cut it to just one again but with less than six seconds on the clock, the comeback came up short. London has fallen behind Kitchner in the Midwest standings during this losing skid and now sit sixth place in a very tight Western Conference. AFC Toronto wins national super league title with local talent Olivia Chisholm’s goal in the first half gave AFC Toronto their first Diana B. Matheson Cup with a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Roses Saturday afternoon at TD Place. The 17-year-old scored her first professional goal in the 39th minute and keeper Sabrina D’Angelo had the shutout against the highest scoring team in the National Super League. Former FC London star Lauren Rowe beat her defender in the box and sent a pass from near the endline to Chisholm, who had some space near the top of the box, and she side-footed a shot past the outstretched arms of the keeper. London native Shelina Zadorsky, who joined AFC Toronto this year, had a great chance to add to the lead but Montreal keeper Gabrielle Lambert got her fingertips on the shot. St. Thomas native Kaila Novak is also bringing home hardware as a member of AFC Toronto. With files from Canadian Press
