The Western Mustangs are headed to the Yates Cup game for the 10th time in the last 11 years after a 43-33 win over Windsor at Alumni Field in London, Ont. Saturday. The Mustangs will travel to Kingston to face the Queen’s Gaels for the OUA title after grinding out a victory on their home field. Running back Ethan Dolby rushed for three touchdowns including two in the final quarter which put Western ahead for good. The Lancers had him bottled up with a strong defensive front, but he stayed patient and finally broke through the holes created by the offensive line. “Those red zone carries you know you just got to find the crease,” said Dolby, who had 54 yards on 15 carries. “I believe anybody on that team would have scored down there with the holes like that. It’s a grind to get in the red zone. You know we got stopped that one time in the third quarter, but we’ll have corrections… We’ll fix those up.” Western head coach Michael Faulds knew they had to be patient with the run game because they didn’t want to rely solely on the passing of quarterback Ben Casselman.Casselman threw for 345 yards and mixed in some key runs totalling 104 yards. “Especially in the fourth quarter they had the wind,” said Faulds. “Every single play in that fourth quarter, we snapped it inside of three seconds on the play clock. Ben did a good job managing that and our run game didn’t explode today. We had a couple young offensive linemen in there but proud that you know on that last drive that we scored the touchdown we were able to run the football.” This game featured some crazy offensive plays including an 86-yard pass to Emmett Charles for a Western touchdown and a 108-yard score by Dasani McIntosh when it looked like the Mustangs may have to take a safety from their own two-yard line. “I would love for it to be like an elaborate play where I did like something super high tech, but I just had a flat route in the flats and Ben led me up field,” said McIntosh. “I saw a couple of defenders, Emmett Charles made a huge block, and I just flipped them and just wanted to get to the end zone.” That play happened with Western up 22-19 and a safety would have meant a one-point game and Western kicking back to Windsor. “We kind of felt we’re going to give up two points being on our one-yard line if we don’t get it,” recalled Faulds. “So, I told [Offensive Coordinator Gaetan] Richard like let’s still throw the football. Let’s be aggressive. We put three receivers in the boundary, and they brought the Will [Linebacker], so as soon as they brought the Will I knew they were shorthanded. He broke two tackles and he’s one of the fastest guys in USports and the rest is history on that play.” The game was filled with penalties, and Windsor took some key unsportsmanlike and unnecessary roughness penalties at crucial times to take them out of scoring range. The Mustangs will now have to play the OUA final on the road after losing head-to-head against the Gaels 41-30 back on Oct. 3. “Queens is a talented team as we know,” said Faulds. “They’re coached by [Londoner] Steve Snyder and have a great staff. They’ve got a fifth-year quarterback in Alex Vreeken, so we’re going to spend a lot of time this week obviously looking at the film. We had a close game with them, and Ben Casselman continues to grow as our quarterback. So that’s one of the big differences compared to the previous meeting.” Western has a very young and inexperienced team. Dolby is one of the few players who have hoisted the Yates Cup trophy. “I told coach before the season, I was like, ‘Hey, there’s a lot of young guys on this team who haven’t sniffed anything, or haven’t touched any trophy whatsoever,” said Dolby. “There’s only a handful of us that have won a Yates Cup on this team. So I’m going to show them, you should be grateful to be in this in this practice week. It’s not given and even tomorrow [Sunday] morning, we’ve got to have energy and this week’s going to be a grind.” Faulds knows exactly what the Yates Cup means. He was a two-time game MVP as a player for Western and won two more Ontario titles as the head coach of Wilfrid Laurier. He’s headed back to Kingston where he played his final game as a Mustangs quarterback [in 2009] in one of the most memorable Yates Cup games in league history. He battled through injury and could barely walk, nearly willing his team to victory. “It’s super special because as most people know, it isn’t the Super Bowl that is the oldest football trophy and it isn’t the Grey Cup that is the oldest football trophy,” said Faulds. “The Yates Cup is the oldest football trophy, so it’s pretty special. It’s equally special that it’s two historic programs like Queens and like Western, a matchup that probably the casual fans didn’t want to see. I’m sure the casual fans wanted Windsor in it for the first time since 1975. They wanted the Gee Gees in it, but what they’ve got is the two best teams in the conference, and it’s going to be a hell of a game.”
