Laurier tops Western on final day of OUA season; teams meet again in playoffs on Oct. 31
Laurier Golden Hawks quarterback Will Russell threw five touchdown passes as Laurier beat the Western Mustangs 55-39 at Western Alumni Stadium on Oct. 24, the final day of the OUA regular season.
The win carried plenty of weight. It clinched a playoff spot for the Golden Hawks, and a loss would have left them on the outside looking in.
That playoff spot brings them right back to London in a week.
Western will meet Laurier again in the first round of the playoffs, with the Mustangs seeded second and the Golden Hawks seventh.
The loss was Western’s second of the season. It left the Mustangs in a three-way tie at 6-2 with the McMaster Marauders and the Windsor Lancers for second place in the conference, but Western came out on top after the tiebreaker.
It’s the first time since 2014 that Western has lost two regular-season games.
The afternoon also marked Mustangs head coach Michael Faulds’ first game against his former team. Faulds coached Laurier from 2013 to 2025 before joining Western ahead of this season.
The Queen’s Gaels locked up the OUA regular-season title, and a first-round playoff bye, with a 25-17 win over McMaster.
The Golden Hawks and the Mustangs put up massive offensive numbers all day.
The first half was filled with touchdowns, and a late score put Laurier ahead 38-35 at the break.
Western quarterback Ben Casselman completed his first 11 throws and tossed three touchdown passes.
Two went to Emmett Charles. The other went to Dasani McIntosh, who caught seven passes for a game-high 200 yards.
Russell wasn’t far from perfect himself, going 20-for-25 in the first half for 349 yards and four touchdowns.
Between them, the two quarterbacks threw for 630 yards before halftime.
The second half was a different story. Laurier’s defence kept Western from finding its first-half rhythm, and the Golden Hawks’ offence kept putting up points.
Casselman went 7-for-17 after the break, and the Mustangs managed just four points.
Russell finished with 481 yards and five touchdowns.
Laurier receiver Ryan Hughes caught three of them and finished the season with eight touchdown catches, one more than Charles put up in his rookie year.
Western running back Ethan Dolby carried 12 times for 90 yards.
That gave him 844 on the season and the OUA rushing title by 22 yards over Souleymane Camara of the Ottawa Gee-Gees.
Dolby also led the conference in yards per carry (8.5) and yards per game (105.5).
On defence,
Rory Litt recorded a sack for Western. That gave him 4.5 on the season, fifth in the OUA.
The other playoff matchups set for Oct. 31 will see #6 Ottawa take on #3 McMaster and #5 Guelph face #4 Windsor.