Lightning apparently doesn’t strike twice in the same place.
The problem for the Western Mustangs and the Guelph Gryphons on Monday night at TD Stadium in London was lightning in the same area.
Kickoff for Western’s home opener was delayed nearly two and a half hours due to the thunderstorms that rumbled around and through London.
When the storms finally cleared away, the strikes continued courtesy of both offenses.
The Mustangs and Gryphons combined for 1,001 yards and 75 points in a game that needed overtime as Western pulled out a 41-34 victory to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Stevenson Bone ran the ball in from one yard out for the winning score in OT. After one of the longest nights in the careers of most players on the field, he may have been one of the freshest bodies out there. Bone is the backup to Chris Merchant and that was his first touch in the game.
Merchant was 27-41 for 378 yards and a touchdown through the air.
Western head coach Greg Marshall had said during the year that the Mustangs would have a few new wrinkles on offense with the addition of Steve Snyder as offensive co-ordinator, but admitted in training camp, “Everyone around the league thinks we’re going to run the ball and we’re going to run the ball.”
Merchant ran for 92 yards and two touchdowns himself. Alex Taylor added 70 yards and Cedric Joseph rushed for another 55. With Bone’s winning score, that gave Western 218 yards on the ground.
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In the initial CIS rankings, Western was placed third in the country and they did nothing on Monday night to move themselves down.
READ MORE: Mustangs back to looking forward
Guelph fell to 0-2. Quarterback James Roberts had a tidy game, going 20-28 for 286 yards through the air, but he was sacked five times by the Western defence. Two of those came courtesy of third-year defensive lineman, Jimmy Hawley who had 2.5 sacks over the entire season last year.
St. Thomas Aquinas alum Jesse McNair turned in another strong game in the Mustangs’ defensive secondary with six tackles.
Western is joined by two other unbeaten teams atop the OUA standings as Ottawa picked up two sacks against Queen’s on a final desperation drive by the Gaels to hang on for a 14-13 win.
Waterloo is also unbeaten after two weeks after demolishing York 52-8 on Monday.
Next up for Western is a visit to McMaster to face a very talented Marauders team on Saturday.
Mac had a bye through the first week of the OUA season and then knocked off Carleton 23-9 this week.
They did that despite being held to just 65 passing yards and 142 yards of total offence.
Kickoff at Ron Joyce Stadium is 1 p.m. on Saturday.
The Mustangs will then go to Windsor before returning home against Queen’s on Sept. 23.
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