Keon Edwards rushed for 237 yards and three touchdowns as the Western Mustangs wiped out the Warriors 48-14 on Saturday afternoon in Waterloo, Ont.
The Mustangs are now 4-1 atop the OUA’s West Division with one game remaining in the regular season.
Western will finish their schedule with a rematch against the Windsor Lancers on October 31 in Windsor, Ont.
The Mustangs defeated the Lancers 54-4 a week ago.
Right now, the only team with a chance to catch Western in the standings is the Guelph Gryphons, who blanked U of T 48-0 on Saturday.
Guelph would need a win at McMaster and a Mustang loss in Windsor to finish ahead of Western based on a tiebreaker.
The Mustangs tipped the field in their favour right away against Waterloo.
On second and short during their first possession, Western quarterback Evan Hillock gunned a ball to the left side to Savaughn Magnaye-Jones, who is the OUA leader in receiving yards.
Magnaye-Jones strolled into the end zone for his second touchdown of the season and the Mustangs didn’t look back from there.
The next Mustang possession saw Edwards break a run to the right and outrun everyone for 44 yards and a 14-0 Western lead before the first quarter was even halfway through.
Edwards wasn’t finished there.
He took a handoff 97-yards and scored with 13 seconds remaining in the opening quarter and sat with 168 total yards at the half.
Edwards added another TD in the third quarter and 69 more yards in the second half to pass Rasheed Tucker of Queen’s for the OUA rushing lead with 772 total yards on the ground.
Western led 41-7 at the half and, while their offence churned, their defence did the job of bending and not breaking.
Waterloo came into the game with one of the top-scoring offences in the league and much of that was attributed to the play of quarterback Tre Ford, who Mustang head coach Greg Marshall admits is a difficult player to defend.
“He is exceptional,” said Marshall. “There is no one else like him (in the OUA). When you do your best job and you cover everyone, he can take the ball down and run with it.”
Ford ended the day with 213 yards passing and 75 more yards rushing. He threw for one touchdown and ran for another.
Hillock had another good day under centre for Western. He ended the day 11-for-18 for 208 yards and two passing touchdowns.
“We run a lot of play-action,” pointed out Western head coach Greg Marshall. “Our quarterbacks are putting the ball into the running back’s belly and pulling it out and then having to set and get it away quick. We want to get the linebackers to jump up. It’s important to get the ball and be decisive and Evan does that really well.”
Marshall has been very impressed with the composure shown by the first-year pivot.
“He doesn’t get flustered,” said Marshall. “For a young player, if he makes a bad throw, he makes a bad throw. If he makes a good throw, he makes a good throw. He’s very even-keeled.”
Magnaye-Jones ended the day with 67 yards and two receiving TDs.
Western kicker Brian Garrity went 2-for-3 on the day hitting field goals from 37 and 40 yards out.
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