Golden Hawks soar past Marauders

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There will be a new Yates Cup champion this year.

“Birds flying high” are the lyrics the McMaster Marauders run onto the field to, but on Saturday those words rung truer for the Laurier Golden Hawks.

Both schools have flight as the common theme of their mascots, but the story of this game was all action on the ground.

Led by  the 259 rushing yards from Laurier running back  Dillon Campbell, the No. 6 Laurier Golden Hawks upset the No. 3 McMaster Marauders 29-15 to advance to the OUA semifinals. Laurier simply stole the show from McMaster in their OUA Football Quarterfinal game at Ron Joyce Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 31.

There is no other way to put it.

Far from an aerial assault team, McMaster Offensive Coordinator Jon Behie thinks Laurier did enough through the air with a couple explosive plays to keep the McMaster defense honest.

“They’re not a team that will call 80 percent pass plays and get 500 yards on you, but they’re dangerous,” Behie said.

On the very first play of the game second-year Golden Hawks quarterback Eric Morelli threw a deep ball to wide receiver Carson Ouellette for a 46-yard gain. That was the beginning of a five-play, 70-yard touchdown drive. On their third drive Laurier pulled out the trickery and continued to attack the McMaster secondary with a Wide Receiver Reverse Pass that saw wide receiver Daniel Bennett hit fellow wide receiver Zeph Fraser for a 49-yard gain. In the second quarter a Golden Hawks five-play, 98-yard touchdown drive was jumpstarted by a Morelli pass to Bennett for a 56-yard completion.

“I think they had some shots dialed up. They had a gameplan for stuff they saw on film and wanted to exploit”, said Behie. “They didn’t have to pass a lot on Saturday but they dialed up some shots and they worked. Give them full credit for executing.”

Although those few plays were Laurier’s demonstration of explosiveness through the air, the slow and steady pounding on the ground throughout the entire game eventually became too much for McMaster. On the ground, Laurier more than established their rushing attack amassing 327 total rushing yards on 44 carries. This was allowed by a McMaster defense that was first in the OUA in rushing yards allowed conceding 122.8 yards/game on the ground to opponents.

“Dillon Campbell is one of the best backs in OUA history. He was the OUA MVP last year and giving the ball to him 40 times is smart on their behalf. Their offensive line played a great game and we just weren’t able to do anything about it,” Behie said.

McMaster’s usually potent pass offense was muzzled in a way on Saturday. Despite completing 20 passes on 31 attempts for 320 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, McMaster quarterback Asher Hastings was sacked four times and flushed out of the pocket several times.

His rhythm was disrupted by Laurier’s defensive front.

Prior to this game, Hastings was sacked 10 times in eight games. The Golden Hawks defense almost racked up half of that. It was uncharacteristic for a Marauders offensive line that has been great at protecting their record-breaking signal caller all year.

“Our strength of our offense this year has been keeping our quarterback clean and giving him a clean pocket to set his feet and find our receivers and that wasn’t necessarily the case on Saturday,” said Behie. “Full credit to Laurier’s front four. They played outstanding.”

McMaster can only look back on this tough loss and learn from it. Spring training camp will come soon enough but the Marauders’ football season was definitely cut abruptly short.

“I think anyone in our organization would say that we underachieved. We thought we were capable of a lot more. We’re extremely disappointed and we think we’re better than that. Our fans, student body, and campus deserves better than that. I think we have to remain motivated to work harder in the offseason to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” said Behie.

Next for McMaster football are season evaluations and recruiting. Nothing specific can be said about next year now as it’s way too early and the loss is still fresh, but the outlook remains positive.

“Our coaches will attend clinics and staff meetings to evaluate and figure out our next steps and we’ll continue to evolve and improve. Now our main focus is on recruiting and getting the best possible class for 2016,” Behie said.

McMaster finished 6-3 overall this season.

Photo Credit: Daniel Higgins

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