Mustangs stay undefeated with big road win over Varsity Blues
TORONTO – Alex Taylor ran for a career high 203 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Western Mustangs to a 58-2 victory over the Toronto Varsity Blues on Thursday night at Varsity Stadium.
TORONTO – Alex Taylor ran for a career high 203 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Western Mustangs to a 58-2 victory over the Toronto Varsity Blues on Thursday night at Varsity Stadium.
"He's special," said Western head coach Greg Marshall when asked about Taylor. "We got some good creases for him out there too but today he got some of those on his own, he's an outstanding player and he had a great game today."
With the win Western remains in first place as the lone undefeated team in the OUA with a 6-0 record, while the Varsity Blues move to 2-4 on the year.
Taylor's 203 yards came on 16 carries helping him break the century mark for the fifth time in six games. He now stands atop the CIS leaderboard in both rushing yards and touchdowns with 815 and 10 respectively.
While Taylor picked up the majority of the yards on the ground Will Finch was no less impressive in the passing game, throwing for a season-high 473 yards and three touchdowns on 27-for-41 passing.
George Johnson led the Mustangs receiving corps with 171 yards on only six receptions, including a 65-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter.
Overall the Mustangs registered 764 yards of total offence, their second-highest total of the season, while limiting Toronto to only 279 yards of their own.
Defensively the Mustangs were led by Philippe Dion who registered six tackles, and the trio of John Biewald, Preston Huggins, and Nick Vanin with five tackles each. Josh Woodman grabbed Western's 13th interception of the season and both Biewald and Renato Rossi recovered fumbles.
After a Ben Kelly field goal opened the scoring on Western's first drive of the game Yannick Harou extended the Mustangs lead to 10-0 just over two minutes later on a three-yard touchdown run.
Western didn't wait long to add more points to the scoreboard, finding the end zone on their next drive as Taylor recorded his first major of the day on a fantastic 55-yard run. A conceded safety from Western put the Varsity Blues on the board near the end of the first quarter with what would end up being their only points of the day.
A one-yard run from Harou gave Western a 24-2 lead midway through the second quarter, and the Mustangs offence only picked up steam from there scoring three touchdowns in the final 2:38 of the frame. Finch started the scoring barrage with a 27-yard pass to Jamal Kett, and followed that up exactly 60 seconds later with his 65-yard toss to Johnson before Taylor wrapped things up with a 16-yard run to make it 44-2 after 30 minutes.
The Mustangs added another two touchdowns in the second half, a six-yard pass from Finch to Kett and a four-yard run from backup quarterback Stevenson Bone to give Western a 58-2 victory.
Next up for the Mustangs is a showdown with the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday, October 17, in Western's final home game of the season. Game time is set for 1 p.m. at TD Stadium.
NOTES: While Blue Jays fans waited 22 years between playoff games it's also been 22 years since the Varsity Blues have defeated the Mustangs on the gridiron. Western's last loss to Toronto came in the 1993 Yates Cup when Toronto won 24-16…Finch's 473 yards passing is the second-highest of his CIS career, surpassing the 454 yards he threw for against Queen's on September 19…Western has now generated more than 700 yards of offence in each of their six games this season with a season low of 732 yards and a high of 801…
Source: Western Mustangs
Team Stats
| Game Statistics | Western | Toronto |
|---|---|---|
| Passing Yards | 487 | 166 |
| Rushing Yards | 289 | 138 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 3 |
| Time of Poss. | 25:38 | 34:22 |
