Waterloo advances to OUA football playoffs, Laurier comes up short
GUELPH — The Waterloo Warriors are in; the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks are not.
The Warriors, who dropped a 47-44 double-overtime decision to the Guelph Gryphons on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Stadium, officially advanced to the post-season dance several minutes later when the Western Mustangs closed out a 46-13 win over the Golden Hawks at TD Stadium in London.
The Warriors (4-4) qualified for the Ontario University Athletics football playoffs for the first time since 2003 and will face the Gryphons (5-3) again next Saturday in a quarter-final showdown in Guelph. The Carleton Ravens (5-3) host the McMaster Marauders (5-3) in the other quarterfinal, while the Mustangs (8-0) and Ottawa Gee-Gees (6-2) earned first-round byes.
“Obviously, you’d like to win the game and get in, I guess they’d say the right way, but we still earned this. We earned this with big wins over Laurier and McMaster,” said Warriors head coach Chris Bertoia.
“It’s exciting, first time a long, long time. … The guys were pretty down and when I told them we were going to be back here next week, they got excited.”
Indeed, there were plenty of long faces after the heartbreaking loss to Guelph. Waterloo players mingled with friends and family underneath the stands, with some of them refreshing their phones to see what was happening in the Western-Laurier game that was delayed for 30 minutes by lightning.
They knew the Ottawa GeeGees had done them a solid with a 27-22 win over the Queen’s Gaels so the invitation to the post-season dance hinged would be determined by the outcome in London.
The nervous frowns turned to smiles when it became apparent that Western was going to prevail, ending Laurier’s post-season hopes in the process.
Bertoia shared a history lesson with his players when the playoff berth became official.
“I just said to the guys … the 1999, four-and-four Waterloo Warriors that I was fortunate enough to play for, we won the Yates Cup, so why not do that now,” he said.
The back-and-forth affair came to a sudden end when Guelph recovered a fumble by Warriors quarterback Tre Ford on the second go-around of overtime.
Guelph kicker Gabe Ferraro forced overtime when he hit a 32-yard field goal as time expired to knot the score 37-37.
Waterloo scored on its first offensive possession of overtime when Ford threw a four-yard touchdown pass to Gordon Lam but Guelph responded with a touchdown of its own when JeanPaul Cimankinda ran into the end zone from six yards out.
Guelph did nothing on it second consecutive offensive possession, but Ferraro came in and kicked a 42-yard field goal to give his team the lead.
Ford lost the ball on the next play, Waterloo’s fifth fumble of the afternoon.
The disappointing finish overshadowed another remarkable performance by Ford, who connected on 30-of-38 passes for 396 yards and five touchdowns. The second-year player also rushed 11 times for 73 yards and a touchdown.
Waterloo receiver Tyler Ternowski hauled in a pair of touchdown passes and finished the season with 14 to set a new OUA record. He completed the game with six catches for 107 yards. Gordon Lam caught 10 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown; Richmond Nketiah had eight catches for 92 yards and a touchdown; and Mitch Kernick caught six passes for 64 yards and a touchdown.
Dion Pellerin led the Waterloo rushing attack with 17 carries for 131 yards. Waterloo outgained Guelph in total offence by a margin of 606-399 yards.
Waterloo could have been comfortably ahead at halftime but a pair of lost fumbles and a blocked punt by Guelph’s Jason Richards translated into an 18-16 lead for Guelph. Waterloo outgained Guelph 295-128 in first-half offence.
Gryphons quarterback Theo Landers connected on 11-of-22 passes for 184 yards and touchdown passes to Kade Belyk and Kian Schaffer-Baker. Both receivers caught four passes on the game.
Cimankinda was Guelph’s most dangerous player, rushing 16 times for 157 yards and a touchdown.
Ferraro connected on four of four field-goal attempts.
Playing the same opponent in back-to-back weeks is unfamiliar territory for Bertoia, so the fourth-year coach said he might reach out to friends in the coaching fraternity for a bit of guidance.
“It’s difficult. What are they going to do different? What are we going to do different? How much do you change? There are so many different things,” he said.
“I know they do it in the CFL, so maybe I’ll make a few phone calls to some of the guys I know, that I’ve befriended in the CFL, and ask them how they handle that and how they go about their business when they have to play back-to-back games.”
At London, the Golden Hawks (4-4) missed the playoffs for the first time since 2013 with their loss to the Mustangs.
The Golden Hawks held tough for three quarters against Canada’s top-ranked team but were outscored 21-0 in the final 15 minutes.
“Obviously, it was a disappointing year. No one expected our season to end on Oct. 20. No one will talk about how close our losses were or how many guys we lost to injuries, it’s simply did we win, or did we lose,” said Golden Hawks head coach Michael Faulds.
“We had chances this year to win a lot of football games outside of the one today. The message to the young guys is we just continue on and fight the battle and to recognize our seniors who have given us a tremendous four or five years.”
Western quarterback Chris Merchant was 13-of-19 for 251 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, and rushed seven times for 97 yards and two scores. Cedric Joseph rushed 12 times for 51 yards and a touchdown. Harry McMaster had seven catches for 160 yards and two touchdowns.
Laurier’s Connor Carusello was good on 26-of-42 pass attempts for 217 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Brentyn Hall was Laurier’s top receiver with eight catches for 55 yards and a touchdown. Kurleigh Gittens Jr. added five catches for 26 yards. Levondre Gordon had 15 carries for 56 yards as Laurier managed 295 yards of total offence. Western responded with 498.