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The Golden Hawks men’s football team fell short in its quest for back-to-back Yates Cup championships with a loss to the Western Mustangs on Nov. 11 at TD Stadium in London.
The Mustangs earned a 75-32 victory, scoring 26 unanswered points in the second quarter and cruising to the win. The game was a rematch of last year’s Yates Cup classic – a 43-40 win for Laurier that saw the Golden Hawks post the largest fourth-quarter comeback in Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship history.
“We were optimistic early on,” Laurier head coach Michael Faulds said following the loss. “We knew there was a good chance going against Western it was going to be a high-scoring game. Huge credit to them, they were the better football team.”
This year marked the 15th time Laurier and Western have met in the Yates Cup, the Ontario university football championship. The Golden Hawks won their way back to this year’s Yates Cup by defeating the McMaster Marauders 19-6 in a Nov. 4 playoff game at University Stadium.
Cross-country running teams from Laurier’s Waterloo and Brantford campuses both earned the right to compete at national championships.
Golden Hawks men’s and women’s teams based on the Waterloo campus both finished in the Top 10 at the OUA championships to qualify for the U Sports national championships, held in November at the University of Victoria. The men’s team finished in 16th place and the women’s team in 18th place at the Victoria competition. Women’s team member Bettina Boucher was the top runner for Laurier, finishing 22nd overall.
The Laurier Brantford men’s team, which competes in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association, finished fifth at provincials to qualify for the national college championships, held in November in Blainville, Quebec. The Quebec meet saw the team finish 17th overall. Two individual female runners from Laurier’s Brantford campus also qualified for the competition.
The Golden Hawks men’s rugby squad enjoyed its best season in modern team history, posting its first playoff win and finishing fourth in Ontario.
A 36-12 playoff victory over the Western Mustangs saw Laurier move on to face powerhouse Queen’s in an OUA semifinal match, a contest the Golden Hawks lost 54-7. Laurier then played McMaster for the OUA bronze medal, with McMaster coming out on top by a score of 26-19.