For the second straight game the McMaster Marauders built up a big first-half lead and counted on the Maroon defense to protect it, coming home from London with a 33-27 win over the Western Mustangs.
In front of a Homecoming crowd in excess of 10,000 Western took an early 9-0 on a safety and a first-quarter touchdown from Garret Sanvido. But before the end of the quarter a pass from quarterback Kyle Quinlan to Brad Fochesato brought McMaster into the red-zone and Quinlan scored on a one-yard plunge to get within two points.
The second quarter belonged to the Marauders as they scored 21 unanswered points that included TD passes from Quinlan to Tyler Loveday and Dahlin Brooks to build the lead to 28-9. A late Mustang field-goal made the score 28-12 at the half.
The second half saw the defenses from both sides take over and scoring was hard to come by. Another TD from Sanvido on the last play of the third quarter brought Western closer at 30-18, after missing on an attempted two-point conversion.
In the fourth quarter, some well placed punting from Tyler Crapigna left the Mustangs with some long fields to navigate. Crapigna added a field-goal in the quarter and the scoring was completed when Mac conceded a safety and Western got a late TD pass from Will Finch to Matt Uren, making the final 33-27.
The Marauder defense played an outstanding game, keeping Garret Sanvido, the leading rusher in CIS, under control and applying intense pressure on Mustang QB Donnie Marshall, who left the game with a lower body injury late in the fourth quarter. Individual highlights saw Nick Shortill register 10 solo tackles and three sacks, while Ben D'Aguilar was credited with four sacks for the afternoon, and now leads the nation with 10.5 sacks in 5 games. D'Aguilar also set a new McMaster single season record for sacks, breaking the old mark of 8 set by Jeff Robertshaw in 2004.
Kyle Quinlan was the top rusher in the contest gaining 145 yards on 10 carries and scoring one touchdown. He also completed 18 of 32 passes for 247 yards and two scoring strikes, with no interceptions. The Marauder quarterback now has 53 career touchdown passes, and is only six behind Ben Chapdelaine, who holds the McMaster career record with 59. Quinlan has three games left to become the Mac all-time leader for touchdown passes in a career.
McMaster improves to 5 and 0, alone in first place in the OUA. Western goes to 3 and 2 on the season
Next action for the Marauders is a road game at York on Thursday, October 4, 2012. It's a short week because of the Thanksgiving holiday and kick-off at York Stadium is scheduled for 7 p.m.
