Box Score BOX SCORE

It's often tough to get up for an opponent you are supposed to beat, but the McMaster football team displayed great focus from the opening kick-off and turned in a dominating performance to defeat the Waterloo Warriors 66-0 at Warrior Field on Saturday afternoon.

The Marauders were able to put points on the board on the team's first 12 possessions, steadily building the lead while spreading the playing time out among the entire dress list.  Starting quarterback Marshall Ferguson directed the Marauders to a 27-0 lead, before handing the reins to Asher Hastings in the second quarter. Hastings was making his CIS debut and handled the Marauder offense the rest of the game.

The Mac attack got touchdowns from Danny Vandervoort with two, Kingsley Amankwaa, Wayne Moore, Chris Pezzetta, Aaron Baker, and Stephen Kofi-Akuffo, while kicker Tyler Crapigna  made all five of his field goal attempts on the afternoon.

In post-game comments, Marauder Coach Stefan Ptaszek told CHML's Ted Michaels that the Marauders stayed mentally sharp in a situation when it would have been easy to lose focus. "Our guys played hard from start to finish," said Ptaszek. "We also cleaned up a lot of areas from week one."

McMaster had 650 yards of total offense, with Kofi-Akuffo the top rusher with 81 yards on seven carries and Vandervoort the top receiver with five catches for 83 yards.
The touchdowns by Kofi-Akuffo and Baker were the first of their Marauder careers, while Pezzetta found the end-zone again for the first time since the 2011 Vanier Cup.  After missing the previous two seasons due to injury.  Pezzetta told Ted Michaels after the game that every day he is feeling stronger, "I've been through a lot in the last two years but I couldn't ask for anything more. It feels awesome."
 

For the Marauder defense, it held the Warriors to 143 yards of total offense and posted its first shutout since the Marauders blanked Laurier 43-0 on October 20, 2012.

The Marauders improve to 2 and 0 with the win and will next face the Carleton Ravens on Saturday, September 13 at 1 p.m. at Ron Joyce Stadium.