On a great day for OUA football, the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks and the Waterloo Warriors squared off for the 101st Yates Cup. It was a packed house at Laurier's University Stadium, and the teams did not let the fans down as they produced what was likely the most entertaining game of the football season.
The Golden Hawks opened the scoring with a John Katsauoni field goal, following an impressive drive that ate up 73 yards and over 5:00 minutes on the clock. The Warriors wasted no time responding, however, as Mike Bradley broke a 41 yard run to give Warriors great field position. Unfortunately for the Hawks, this is when bad luck took over. Warrior quarterback and field goal holder Ryan Wilkinson fumbled the snap but then recovered his own fumble and passed to a wide open Bradley for the touchdown. This made the score 7-3 in favor of the Warriors. After Laurier was forced to punt on three downs, the Warriors responded with another long run by Bradley to set up the second Tony Riha field goal attempt. This time Riha missed wide right and the Hawks took over the ball on their own one yardline.
As the second quarter began, the misfortune continued for Laurier, as quarterback
Adam Lane fumbled the ball in his own endzone. Laurier was able to recover the ball, but surrendered a safety, making the score 9-3 for Waterloo. After a short Golden Hawk kickoff, the Warriors registered another devastating blow by completing their first pass for a 65 yard touchdown to
Grant Beachler. With 10:34 remaining in half the Golden Hawks answered the bell with an impressive drive to set up a 10 yard touchdown pass to
Andre Talbot. With time winding down in the half, Wilkinson found Chris Kreibich wide open behind the Laurier secondary to give the Warriors first down on the Golden Hawk one yardline. This set up a second Mike Bradley touchdown run. The Warriors took at 22-10 lead into the half.
The Golden Hawks came out flying in the second half, as a
Kevin Taylor interception set up
Andre Talbot's second touchdown of the day on a wideout option pass from wide receiver
Kevin Johnson. This made the score 22-17 in favor of the Warriors, but the momentum had swung in favor of Laurier.
The teams traded field goals in the fourth quarter and the Warriors led 26-20 with 3:49 remaining in the game. Waterloo was forced to punt on their first drive following the Laurier field goal, which looked like it would set up an exciting finish. However, a Warrior interception by Nate Martin would bring this game to a close by setting up a 1 yard touchdown run by Wilkinson. The final score was 32-20 in favor of Waterloo.
Nate Martin was named the player of the game for Waterloo, as he was in on a number of big tackles and recorded the interception that was the turning point in the game.
Andre Talbot was the player of the game for Laurier with 2 touchdowns.
