WATERLOO, Ont. - The Golden Hawks didn't want to be playing on Saturday.
After just missing out on a first-round bye, the purple and gold went out and reminded everyone just how dangerous a team they are, dominating the Waterloo Warriors in every facet of the game en route to a 69-0 victory.
"It would have been easy to take our foot off the gas, it would have been easy for us to be upset that we're in the quarter finals, but our guys didn't," said manager of football operations and head coach Michael Faulds. "In all three phases, we wanted to improve and wanted to get better, and we did that today."
It didn't take long for Laurier to set the tone of the game. On just the second play, Johari Hastings tracked down an errant pass from Warriors quarterback Nick Orr for an interception.
Five plays later, Taylor Elgersma found a wide open Ethan Jordan who ran into the endzone for the game's first score.
Their next drive took longer – nine plays for 99 yards – but ended with another seven points, as Elgersma dove into the endzone from a yard out.
Waterloo looked to respond but turned the ball over on a botched handoff which Abraham Odiase recovered. It took only two plays before Quentin Scott extended the lead to 21-0 on a 14-yard run.
The first quarter ended with the highlight of the game, as Ryan Speight hurdled a defender to get to the Waterloo 30.
A penalty set the Golden Hawks back 10 yards, but Elgersma aired out a pass to Raidan Thorne on the first play of the second quarter, before sneaking in for another 1-yard touchdown run.
A Wariorrs two-and-out put the ball right back in Elgersma's hands, and he led the offence down the field once again. Penalty trouble stymied their advance short of the redzone, but Dawson Hodge nailed a 32-yard field goal to add to the lead.
There's more. Scott caught a pass in the flat and ran it 53 yards for his second major of the game with two minutes left in the half.
Waterloo then got as far as the Laurier 29, but Johari Hastings corralled a deflected pass for his second pick of the day at the 10-yard line.
With only a minute remaining, the Golden Hawks offence went back to work. From 51 yards out, Elgersma stared down a Warriors blitz, and took a hard hit as he let fly a pass to a once again unchecked Ethan Jordan for the touchdown.
The score was 45-0 at halftime.
"We were obviously hungry to come out and have a good start," said Elgersma. "We know we can't give good teams a start like we did last week, so we were happy that we came out the way we did and put up points. And then we were just able to keep our foot down from there."
The pedal, in fact, stayed floored. Laurier's defence forced another two-and-out, and Elgersma led a tidy five play drive capped off by his third rushing touchdown of the night, again from one yard.
Two more two and outs from Waterloo set backup quarterback Isaac Willis up at the 55, and he simply handed the ball to Tanner Nelmes who ran for a 55-yard touchdown.
Another field goal and a fourth quarter touchdown by Darion-Bacik Hadden – his first career playoff major – brought the score to 69-0.
The game marks the largest margin of victory on record in a battle of Waterloo game. It's also both the largest margin of victory and the most points scored in a U SPORTS playoff game since 2017.
"It feels good," said Jordan. "The bye week would have been nice to heal up, but others may say it's good to keep the momentum going."
Jordan finished the game with eight receptions for 149 yards and two touchdowns. After leading the OUA in receptions and receiving yards in the regular season, the 2022 All-Canadian seems to be finding an extra gear at exactly the right time for the Golden Hawks.
"He's the most explosive weapon in the country, he really is," said Faulds. "He's crazy fast and he can get open at any point. Taylor does a great job spreading the ball around, but whenever we need a big play, we know we can call on number four."
Laurier fans have come to expect big games from Quentin Scott in the playoffs, and he didn't disappoint in this one. The third-year running back had 90 yards on 10 carries and 68 yards on two receptions, scoring a touchdown on the ground and through the air.
His partner in the backfield, Tanner Nelmes, meanwhile, set a new career high with 155 rushing yards on just nine carries, with his 55-yard major standing as the longest play of the game.
The most impressive number though, in this game, might just have been the 0 on the scoreboard.
"We have the best defence in the country," stated Elgersma. "We're super blessed as an offence, they create turnovers for us and they get big stops whenever we need them to, and they came up big here today."
TOP PERFORMERS
Waterloo Warriors
#8 – Jethro Oleko
The fifth-year linebacker was all over the field for the Warriors, recording eight solo tackles – including a sack – and two assisted tackles.
Laurier Golden Hawks
#13 – Taylor Elgersma
What more can we even say about Taylor Elgersma? He finishes this game with 360 yards on 20-22 passing (a 90.9% completion rate), and three passing touchdowns. He also rushed for three yards and three touchdowns on three attempts.
As usual, Elgersma deferred all the credit to his teammates. "It's fun right now. Our guys are playing great around me, and I'm seeing the field well, so I'm just getting the ball in those guys' hands and they're making plays. It's fun when the when the team's playing like that."
UP NEXT
After defeating Carleton today, the #9 Windsor Lancers have secured a spot in the semifinals and will travel to Waterloo to face Laurier on Saturday. The Golden Hawks took the regular season matchup 40-7.
Ethan Jordan was yet unaware of the matchup when answering questions post-game, but his mindset remains unchanged.
"We come in with confidence. Obviously, we respect our opponents, but they gotta play us. We don't gotta play them, that's our mindset."
"We know whatever team comes in here next Saturday, we're going to get the best version of them," added Faulds, "but I'm also confident they're going to get the best version of Laurier football as well."
Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at University Stadium. Tickets are on sale now.
