OTTAWA, Ont. - The #1-ranked Golden Hawks traveled to the nation's capital to face the #10 Ottawa Gee-Gees.
Manager of football operations and head coach Michael Faulds summed it up, saying, "It really was a tale of two halves. Playing well in the first half and then not playing up to par in the second half, and giving the other team a chance."
The Golden Hawks defense battled the Gee-Gees late onslaught and hung on to win 30-24.
"We said in the pregame that we needed to start fast. Both in the Queen's game and the Waterloo game, we kind of tiptoed through the first quarter and didn't start well, and had good second quarters, but not first quarters," Faulds said.
"The guys answered the bell. They came out flying, and we had a phenomenal first half."
Laurier hit the scoreboard first thanks to Dawson Hodge. Hodge sent a high punt 46-yards down to the Gee-Gees goal line where the defense took over and forced the safety, putting the Golden Hawks in front 2-0 just four minutes in.
Cal Wither and company took over at their own 20-yard line and marched right down field. After overthrowing his receiver on the previous drive, Wither made no mistake this time as he found Jaxon Stebbings 47-yards away for a touchdown.
Stebbings collected his first major of the season, and ended the day with a season and career high 79 receiving yards.
The Golden Hawks were up 9-0 at 9:47.
Much like the previous two weeks, Laurier's opponents hit back right away. Josh Janssen connected with Noah Avery for the 31-yard touchdown that brought the score to 9-7.
After the team's exchanged two-and-outs, the Golden Hawks turned it up a notch as they carried a lengthy drive into the second quarter.
Facing a third and long one, the Golden Hawks sent in their heavy unit where Lewc Rayner picked up the fresh set of downs. And on the very same drive, Tayshaun Jackson converted the third down and ended up gaining 13-yards.
"We have confidence on third down the way our offensive line plays. So, whether we're bringing in our heavy package and Will Russell's running the ball or we're staying at our normal offensive set and handing it to one of our running backs, it's always part of our game plan to use all three downs," Faulds said, crediting his short-yardage unit.
A defensive pass interference put the Gee-Gees on their goal line, and it proved a costly mistake. Wither managed to find Ethan Jordan between a pair of Gee-Gees in the endzone for his seventh touchdown of the season. The Golden Hawks took a 16-7 lead at 9:52.
That lengthy drive? It was composed of 15 plays worth 94-yards and spanned almost seven and a half minutes.
Ottawa's defense had no time to rest and were back on the field a minute after Jordan's touchdown, and the fatigue showed.
Darion Bacik-Hadden started Laurier's drive with a rush that flipped the field, and he ended it. He set up in the back field but ended up in the endzone, and despite the tight coverage, he brought down his first touchdown of the year.
The Golden Hawks increased their lead to 23-7.
"Darion is going to be a future coach. He just has a great temperament, he knows the game, knows the system, and ultimately, he runs hard," said Faulds.
"So not only did he have one drive where he had a couple of great carries, but he finished the drive with that touchdown. The coaching staff has a lot of confidence in him as both a runner, a blocker, and out of the backfield catching the ball."
Between his rushing and receiving duties, Bacik-Hadden had 29-yards and a touchdown.
The Gee-Gees had a three-point response that made it a two-score game at 23-10.
At 0:37, Laurier hit back hard. Jordan won the footrace down field, and all Wither had to do was place the pass in his arms as Jordan picked up his second touchdown of the game, this time a 93-yard screamer. Hodge's extra point was good for the 30-10 lead.
"He's just exceptional. We did a heavy play action and Ottawa really brought it, so then he was wide open," Faulds said, praising Jordan.
"Any time you can get him that wide open, you just have to deliver the ball, and Cal did that. He was super efficient, he did a good job spreading the ball around."
Jordan's 93-yard reception broke his personal best of 88-yards that he set just last week.
He ended the day with 182 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns. With his performance, he moves up to first in the OUA and U SPORTS in total receiving yards (724) and touchdowns (8).
His newfound partner in crime, Wither, also put up quite the final line. He threw for 379 yards – his first 300 plus game of the year – four touchdowns, and an 83% completion rate. Wither now had 15 touchdowns, the most in the country, and 1,421 total yards.
The Gee-Gees would add a rouge on a missed 55-yard field goal and went into the half down 30-11.
That was all the scoring the Golden Hawks would do in the game as they were shutout in the second half for the first time this season.
Ottawa flipped the script and took the Golden Hawks by surprise. After only mustering 186-yards in the first half, they came back with 318 total yards in the second half.
Johari Hastings stepped up to the plate after Joseph Edlington set the table with a sack. With the Gee-Gees threatening, Hastings stayed glued to Avery's side to break up the would-be touchdown pass, and almost had himself an interception.
At 4:03, the Gee-Gees did get their touchdown and brought Laurier's lead down to 30-18. And again, to begin the final quarter, a field goal brought them nine points closer.
The Gee-Gees found themselves in Laurier territory and looked to strike again, but Ethan Gregorcic read the play to perfection for his second interception of the year.
Laurier's defense held strong and forced Ottawa into a field goal that brought the score to 30-24 with two minutes and change remaining.
The Golden Hawks had been faultless in third down conversions, but they elected to keep Wither in instead of the heavy unit, and Wither could not gain any ground as the Golden Hawks turned the ball over on downs at their 39-yard line.
Edlington led the charge for Laurier's defense as he brought down Janssen for a second time and pushed the Gee-Gees back seven yards.
However, the defense lapsed on the face mask penalty that put Ottawa at first and goal. The home crowd was roaring with the hope of seeing the #1 seed fall.
After that penalty, the defense hunkered down and put on a masterclass of goal line stops not once, not twice, but three times.
On Ottawa's third try, Janssen was immediately met by Omari Hastings and his hand that just managed to get fingertips on the ball. The touch was enough to interfere with the pass, yet Janssen's target made a last-ditch effort to dive and was met by the equal effort of Paul Loggale who saved the Golden Hawks' day, breaking up the game-winning pass.
"You just need everyone to step up. That's a talented offense. Their quarterback is a great pocket passer. They've got a couple elite running backs and number 25 [Noah Avery] was their favourite target. When they had the ball on the two-yard line with about a minute left in the game, we needed a stop," Faulds recounted the nail-biting moment.
"A huge credit to our defense for that goal line stand, and on that last play it was Omari Hastings who tipped the ball. All three levels of our defense came up big in the end there."
The Golden Hawks kept their perfect season alive, improving to 5-0, while the Gee-Gees fell to 3-2.
Despite the all-around performance, Faulds and the team are still not satisfied.
"I feel when our offense is doing really well, then our defense is giving up long drives, and when our offense is sputtering a little bit that's when our defense gets stops."
"We need to play more complimentary football. But here's a coach nitpicking at 5-0."
"I told our guys we're proud, and that this could help us in the long run. Sure, we would have loved to maintain that big lead, but we learned a lot about ourselves today. It was a battle of mental fortitude."
UP NEXT
The Golden Hawks return to Knight-Newbrough Field on Saturday, September 27 for a Homecoming tilt with the Toronto Varsity Blues. The two teams have not seen each other since 2022.
"We're not familiar with Toronto. They do some things a little bit different on both offense and defense, so they're really unlike any other team in the conference. It'll be a lot of film study this week."
"We told our guys that we still have not played four good quarters. I don't think we've had a game where we played three great quarters. We're kind of playing a quarter here, a quarter there. This game it was the first half. So, if we could put together three good quarters, let alone four, that would be something special. That's what we're building towards and what we want to work on this week."
Homecoming tickets are all sold out and the box office will not be open on game day.
Fans are encouraged to arrive early to take part in Fan Fest beginning at 11 am outside of University Stadium. Fan Fest is free for all to attend and no game ticket is required.
Kick-off is set for 1 pm and the game will also be streamed live on OUA.tv
