WATERLOO, Ont. - The #1-ranked Golden Hawks came out to play on Saturday and put on a dominant performance in front of a sold-out Homecoming crowd. The Toronto Varsity Blues were in town, and they were no match for the nation's top team as the Golden Hawks poured on the points to win 59-21.Â
"It was a great atmosphere. The crowd was loud, they were boisterous. I hope they enjoyed the new stands, and I hope they enjoyed the show we put on for them," manager of football operations and head coach Michael Faulds said. Â
It was not just the offensive explosion that amped up the crowd, but the four records that were broken during the game. Â
It barely took a second for the Golden Hawks to get on the board thanks to Dawson Hodge who sent the opening kick out of the endzone for a rouge. Â
Toronto's opening drive turned disastrous in the blink of an eye. The Golden Hawks forced a quick two-and-out that sent Sam Henke out to punt, but Zidain Allen burst past the line of white jerseys and stuffed Henke's kick to force the turnover on downs, setting the Golden Hawks up just outside the red zone. Â
Laurier capitalized right away. On Cal Wither's play-action, the Blues's defense was fooled allowing Wither to roll left and find Jesulayomi Ojutalayo wide open in the endzone. At 12:12, the Golden Hawks were up 8-0. Â
Hodge's 80-yard kickoff sailed out the back for another single point and the 9-0 lead. Â
The Varsity Blues came up empty on their next drive, sending Wither and company back to the attack. Â
Ojutalayo was flaunting his speed as Wither mailed a 35-yard pass, and he would have been home free if not for a clutch tackle from Toronto's Brandon Thibodeau. But it only delayed the inevitable. Â
After Darion Bacik-Hadden converted the third down to bring the Golden Hawks within two yards, Faulds sent the heavy unit on where Will Russell followed in the footsteps of his offensive line right past the goal line for Laurier's second major of the quarter and a 17-0 lead following Hodge's third rouge. Â
With the offense firing, the defense reciprocated. Oscar Wise and Joseph Edlington, who had two sacks last game, teamed up for the quarterback take-down. Â
Toronto's Jack Nyrose picked up a first down with his legs, or so he thought. Johari Hastings made the initial tackle, followed by Owen Goetz knocking the ball loose, and Jessie Wilkins dove headfirst into the turf to make the recovery. Â
And once again, it was costly. Â
The Golden Hawks built up a 3 minute 30 second drive that carried over into the second quarter, and on the first play of the new frame, Wither placed his pass right into the hands of Ryan Hughes. Laurier took a 24-0 lead seconds into the quarter. Â
The Blues responded with a major of their own at the 11-minute mark, and in typical Golden Hawks fashion, there was an answer. This one carried extra significance. Â
Starting at their own 28-yard line, it took two plays and 52 seconds for Wither and Ethan Jordan to become a two-man wrecking crew. Jordan brought down the pass for the 59-yard touchdown, his ninth of the season, and made a new entry in the record books. Â
Jordan becomes the all-time receiving touchdown leader in Laurier football history with 29, overtaking Stefan Ptaszek's marker of 28. He now has the most career receiving yards in program history with 3,279, again passing Ptaszek's 3,126. Both Laurier records were set by Ptaszek 31 years ago. Â
"I'm bored of it. I think everyone's kind of bored that Ethan Jordan gets 100-yard games, gets multiple touchdowns every game. All kidding," Faulds joked. Â
"He's a phenomenal player; he deserves the records. He'd be the first to credit his teammates, his coaches, everyone helped him get that record. But we are super proud of him." Â
Jordan ended his day with 8 receptions, 163-yards, and a touchdown. With that final line, Jordan not only broke a third Laurier record, but an OUA record in the process with 220 career receptions, passing the former leader Kurleigh Gittens Jr. who had 205 from 2015-18.Â
"It's an honour. There's so many guys that came before me; Kurleigh Gittens Jr., Stefan Ptaszek. I look up to those guys. The fact I was able to get those records, it means so much to me. I have to shout out my coaches, my teammates, Cal, coach Galloway, those guys are key pieces that got me here," Jordan said. Â Â
"It was nice. I could have done it on the road in Ottawa, but hey, it was nice to do it in front of my family, my friends, Homecoming packed house stadium, and that made it more special."Â
The Golden Hawks were not finished with the scoring just yet. The endzone called Tayshaun Jackson and he followed the blocks of Josh Rietveld and Delphyn Ngaleu to put the purple and gold ahead 38-7 with 2:43 remaining. Â
Toronto would concede the safety with under a minute left, and the Golden Hawks went into the half up 40-7. Â
At 9:08 in the third quarter, the Golden Hawks kept cruising as Wither called his own number for the single yard rushing touchdown followed by another Hodge rouge.Â
Hodge went back to work with five minutes and change remaining, splitting the uprights from 18-yards out to put his side ahead 51-7. It was the first time this season that the Golden Hawks surpassed the 50-point mark. Â
Still, the Golden Hawks had more in them. With only four seconds left in the third quarter, Laurier's short yardage unit came in, and Russell picked up his second touchdown of the game, and his first multi-touchdown game of his career. Â
On the ensuing kickoff, Hodge tallied his fifth rouge for the 59-7 lead. Â
The Coquitlam, B. C., native finished with an impressive stat line that read 7-7 on extra points, 1-2 on field goals, five touchbacks, and 15 points. And that was not all. He had three punts worth 108-yards, and nine kickoffs that amassed to 640-yards. Â
He set a new Laurier football program record in single-game kickoff yards, passing Ronnie Pfeffer's previous mark of 629 set in 2011. His 296 career points puts him second in Laurier's history. Â
"The guys had me working today, had a lot of kickoffs, a lot of extra points, plus some rouges on those kickoffs. It was a lot of fun, and the guys played well," Hodge said. Â
"I have Ronnie mentoring me every day, and Darcy [Segin's] doing a great job. I didn't even know that was a record, but I was like, 'All right, sweet.' Ronnie came over, shook my hand, and said congratulations."Â
"We came in together and he's a guy that I've created a big connection with, and he had a great game today. Shout out to him breaking that record, I'm super proud of him," Jordan said about his kicker. Â
The Varsity Blues put up 14 points in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit as they fell to 1-5 while the Golden Hawks stay perfect at 6-0 heading into the bye week. Â
"It was good to finally play three really good quarters. Then we emptied the bench a little bit in the fourth quarter. But it was fun in front of a nice, electric crowd on a beautiful, sunny day," Faulds said. Â
"We're happy with where we're at, and the nice thing too is there's still a lot of correctables, but we're happy. We're happy with the focus, the energy, the belief in the locker room, how they stay together. So, a lot to be proud of as a coach." Â
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"We've had a two-week training camp, and you play six regular season games, so the bye comes at a good time, it's much needed," Faulds said. Â
The Golden Hawks take a week off before returning to action on Friday, October 10 for Senior Night against the Carleton Ravens. Â
"They're going to come off their Panda Game against Ottawa, which is a fun game in that city. So, we're going to get their best." Â
"It's going to be our Senior Night here, so we want the Laurier community to come out once again, cheer on our seniors that have done so much for this program, and we'll try to go 1-0 again." Â
Kickoff for Senior Night is set for 7pm and tickets are available here. Â
