Massive Programs Lead to a Massive Win
It was built as a clash of two of the best programs in the country with the two most successful University football programs facing off for superiority.
The reality of the game though was that despite their success the Western Mustangs had not been at the top of the U sports world for a very long time.
The Mustangs are a program that is counted amongst the best in the country because they are always in the hunt.
They have rarely ever missed the OUA playoffs and most of the time they are pretty close to the national playoffs.
The team has just never been able to climb that mountain all the way to the top as their last Vanier Cup win was in 1994.
Meanwhile, they were taking on a team that had the most success out of any program in the country and all of it came in the last two decades.
The Laval Rouge et Or were the most successful team in the country and after taking the Vanier Cup only a season ago they remained the top team in the country.
They are a program that only started in 1999 yet rose to the top overtaking Western with 9 total Vanier Cup wins.
As much as this game was a big one for University sports in Canada there was still a small sense of David vs. Goliath.
Laval was the big bad team that had only ever lost on Vanier Cup game in their entire history and were simply looking to continue their dominance throughout the country.
The Mustangs were the once great program that hadn’t been able to take a win on the biggest stage in over two decades.
As the game approached the matchup seemed to be an interesting one with a team that simply didn’t allow points to some very good offences against an offence that seemed to be just heating up.
The Rouge et Or had only allowed an average of under 10 points a game throughout the season making them the best offence in the country.
At Western, it was the offence that drove them and that offence was just getting better putting up an average of around 74 points per game in the playoffs.
Although the saying is always about the defence in that it will win a championship against a good offence the power of the Western offence had some wondering if the Laval defence managed.
Still the Rouge et Or were that team that dominated over the last few years and taking on a team that plays as disciplined as them was never going to be easy.
The Mustangs made sure they came out strong though as the immediately sent a message to the Rouge et Or on their first drive.
It was an easy march down the field that included some big plays from important players and it set the tone.
The first drive garnered 7 points for the Mustangs and showed that even against the top defence in the country they couldn’t be stopped that easily.
A more surprising thing was the next drive where the Rouge et Or went two-and-out as the Mustangs defence stood strong.
Western’s defence was clearly out to prove something after all of the talk was about how stingy the Laval defence was and not about the Mustangs.
It seemed like Laval just didn’t have an answer for anyone on the Western side of the ball.
Western continued to march on offence although they didn’t score on every drive but Alex Taylor and Cedric Joseph continued to carve up the defence on the ground.
Meanwhile, Chris Merchant was good enough not making any mistakes and keeping drives moving with big passes at the right time.
The Rouge et Or couldn’t figure it out as they couldn’t seem to get to Merchant quick enough and couldn’t close the holes on the line.
Hugo Richard struggled to fight back as he had been so used to having a defence that could prevent everything and this time the scoreboard was lighting up.
By halftime, it was almost too much to come back from but the Rouge et Or had been in that situation before coming back and winning four Vanier Cups after amassing a massive deficit at halftime.
The Mustangs were not letting up though and they continued to put up points eventually making it too much to handle for the Rouge et Or.
Although the more dominant team in the last two decades had been the Rouge et Or it was the Mustangs who were dominant this year.
That offence could not be stopped and it was just too much for a Laval offence that rarely needed to score this much to come back from.
The Mustangs took the title and will sit as the best team in U Sports football for a year after decades of missing out on the title.
It is the return of a program that never really went far as the Mustangs are back on top adding another Vanier Cup to their collection and getting to within two of the Rouge et Or.
The Sport Addiction 