Arden Zwelling
CFL.ca
It’s not like Lirim Hajrullahu felt any pressure as he came onto the field to either win or lose the biggest university football game played this year in Ontario. Nope — no stress here.
“I knew what I had to do. My mind was on the Yates Cup,” Hajrullahu said after he won his Western Mustangs that very trophy with a 34-yard field goal with just 2.1 seconds left on the clock, sealing a 26-25 victory over the Ottawa Gee Gees.
“The line held perfectly. The snap and hold was perfect. You couldn’t ask for a better way to win a game.”
You couldn’t ask for a more exciting finish to the OUA season either as, for the second straight year, the Yates Cup came down to the final play of the game.
The Mustangs led from the middle of the first quarter through to inside of the three minute warning when the Gee Gee’s took a two-point lead with a field goal. That’s when Western’s offence went to work, engineering a 48-yard drive to set Hajrullahu up for the game-winning boot.
“It’s a pressure kick. It really was. I wouldn’t want to have to kick that one,” Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall said.
Running back Jerimy Hipperson won the Dalt White Trophy as the game’s MVP — he rushed for 142 yards and a touchdown on just 14 carries.
“The award is great but it’s just nice to get out there and get some touches in a big game. Bringing back the Yates Cup is what it’s all about,” Hipperson said.
He split carries with Nathan Riva who battled through a knee injury to pick up 89 yards on 13 carries.
Brad Sinopoli — who was named the OUA MVP earlier in the week — was 24 of 39 for 341 yards and a touchdown.
He was far and away the best quarterback in the conference this year and is a favourite to take home the Hec Crighton trophy as the most outstanding player in the CIS. But his pursuit of the elusive Yates Cup will have to wait until his fifth and final year next season.
“This is what you want. You want to be in games like this. You want it to come down to the last minute,” Sinopoli said. “But you want to be the team coming out on top. Western did what they had to do and they won the game.”
When these two teams met earlier in the season, it was the Gee Gees who won the game by a single point with a 27-yard touchdown through the air in the dying moment. But as in that game, the Gee Gees fell behind early in the Yates Cup. This time they weren’t able to mount a comeback.
“We didn’t have a very good first half — I wish I had an explanation for that,” Sinopoli said. “But we just couldn’t find the holes and we couldn’t get on the same page early. It killed us in the end.”
Western got out to an early 13-3 lead after quarterback Donnie Marshall threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Nick Trevail, followed by a pair of Hajrullahu field goals.
Ottawa answered with a monster 40-yard touchdown reception from Steven Hughes before Hajrullahu hit another field goal with just a second left on the clock to send the Mustangs to the locker room with a 23-10 lead.
In the third quarter the defences took over as neither team could get anything started. The only score of the quarter came when Hipperson capped off a 53-yard drive with a six-yard touchdown run to put the Mustangs up by 13.
But the fourth quarter was all Ottawa, as the Gee Gees racked up 178 yards of offence — 138 of them through the air — as Sinopoli began to pick the Mustangs defence apart.
“Brad’s thing is when the fourth quarter comes around, he’s clutch. He showed that tonight,” Mustangs linebacker John Surla said.
The Gee Gees took a two-point lead with just 1:14 to play after a one-yard Brendan Gillanders run, a conceded Mustangs safety and two Matt Falvo field goals.
But on the final drive of the game, the quarterback Marshall led his team down the field, picking up 48 yards on nine plays in a minute and twelve seconds.
Hajrullahu nailed the 34-yard field goal and the rest is history.
“We practice those situations every single day in practice. We knew what plays we wanted to run. We got down there and Lirim hammered it,” Marshall said.
It was a bit of retribution for Marshall who leads a Mustangs offensive unit most didn’t give a chance against the Gee Gees stiff defence. Marshall — in his first OUA playoffs as a starter — has been the target of criticism himself after committing four turnovers against McMaster in the OUA semifinal and two more today.
“A lot of people said we couldn’t do it as an offence and we proved them wrong today,” Marshall said after the game.
“All the guys came out and played so great today. It’s the OUA championship — everybody steps it up a little bit. We really brought it today,” Hipperson added.
Hipperson and company now head into Quebec City to play the Laval Rouge et Or in the Uteck Bowl next Saturday. The winner of that game moves on to the Vanier Cup the following weekend.
“It’s no secret that Laval is an awesome team,” Hipperson said. “Everybody in the CIS knows Laval is at the top of football in Canada right now. We’re in for a war.”
The Mustangs will hope they can simply keep their troops together for next week’s clash against Laval as the team is fighting through a rash of injuries.
Wide receiver Zach Bull, fullback Dan Duff and defensive back Conor Elliott all came into the game nursing serious injuries while defensive end Zander Robinson and defensive back Mike Spence both came up lame during Saturday’s game.
“We’re banged up — no question about it. Zach Bull and Dan Duff probably shouldn’t have been playing today,” Marshall said after the game. “But they played the whole game. Those guys are warriors.”
