The Western Mustangs kept it close through the first three quarters, but the Maruarders pulled away for a 42-28 win Saturday night in the OUA semi-final game at Ron Joyce Stadium. Receiver Michael DiCroce, who returned from injury to play his first game this season, earned Player of the Game honours for McMaster, scoring two touchdowns, including a 103-yard score on a pass from QB Kyle Quinlan. Mac will host the Guelph Gryphons next Saturday for the 105th Yates Cup match. When the two teams met earlier this season, McMaster came out on top 50-9.

 

 

For Mac’s star quarterback Kyle Quinlan, the Oct. 13 football game against Windsor was something special.

“Homecoming is a pretty unique time because it allows us current players to connect with former Marauders who have laid the groundwork for this program. It gives us an opportunity to celebrate the success of our collective efforts,” Quinlan said.

For former McMaster Marauder running back John Hartnett – now an MBA candidate at the DeGroote School of Business – the weekend was an important opportunity to return to the field. Hartnett, who played from 2007 to 2010, is nostalgic about times past.

“Homecoming is a great opportunity to bring alumni together to share memories and to see how far the team has come from when head coach Stefan Ptaszek first took over. When I first started playing for Mac, we had no stadium on campus – we didn’t even have a locker room. Now, we have sold out games in the heart of campus, one of the best facilities around, and a tonne of student support,” he enthused.

Players can take pride in playing for a mixed crowd of students, alumni and people closely associated with the football legacy. But one might expect the average student to feel differently.
The parties that line Sterling Street and the club culture that has developed seem to indicate that Homecoming is more about the drink and less about the football. I, for one, am not a big fan of the sport. I never have been, and I’d confidently wager that I never will be. But whether it’s the free chili luncheon outside DBAC, the chance for maroon-bedecked students to see and be seen or a genuine love of the game, campus is swarmed with people every autumn for the Homecoming game.

Football fans or otherwise, too dedicated (or drunk) to care about the weather on Saturday, stuck out the rainy afternoon to see the Marauders through to their inevitable victory.
I, too, found myself panicked over purchasing Homecoming football game tickets, excitedly awaiting the afternoon of Oct. 13 and clapping and cheering with the rest of the crowd for the entirety of the game. It’s people like me – with no great interest or knowledge of the sport – that fill the stadium year after year.

So perhaps it does come back to football after all, and the celebration of what the Marauders – past and present – have accomplished for McMaster athletics and consequently, community pride.
Perhaps I’ll never grow to love the game. Football isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok. What matters is that even those still on the fence about the sport come out year after year to watch the Homecoming game and celebrate everything that McMaster Homecoming means to them.

On what was supposed to be a day entirely dedicated to McMaster school spirit, the Windsor Lancers walked into Ron Joyce Stadium and stood up to the defending champions, providing the Marauders with their most difficult test of the season.

Usually notable for an electric offense, the 3-3 Lancers were carried by the defense, holding Mac to only 17 points at half.

There was a solid contribution made by all positions, however it was the secondary in particular that made an impact. Mac quarterback Kyle Quinlan entered Saturday’s homecoming game having thrown zero interceptions so far this year.

Windsor’s DB #8 Josh Burns picked off Quinlan twice and helped keep the deficit to singled digits until Mac made the score 27-11 after a Tyler Loveday score, with less than two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Windsor though, fired right back with touchdown of their own, thanks to an Austin Kennedy connection with receiver Evan Psczczonak to make the score 27-18.

Unfortunately, on a day when the 13th man could have been the most useful, the Mac faithful began to trickle out of the bleachers due to the cold and wet weather.

Though the game was close, Kyle Quinlan managed to throw for over 400 yards through three quarters; Kennedy by comparison had 298 yards.

With home field advantage in the playoffs tied to a victory for the Maroon and Grey, the fourth frame was undoubtedly the 2012 season’s most important.

Also at stake for Mac was a 19 game win steak dating back to September of last year when the team lost its second game to the visiting Mustangs.

With so much on the line, McMaster pulled away from the Lancers after a crucial fumble recovery in the Windsor end zone to make the score 37-18.

In the end McMaster continued their CIS record-breaking win streak, locked up ideal playoff standing and most importantly, defended their home turf.

A late pick by linebacker Nick Shortill all but sealed the deal for the seventh Marauder victory of the season with a final score of 39-18.

 

After a convincing victory against the York Lions by a score of 54-14, the McMaster Marauders inched one step closer to a perfect season. Last year, winning the national championship, Mac finished 7-1 in the regular season and this year’s perfect result so far is, in fact, an improvement.

Approaching this weekend’s homecoming game, Mac has a chance to improve on their result from last year. The injury trouble experienced by this team has been notable; regardless, the Marauders have responded with spectacular play, making the injuries simply a bump in the road.

“Regardless of our injuries issues, we try to push and get better every week. The quest for the Yates cup is not one you can succeed at every week if you don’t try and get better. Instead of focusing on who isn’t there, we try to focus on developing on who is there,” said Head Coach Stefan Ptaszek of his team’s resilience so far this season.

Mac’s injuries have been less notable this season due to the sizeable contribution from players like running back Kaesean Davis. “The big thing with the injuries to Chris Pezzetta and Jimmy hill has been he development of Kasean Davis. Everyone sees the great open field funning, but its pass protection and the things that are harder to spot which make this kid special. He can pick up a linebacker blitzing full speed, even with his limited experience. He has been a joy to watch,” said Ptaszek.

It is not just the offence that needs help either. The defence has experienced its fair share of challenges as the usually dominant secondary has had some bumps and bruises. According to Ptaszek, “Our secondary is a little dinged up and you are seeing the emergence of our younger players filling in the roles. Some of these young kids can play. We are getting great play from a very good rookie class.”

It may be the veterans, it may be the rookies, but something about this team is different and unique, even from last years history-making squad. Obviously, a 6-0 team is one with a plethora of solid players. But only 12 men can be put on the field at once. Maybe McMaster has something else in its arsenal.

“At the end of the process, to earn first place and have home advantage during the playoffs. We are definitely aware of this and we need to win one of the next two games to guarantee that. Hopefully a sold out crowd at Ron Joyce will help us do that,” said Ptaszek of his upcoming weekend.

“We want to continue to grow that culture, loyalty and develop that fan base not only now but throughout the playoffs. Having home field advantage, including a possible national semi-final on campus is important. That 13th man is going to be a big help as the competition gets tighter and the margins for error get smaller,” he continued.

The support of Mac fans has been electric this year. Something about defending a national championship has translated into a campus wide appreciation for football that didn’t even exist a year ago.

Ptaszek is thankful for this, and commented, “Playing our tougher opponents at home has been amazing. Getting to play our tougher opponents at home was great, and the fans were a big part of that.”

This weekend, McMaster will look to live up to the expectations of the team and the coach: a sold out stadium of cheering and passionate fans.  At the same time, those crazed fans are excited for what they have come to expect - a sizeable win at Ron Joyce.

The game itself will kick-off at Ron Joyce on Saturday, Oct. 13 at 1 p.m. and with a victory, the Marauders will clinch home advantage in the playoffs, a luxury they did not have last season, and we all know how that one ended.

There’s a mystique about Western University. The hate thrown at Western is incomparable to any other university in Ontario, and possibly for good reason.

Chances are you’ve had an interaction with a Mustang, Western’s mascot, and those interactions probably were not very positive.

The London, Ont. university has gained a reputation for being cocky or snobby and there are certainly people who love going to Western for that very reason.

But is the school really that bad? I travelled to Western University to cover their Homecoming football match-up against the McMaster Marauders and I discovered that in reality, Western is not that much different than us.

My adventure on the campus began with a walk from a friend’s house through Western’s student housing area.

I knew the Western Homecoming parties would be something to experience, so I headed out early to soak in all the festivities.

Now, I am a huge Marauders fan, but I’m also supposed to be non-partisan while covering Mac athletics, so wearing Maroon and Grey is rather unprofessional.

And I’m not an idiot.

Wearing Mac colours would probably have only ended badly for me, so I chose to wear a black sweater.

I still stuck out in the sea of purple and white, but Western students only chastised me two times through my 20-minute walk, which was a pleasant surprise.

The stroll through the student housing area was not what I expected. It looked like a typical Homecoming event; lots of drinking, school spirit, and police cars.

By eleven o’clock, a good number of the students were pretty far into their drinks, evidenced by the red cups littered across every lawn and the near fights breaking out on the sidewalk.

I expected more from Western. As a school that was listed by Playboy Magazine as one of the top-10 party schools in North America, I thought there was going to be more of a spectacle from the Western student population, but McMaster offers the same Homecoming experience.

My first goal while arriving on campus was to find the real on-campus celebration but for whatever reason, there was no central party hosted by Western University.

There were speaker systems set up throughout the property, whether it was in front of their student centre or other parking lots littered throughout the spacious campus. It was difficult to get a vibe about how Mustangs celebrated their school, other than with dancing and day drinking.

I headed down to the football stadium to check out the facilities and get my credentials for the game and the atmosphere at the stadium amazed me. The grandstands at TD Waterhouse Stadium are unlike anything I’ve seen at a Canadian university.

After receiving my media pass, I took a walk through the main building at the stadium.

Walking through the hallways of the building, it’s easy to notice a much richer football history. The walls are lined with pictures, new and old, of former Mustangs donning Canadian Football League jerseys, or even in some cases, jerseys from the National Football League.

But football was not the only sport that gained the attention from the school and their alumni.

Before the kick-off, Western University inducted new members into the Mustang Hall of Fame and many of the alumni in the area stopped what they were doing to try and catch who was being honoured. They threw names of track athletes, swimmers and other sports around the way McMaster talks about Kyle Quinlan.

Hearing the names of athletes in rather B-list sports be thrown spoke to the pride Western instils in its students, both past and present.

As the game was about to begin, the buzz in TD Waterhouse Stadium was electric, with an official attendance of 10,900 ready to watch two CIS heavyweights battle.

It was easy to see that Western fans believed they would see their Mustangs defeat the No.1 team in Canada, and early on in the game, it looked like a realistic possibility.

When the Mustangs were winning, the only way to describe the atmosphere was NCAA-like. The line for the beer garden looked like it went on for miles, and it was hard to find someone who was not holding either a concession or a new piece of clothing from the Mustang fan wear tent.

But as the Marauders took control, the fan support wavered. The Western cheerleading squad gave their best effort to keep the fans into it, but the Marauders took the crowd out of the game with a number of deflating plays throughout the second quarter.

Although the game was a shellacking from the Marauders, the Western Mustang crowd did not waver.

Despite some of the pictures flying around Twitter and Facebook, McMaster did not out number the Western crowd. In the fourth quarter, some of the Western students left their seats, realizing the game was out of reach for the home team.

The journey home was easily the best part of the day. Watching the purple and white fans leave the stadium with their heads held low at their own Homecoming is one of the best feelings an OUA fan can have.

But I left the campus with a better sense of what Western students are really like. Yes, some of them are cocky and arrogant, but McMaster has those students too.

Are we really that different? I think McMaster students would like to think so. But I’m sceptical. I’ve got a newfound respect for those London, Ont. students. Western has tremendous support for their athletics programs, both before and after their time as a student.

I’m sure the “Wuck Festern” saying will live on forever, but all I’m saying is go to Western, and see what it’s like there. You might think twice.

In one of their closer competitions this year, McMaster's football team beat the Queen's Gaels 33-20 Saturday afternoon at Ron Joyce Stadium.

Read about how the game transpired on the @SilSports Twitter feed.

 

@ Ottawa - September 15th 1PM
The Ottawa Gee-Gees have struggled out of the gate in the 2012 season, dropping games to the Windsor Lancers and the York Lions. Their defence has been a serious area of concern; after two games, they are ranked 9th in the OUA, giving up 561 yards per game. In contrast, the Marauders are ranked 1st in the OUA for offense, gaining 632.5 yards per game. Mac will look to take advantage of a porous Ottawa secondary, who ranks last in defending the pass. From a defensive perspective, McMaster needs to take care of business against the Gee-Gee’s mobile QB Aaron Colbon, who has ran all over his competition through two weeks of action.
Queen’s - September 22nd 1PM

Hailing from Kingston, ON, the Queen’s Golden Gaels are the first real competition for the McMaster squad. The nationally ranked Gaels, victors of the 2009 Vanier Cup, are 2-0 to start the season, taking down the York Lions and Laurier Golden Hawks. Queen’s defence has held up well through two weeks but the Mac offense will be the first real test for the Kingston natives. QB Billy McPhee has started off the season with average numbers: three touchdown passes and two interceptions. McPhee, who has faced two bottom-five defences, will be facing a ball-hawking secondary in McMaster, who picked off six passes in last year’s Yates Cup semi-final against the Gaels. Queen’s defense is a middle-of-the-pack unit, ranking 6th in pass defense and 4th in defending the run. McMaster is the favourite, but this should be a competitive game for the Maroon and Grey.

@ Western - September 29th 1PM

In Week 5, the Marauders are the visitors for the Western Homecoming game. The Mustangs were the last team to defeat McMaster, back in Week 2 of the 2011 OUA season. Western is undefeated: winning a road game against the Waterloo Warriors, and winning their home opener against the Toronto Varsity Blues. Despite losing 2011 OUA Rookie of the Year RB Tyler Varga to an NCAA scholarship at Yale University, the Mustangs still boast the best running game in the province, averaging 337.5 rushing yards per game. QB Donnie Marshall is off to a hot start in 2012, making smart decisions (10.28 yards per attempt) and throwing with accuracy (64% pass completion percentage). McMaster faces their biggest defensive test, with Western owning the number one spot in passing and rushing defense statistics. The Marauders will rely heavily on the linebacking corps of Aram Eisho, Nick Shorthill, Shane Beaton, and Ben D’Aguilar to shut down the running game. The Western Mustangs could be the team Mac meets in the Yates Cup, so this Week 5 match-up will be critical for the Marauder team.

@ York - October 4th  7PM

The match up for McMaster in Week 6 will be a drastic change from the two weeks prior, and not just because of a rare Thursday night kick-off. The 1-1 York Lions are a much weaker squad in comparison to Mustangs and Golden Gaels. The biggest challenge for McMaster will be QB Myles Gibbon, a former NCAA player from South Alabama. Gibbon has thrown for three touchdowns and 582 yards through two games. The Lions have struggled to protect their quarterback, giving up seven sacks for 24 yards. The offensive line will need to improve by week 6, otherwise the McMaster defense will expose this fault early and often. Defensively, the York Lions have done well defending the pass, only giving up 155 yards per game after facing Ottawa and Queen’s. The Marauder running game has an opportunity to take advantage of a young York defense, who ranks 7th in run defense.

Windsor - October 13th 1PM

Week 8 sees the Marauders on the big stage, with the Score visiting Ron Joyce Stadium to broadcast the McMaster Homecoming game against the Windsor Lancers. Windsor is a growing force in the OUA, led by their star under centre, Austin Kennedy. The quarterback has looked strong out of the gate, including a six touchdown and 482 passing yard game against Ottawa.  The 1-1 Lancers are a team who will need to grow defensively as the year goes on, most notably in run defense. After games against the Guelph Gryphons and Ottawa Gee-Gee’s, Windsor ranked 7th in defending the run. Kyle Quinlan will also be a test for the Lancer secondary, who have yet to face an elite caliber quarterback.

Laurier - October 20th 1PM

To close the season, McMaster hosts the Laurier Golden Hawks. After losing WR Shamawd Chambers to the Edmonton Eskimos, the 0-2 Golden Hawks are in a rebuilding year. McMaster will look to close out the season with a win against a team who failed to put points on the board against the Toronto Varsity Blues. One of the bright spots for the team is their defensive line, who has eight sacks through two games, good for 3rd in the OUA. The offense is being run through QB Travis Eman, a first-year quarterback still adjusting the university game. The Golden Hawk running game is currently a run-by-committee affair, but expect this to change by the end of the season while the Laurier coaching staff figures out the player’s roles. The experienced Mac offensive line will hold up against Golden Hawks, allowing Quinlan to do damage in the air against the 8th-ranked passing defense. The recipe for success for Laurier’s opponents was a balanced attack of running and passing, but look for Mac to lean in favour of the aerial attack to avoid the Laurier D-line.

 

With 26 seconds left in the first half of the Marauders 2012 season debut against the Guelph Gryphons, Kyle Quinlan jumped over a sideline advertisement after one of his several first down runs on the day. What would normally be a highlight reel play sealed with a glare at the record-setting opening day crowd, has become the show that Marauder fans and the OUA have come to expect from Saturdays at Ron Joyce.

Rushing the ball ten other times for a total of 109 yards, the nation’s best passer asserted both McMaster’s and his own poise to defend the title of national champions - a task made to be imperative for the Maroon and Grey.

Even the national anthem was drowned out by the buzz in and around the stadium, which featured a large line waiting to enter until well through the first quarter. No pressure at all.

However, with a target on their back and the weight of an entire campus resting on their shoulder pads, the Marauders demonstrated what all the hype was about.

After giving up an early score to the visiting team, Mac settled down on both sides of the ball. Two and outs turned into efficient drives, which soon became an onslaught of Robert Babic receptions for six. The fourth year slot back from Oakville, Ont. who scored three touchdowns in last year’s regular season, caught the ball eight times for 165 yards and two scores on Saturday.

As a result, Babic received player of the game honors - an accolade for which several Marauders could have made a case. One of those players, linebacker Ben D’Aguilar, earned himself a spot as the OUA defensive player of the week recording five tackles and three sacks.

The final score of the game was 50-9 in favor of the #1 ranked Marauders whose next game comes against the Waterloo Warriors on Saturday September 8 in Waterloo, Ont.

What appears to be an easy start to the schedule for Mac will quickly escalate as only a week later the nationally ranked Queen’s Gaels will come to town.

All things considered, Saturday was an excellent start to what is surely to be the most closely followed season in program history. The national spotlight seems to bring out only the best of not only the football team, but also the entire community.

By the looks of it, the Marauders are at the forefront of the growing popularity of Canadian university football. With exciting performances on the field and competitive title races, maybe one day the Vanier Cup and Hec Creighton will share the same buzz as the same awards south of the border. It’s a good place to start.

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