Western Mustangs defeat Guelph Gryphons to reach 9th straight Yates Cup championship

The Western Mustangs are headed to their ninth consecutive Yates Cup championship after gutting out a 30-19 win over the Guelph Gryphons on Saturday at Western Alumni Stadium.
Western Mustang receiver Brayden Misseri made a game-changing play early in the fourth quarter as he caught a pass on the right side of the field from quarterback Evan Hillock and showed off some sheer will as he went through three Guelph tacklers to get to the end zone on a 36-yard score.
That gave the Mustangs a 27-19 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the game and the Western defence sealed things from there.
The Mustangs held the Gryphons to 80 yards rushing and sacked quarterback Tristan Aboud six times.
Western has a 5-3 record in the Yates Cup going back to 2015 and a 2-1 record against the team it will be facing in the Laurier Golden Hawks.
Londoner Taylor Elgersma’s Golden Hawks fell behind 12-3 to the Queen’s Gaels in the other Yates Cup semifinal game played on Saturday but came back and won 29-21.
The Mustangs and the Gryphons matched up very well in their first meeting of the season. They did not see each other in the regular season.
They combined to own the number one and number two rushing offences in the OUA and the number one and number two rushing defences and when you put them on the same field at the same time, it’s a lot like dropping a large rope down in between them and letting them have at it in a battle of tug of war.
Western came in averaging 227.8 yards per game on the ground through the regular season.
The Gryphons put up 214.8 yards on average.
Fittingly, the first points of the game came courtesy of Mustangs running back Keon Edwards, who ran the ball in from three yards out just over three minutes into the game.
After that, things settled into that tugging slugfest as the two sides traded field goals and Guelph managed a safety and scored on a rouge. Halfway through the second quarter, the Mustangs led 10-6.
The teams traded touchdowns in the air from there before the end of the half as Gryphons quarterback Tristan Aboud found wide receiver Vyshonne Janusas on a 23-yard scoring play and then Mustangs QB Evan Hillock connected with Seth Robertson on a 19-yard TD.
Robertson was a question mark to play in the game. He injured his ankle in the season finale and missed Western’s Yates Cup quarterfinal win over McMaster to begin the playoffs.
At the half, Guelph had rushed for 63 yards and the Mustangs had 51.
A Brian Garrity field goal for Western and two Gryphon field goals by Benjamin Lane had the Mustangs ahead 20-19 after the third quarter.
That set the stage for Misseri, who willed his way across the goal line to give Western its fourth-quarter breathing room.
Garrity added his third field goal of the day with 34 seconds remaining in the game to finish the scoring.
Hillock ended the day going 20-for-28 for 314 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Keanu Yazbeck led the Mustangs with 60 rushing yards. Western gained 97 total yards on the ground.
The Yates Cup will be played on Nov. 9 in Kitchener-Waterloo.
The Golden Hawks handed the Mustangs their only regular season loss by a 43-28 score on Sept. 14.