Photo Courtesy: Nav Mohan, 94.9 Radio Western

 

GOJHL

The London Nationals played a Halloween Night game on Wednesday, beating the LaSalle Vipers 6-3. Riley MacRae and Cal Davis continue their dominant play, both picking up four points in the win. Christian Polillo also added two goals and an assist, while Zach Springer made just 16 saves in the win. The Nats will be in St. Mary’s tomorrow night to face the Lincolns to round out their weekend schedule.

The St. Thomas Stars will play a back-to-back to open up the month of November, first taking on the Sarnia Legionnaires tonight, then hosting the LaSalle Vipers tomorrow evening.

The Komoka Kings will also head to Sarnia to take on the Legionnaires on Saturday night, before finishing their weekend again on the road against the Strathroy Rockets.

 

High School Football

Here are the senior high school football semi-final matchups!

 

St. Thomas Aquinas (3-3) @ Catholic Central H.S (5-0)

 

St. Josephs C.H.S (3-2) @ Regina Mundi C.H.S (4-1)

 

Parkside C.I (3-2) @ A.B Lucas S.S (5-0)

 

Sir Wilfred Laurier S.S (3-2) @ South C.I (4-1)

 

Strathroy D.C.I (1-4) @ Oakridge S.S (4-1)

 

H.B Beal S.S (3-2) @ Glendale H.S (4-1)

 

 

Western Mustangs

 

Football

After the Western Mustangs had themselves a first-round playoff bye, they will now host the Carleton Ravens in the OUA Semi-finals Saturday afternoon at TD Stadium. This is a rematch of Week #1, where Western was pushed to OT, narrowly winning 26-23. That was the only time that the Mustangs were pushed beyond regulation in their entire 8-0 season. This is also a rematch of the 2016 OUA Semi-finals, where the Mustangs beat the Ravens at TD Stadium 51-24. The Ravens finished the regular season 5-3 and beat the McMaster Marauders 30-25 in the OUA quarter-finals. Ravens QB Mike Arruda threw for 2263 yards and 17 touchdowns, while sporting a 59% completion percentage. He has two weapons through the air: Quinton Soares and Phil Iloki, who scored 9 touchdowns between the two of them. Carleton was led by their runningback in their only playoff game though, as Nathan Carter ran for 172 yards and 3 TDs against the Marauders. A Western win would be their 21^st straight victory, which would tie the all-time Usports record held by the McMaster Marauders earlier in the decade.

 

Hockey

The men’s hockey team will continue their homestand this weekend with a pair of games against Waterloo teams, first against the Waterloo Warriors on Friday, then the Laurier Golden Hawks on Saturday. Western has already beat the Warriors in their second game of the season 4-3, where Rylan Bechtel would score the game-winning goal. The Mustangs are 3-4 so far this season, not winning nor losing more than one game in a row so far this season. Both games will have a 7pm puck drop from Thompson Arena.

The women’s team will be looking to continue their hot start to the season on Saturday when they head to Guelph for a matchup against the Gryphons. This will be a rematch of the McCaw Cup semi-finals last season, where Western swept the Gryphons, most notably ending the series in double overtime courtesy of a Rachel Armstrong goal. On Sunday, the ladies will return home as they are welcoming their former head coach Kelly Paton and her Laurier Golden Hawks to Thompson Arena. Paton led the Mustangs to their second McCaw Cup in program history last season before being hired as the Head Coach and Manager of Hockey Operations for Laurier. The Golden Hawks are 0-3-0-1 so far this season, but have been in close games that they have come out on the wrong side of. Kelly Paton’s return will be at 2:30pm from Thompson Arena.

 

Soccer

The Mustangs soccer teams are both in the OUA Final Four. The men’s team will be heading to Ottawa on Friday to take on the Carleton Ravens in their playoff matchup. The Mustangs have already survived two penalty shootouts in their playoffs, beating the Windsor Lancers and the Guelph Gryphons in the first two rounds.

The women’s team will be hosting their OUA Final Four match against the Queens Gaels on Friday evening. This is a rematch of last year’s OUA Final Four, where Western beat the Gaels 1-0 to advance to the gold medal game. Queens finished second in the OUA East with a 8-3-5 record. Kickoff will be at 7pm from Mustang Field.

 

Basketball

The basketball teams will play their home-openers tomorrow for a special day at Alumni Hall. Hundreds of school children will be in attendance for the 11:30am tipoff for the men’s game against the Queens Gaels. The women will follow at 1:30pm. Both Mustangs basketball teams are 1-1 so far after splitting their first two regular season games last week. The purple and white will have another game on Saturday when they host the York Lions at Alumni Hall.

 

Volleyball

The volleyball teams will also play their home-openers this weekend as they are hosting the Brock Badgers on Sunday afternoon at Alumni Hall. The women’s team is 2-0 so far this season and will play at noon, with the 1-1 men’s team following at 2pm. Both Badgers teams are 0-2 to start their seasons.