Laurier Golden Hawks Football team heading to Yates Cup game

Golden Hawks head to provincial championship The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks are heading to the provincial championship, set to take on Western in the Yates Cup. Colton Wiens reports.

The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks are heading to the Provincial Championships this weekend and are set to take on the Western Mustangs in the Yates Cup. This is the first time the Golden Hawks have made it to the championship game since 2017.

The Golden Hawks finished going through a walkthrough Monday afternoon as they prepare for Saturday’s matchup. Laurier is ranked third in the country while the Mustangs sit atop the standings. But the Golden Hawks have their work cut out for them as Western is the only team they lost to this season.

“It’s my hometown so I love getting the chance to go back and compete there,” said quarterback, Taylor Elgersma. “Anytime you’re playing there, you know you have a great game on your hands, so it’s exciting. We’re obviously excited that we get to go back there and have the chance to win this one.”

Laurier and Western have been powerhouse programs this year and only met once during regular season. The Mustangs won that matchup 33-30 thanks to a touchdown in the final minutes of the game.

“We know we have to execute,” said head coach, Michael Faulds. “We played a good third quarter last time but we didn’t play a good first half. So we know we have to execute right from the start.”

That loss was the only time Laurier came up short, they finished the season with a 7-1 record. They were also ranked third in the country behind second place Montreal and the first place Mustangs.

It’s the highest ranking in Laurier’s football program's history.

Third-year quarterback, Taylor Elgersma, broke Laurier’s single-season passing yards record this year, that was previously held by Bill Kubas since 1994. He also set a new Ontario University Athletics (OUA) record for pass completion percentage. While rookie linebacker Ethan Gregorcic was named to the OUA all-rookie team on Monday afternoon.

“We’ve really focused on the week leading into the Waterloo week, the most recent game against Windsor, that we really need to improve every week, and we’ve done that,” Faulds said.

In the playoffs, the purple and gold walked through Waterloo 69-0. This was followed by a much closer 21-14 win over Windsor last weekend. Quarterback Taylor Elgersma ripped a 22 yard pass between two defenders finding Raidan Thorne late in the fourth quarter, which would eventually seal the win.

“We didn’t start the game the way we wanted to,” Elgersma said. “We made some uncharacteristic mistakes and I think we were just going one drive at a time. Let’s keep swinging…let’s work our way back in this thing. We tied it up, and in that final drive we kind of had some momentum rolling, and we were just ready to go take the lead and trust our defence that they were going to shut the door.”

Laurier has won the Yates Cup eight times and the National Championship Vanier Cup two times in its more than 60-year history. They recently won in 2016 over Western, then lost to Western in the 2017 provincial final.

“At its core, it builds spirit community and pride for our institution and our entire student body beyond our teams,” said Director of Athletics Kate McCrae Bristol.

The Yates Cup will kick off at 1 p.m. Saturday. The winner will head to the U-Teck Bowl the next weekend, followed by the Canadian U Sports Championship Vanier Cup in Kingston on Nov. 25.