Jason Scourse

Football Preview: Gaels travel for Monday night showdown against No. 2 Western

8/30/2019 2:31:00 PM

The Queen's Gaels (0-1) travel to London to take on the No. 2 Western Mustangs (1-0) at 7:30 pm on Monday night in London, Ontario. The game will be livestreamed on OUA.tv.

SNYDER'S RETURN
Monday night's matchup marks Gaels head coach Steve Snyder's return to Western. Snyder spent the past two seasons as Offensive Coordinator for the Mustangs.

Snyder will need to rely on his veteran defence to engage in the difficult task of stopping Western's high-powered offence, one he helped to engineer.

The Mustangs lead the OUA with the highest-ranked offence during their past two consecutive undefeated OUA regular seasons. In 2017 they went on to win the Vanier Cup.

SNYDER ON WESTERN
"They're a good football team, there m.o. is to establish the run game, we've just got to be ready for it defensively, our front seven, make sure that we're sound in our gaps and defend the pulling schemes," said Gaels head coach Steve Snyder.

WESTERN PREVIEW
The No. 2 ranked Mustangs will look to continue their 21-game regular-season winning streak in their home opener against the Gaels.

Western opened their season with a 32-19 road victory at Laurier. The Mustangs looked rusty in their season opener allowing 442 yards of total offence as Connor Carusello completed 34 of 48 passes for 360 yards for the Golden Hawks. Their defence made big plays when it mattered, blocking a punt on the three-yard line and recovering the ball for a touchdown. They also intercepted Carusello once.

The departures of Cedric Joseph and Alex Taylor has impacted the teams ability to run the ball and it showed against Lauier.

Minnesota Golden-Gophers transfer Jonathan Femi-Cole led the Mustangs rushing attack with 35 yards on eight carries, while Merchant scrambled six times for the same total, and Trey Humes added 23 yards.

Western's 93-yard total was the third-worst mark for the opening weekend and a drastic difference from their OUA-best 274.6 yards per game in 2018. The Mustangs only failed to rush for under 200 yards on three occasions last season and have never had a regular season game under 100 yards since 2009.

2018 MATCHUP
Queen's provided Western with arguably their toughest test during the Mustangs 2018 undefeated OUA season.

Nate Hobbs threw for 361 yards and tallied two rushing touchdowns against Western. Down 20-11, Mustangs quarterback Chris Merchant mounted a fourth quarter comeback to lead Western to a 26-23 victory.

Western's attack on the ground made the difference as Merchant gained 113 yards, Alex Taylor contributed 82 yards, and as a team, the Mustangs gathered 222 rushing yards for an average of 6.0 yards per carry.

KEY PLAYERS TO WATCH
LB - Kurtis Schaefer - Queen's
In their match-up last season, Schaefer produced a career-high 11 tackles. Look for Schaefer and the Tricolour linebackers to be relied upon to stop Western's run.

WR - Sakhia Kwemo - Queen's
The younger brother of Argonauts and former Gaels linebacker Nelkas Kwemo, Sakhia caught his first touchdown pass and led the Gaels with four receptions for 25 yards in last week's loss to Carleton. As putting up points will be crucial to secure a victory against the Mustangs, Keenan to Kwemo could become a regular occurrence.

QB - Chris Merchant - Western
Merchant enters his fourth season as the Mustangs starting quarterback. He ranked fifth in yards per game and threw for a second-highest passing mark at 73.1 percent. His tactile efficiency and ability to lead Western's high powered offence is a key part of Western's success.

WR - Justin Nickson - Western -
Nickson displayed his big-play threat against Laurier, hauling in a 60-yard touchdown for his lone catch of the game. While its a small sample size, Nickson's ability to get down the field and break the game open is a threat for the Gaels to look out for.

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