The Western Mustangs rode a dominant second half to an 11-3 win over the Queen's Gaels in Sunday's championship game in St. Catharines to win their second straight Baggataway Cup title as champions of the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association.
The Mustangs got first-half goals from their trio of All-Canadian midfielders—Jacob Hickey, Chris Dong and Chris Da Silva had one each—to hold a slim lead at the intermission. Hickey had the only goal of the first quarter and Western twice pushed out to a 2-goal lead, but Oscar Perren and Drew Cairns reply for Queen's to keep the Gaels close.
In the third quarter, Western continued to apply constant pressure all over the field and took advantage of a pair of power play goals (one each from Blake Booth and Connor Murphy), to start to pull away. With just over four minutes to play in the quarter, Da Silva spun underneath one defender and snuck a shot around the head of another, bouncing it well in front of the goal line and up just under the crossbar. That 6-3 lead held up through the quarter and felt like a lot for the young Gaels' squad to overcome.
As it turned out, that 3-goal run was just an appetizer for how the Mustangs would pull away to stake an unshakeable claim on their second straight championship. Bryan Poetker did open the scoring for Queen's in the fourth with a rocket from outside to the bottom left corner just over two minutes after the quarter's opening faceoff.
After that, though, it was all Western. Fischer Stoltz, behind a deep and sound defensive group, did not yield another goal. The Mustangs scored 5 straight in the final half of the period to put the final outcome in continuously less doubt.
Stay tuned to the CUFLA web site and social media channels for further news in the next few days, including the ALL Baggataway Cup team and Baggataway Cup Most Valuable Player.