On one of the biggest days of the year, Laurier’s offense was unable to capitalize on their chances and in the end came up short against Ottawa in their football match-up on Saturday. 

          In front of a full house of 7607 fans at University Stadium, Laurier got the ball rolling, moving deep into Ottawa territory on a well-executed drive orchestrated by quarterback Evan Pawliuk. Unfortunately the Hawks were unable to get into the endzone and were forced to settle for a field goal. 

          The following drive was the same for Laurier, moving to Ottawa’s 20-yard line before bringing special teams on. The Golden Hawks faked the field goal and tried to scramble for a first down but were stopped short, keeping the score at 3-0. 

          Ottawa was finally able to get their offense going about 11 minutes in, as quarterback Brad Sinopli was successful through the air and capped off the drive on a third-down score, where he completed a three-yard pass to Stephen Hughes to take the lead. Another Laurier drive in the quarter led to a field goal attempt that went wide, scoring the single for the Hawks and closing the deficit to three. 
          The second quarter started much the same, with Chris Mamo kicking another field goal for the Hawks, and tying the game up. With just under two minutes to go, Laurier finally got into the endzone following a five-yard pass from Pawliuk to Josh Bishop. Ottawa was able to score once more before halftime, as Sinopli rushed into the endzone from 29 yards with just one minute left on the scoreboard, keeping the score tied at 14 at the half. 

          At the half the weather took over with both heavy rain and hail falling and causing the game to suffer a delay. When the third quarter finally did get started, the wet conditions slowed both offenses, leading to just two field goals for Ottawa and a safety for Laurier, giving the Gee-Gees a four point lead going into the final frame. 

          The fourth did finally show some offense again from both sides, as Ottawa scored early in the quarter on a pass from Sinopli to Alex Labonte in the endzone. After Mamo scored yet another field goal for Laurier, the Golden Hawks were down eight in the late moments of the game. After a huge drive, they were able to finally punch the ball into the endzone after a one-yard run by Mike Montoya with just five seconds left. The Hawks were unable to score the two-point conversion, however, and ended up falling by those two points, 27-25. 

Pawliuk looked to have finally gained confidence on the field, throwing for over 250 yards and a touchdown. Montoya, was for the first time this season, contained on the ground, held to just 48 yards on 11 attempts.

With the loss, Laurier moves to 3-2 on the season, and fall in the standings to fifth. The Hawks will host the 2-3 Windsor Lancers next week, before their biggest test of the season against Guelph the following weekend.