HAMILTON, ONt. - The No. 6 McMaster Marauders cruised to an easy 55-7 win over the Waterloo Warriors under the lights at Ron Joyce Stadium on Thursday night.
McMaster quarterback Asher Hastings of Regina tossed four touchdowns in the win, including his 25th of the season to break the OUA single-season record for passing touchdowns. He broke the previous record of 24 set by a pair of Queen's quarterbacks, Tommy Denison (2003) and Danny Brannagan (2008).
With two games still remaining in the 2015 season, the third-year psychology student has a chance to take down the CIS record of 30 touchdown passes held by Saint Mary's quarterback Chris Flynn, which was set in 1989.
"I never expected this at all. I can't believe it, and it's kind of surreal at this point," said Hastings who is in his second season, but first commanding the Marauder offence. "In the system that I'm in, it really makes it easy to succeed and they give me all of the tools here. I'm making it happen for our coaching staff, who are doing all of the work."
Entering the game, Hastings had tallied 21 on the season and was tied with Marshall Ferguson for the Marauders single-season mark of 21. He took over the all-time school record late in the first quarter on a 1-yard pass to Dan Petermann of Stoney Creek, Ont.
Hastings finished his record-setting night at half, completing 13 of 17 passes and tallying 165 yards.
Petermann, Josh Vandeweerd of Burlington, Ont., Chris Pezzetta of Burlington, Ont., and Kingsley Amankwaa of Etobicoke, Ont. hauled in the touchdowns thrown by Hastings.
THEY SAID IT:
"It's cool. It's something that I'll look back on when I'm done playing, and it's nice to have your name in a record book next to guys like Brannagan and Denison. That's pretty special, but I'll focus on it when I'm done playing, and we'll focus on Laurier now."
– Asher Hastings on breaking OUA single-season touchdown mark
"He's mature beyond his years, and he has evolved and learned from every opportunity he's gotten. He's playing like a fifth-year senior and this is really only his second year with the program. It's fun to see the chemistry he has with our skilled kids and the command he has in that huddle."
- Head Coach Stephen Ptaszek on his second-year quarterback Asher Hastings.
BIG PLAY: Jordan Lyons of Burlington, Ont., opened McMaster's scoring after the Marauder defence stymied the Warrior offence on their first drive of the game. Lyons dashed his way to a 75-yard touchdown punt return at 13:02 of the first quarter.
CAREER FIRSTS: Marauder backup quarterback Anthony Bontorin of Windsor got his first CIS career touchdown pass when he connected with Dan Petermann for a 58-yard strike in the third quarter... Teshawn Smikle of Brampton, Ont., hauled in his first CIS career interception and returned it 22-yards with 4:04 remaining in the first quarter... Matthew DeCicco of London, Ont., registered his first career touchdown catching a nine yard pass from Dylan Astrom of Peterborough, Ont. in the fourth quarter.
THURSDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: Tonight's game was the first OUA regular-season night game played at Ron Joyce Stadium since October 6, 2011, when the Marauders defeated the Toronto Varsity Blues 50-14.
NEXT WEEK: No. 6 McMaster improves to 5-1, and will travel to play the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks at University Stadium. The Golden Hawks have a 2-3 record and will play the Ottawa Gee Gees in Waterloo tomorrow night. Waterloo drops to 0-6, and will face 2-4 Toronto at home next Saturday.