Team West takes high-scoring 2025 East-West Bowl in Waterloo

For the second straight year, Team West emerged victorious in front of 960 fans on Warrior Field in the U SPORTS East-West bowl. While last year’s event was a defensive showdown that saw Team East muster only a single point to the victors’ 16, the 2025 edition saw both teams trade big plays, with the final score reading 32-20.

Saturday’s game was the highest scoring East-West Bowl since 2019, and that wasn’t a coincidence. “[Waterloo Warriors Head Coach Chris Bertoia] said, let's have punt fakes, let's have trick plays,” revealed Laurier Golden Hawks Head Coach Michael Faulds, who was on the home sideline of his crosstown rivals’ field as Head Coach of Team West on Saturday. “That was kind of the emphasis to both coaching staffs in the planning for it; how can we create some more excitement for the fans? I think we accomplished that on both sides.”

It was Golden Hawk Layomi Ojutalayo who got the fireworks started with an 11-yard touchdown reception from Saskatchewan Huskies quarterback Anton Amunrud. With Team West up 7-0 heading into the second quarter, Michael Horvat (McMaster) pushed the lead to 10 with a 25-yard field goal before Team East kicker Zach Copeland (Ottawa) answered back with a 20-yarder.

Team East managed a huge momentum swing just before halftime, with McGill Redbirds defensive back Jahnai-Taj Copeland-Lewis taking an interception back 58 yards for a pick six. After nailing the extra point, Copeland tacked on one more with a rouge just minutes later to give Team East an 11-10 going into halftime.

Another field goal five minutes and change into the third quarter extended the lead, but Team West answered quickly. Warriors quarterback Nick Orr unleashed a monster throw to find UBC Thunderbirds receiver Shemar McBean in the endzone for a 55-yard touchdown to take a 17-14 lead, made 18-14 by a rouge before the end of the frame.

McBean had great chemistry with both Orr and Amunrud all day. Orr credits his team’s success to their work off the field in the week leading up to Saturday.

“I think the key to leading from the quarterback position is to get to know your guys, right? And you can establish yourself on the field... but where you really connect and get guys to play and gel together is just talking to them in the dining hall, sitting with them, getting to know their names. Stuff like that allows you to build friendships. It makes guys play that 10% harder for you on the field. You see that in a play when a play goes well, everyone's rallying for each other, and I think that's a byproduct of how well we gelled as a team.”

It’s a sentiment echoed both by Faulds, Orr’s coach for the week, and Bertoia, his coach at Waterloo. “I might have a rose-coloured glasses towards the sport of football, but there's no greater team sport out there, period. And that was exemplified today,” said Bertoia. “That’s what it's all about, these guys getting to rub elbows with guys from British Columbia and the east coast and Quebec, and it all enhances their student at experience.”

Amunrud led Team West’s first drive of the final frame, connecting for 29 yards with Alberta's Carter Kellyle before handing off to Guelph’s Isaiah Smith for a 4-yard touchdown run. Their next time out, Amunrud found McBean for a 36-yard reception called down at the one-year line, and it was the Gryphons’ other running back Donnovan Milloy punching it in for the major.

Team East struggled to move the ball in the fourth, and a late Danny Ferdinand (Ottawa) interception sealed the game. Carleton’s Christopher Toupin recovered a fumble and carried it into the endzone as time expired to give Team East six more points and bring the final score to 32-20.

While Team East Head Coach Cherif Nicolas (Bishop’s) is certainly not known to enjoy losing in any context, he’s pleased with how his team played Saturday. “Nobody's going to remember the score. At the end of the day, what they're going to remember is the relationships they made, the friendships they made. Some of those guys will become coaches together in the future. Some of them will play role in the future and that fraternity's never going to leave.”

“The Waterloo staff, [Associate Head Coach Kevin MacNeil], [Offensive Coordinator Brendan Conway], and Bertoia, they put on a good show. They treated us like pros, and it was an amazing, amazing week.”

“It's a credit to everybody that's involved with this,” said Bertoia. “It takes a village, that old adage, and certainlyour athletic department and our football staff, conference services. There was great representation from the University of Waterloo this week. It was a great success. We had a great day out here, sunshine’s out, a good crowd, and yeah, it was an outstanding week.”