Carleton Ravens, Laurier Golden Hawks post landmark wins in OUA football playoffs

When road teams win playoff games without it seeming liking an upset, that is a sign of a deepening league.

The Carleton Ravens and Laurier Golden Hawks winning in Ontario University Athletics quarter-finals on Saturday will surely be a footnote in two weeks, after Western and Guelph finish slugging it out for the Yates Cup. Attention should be paid, though. Two seasons ago the Golden Hawks of Michael Faulds were a one-win team and the Ravens under Steve Sumarah lost every game of their yearling season. Each is into the league's final four after Laurier defeated McMaster 29-15, while Carleton crushed Queen's 39-8.

Saturday, Laurier, behind a school-record 40-carry, 295-yard rushing day from running back Dillon Campbell, earned its first playoff win in five seasons and first against McMaster since 2008. It must have been semi-cathartic for a program that certainly scrapped the bottom not that long ago during the wind-down of the altogether successful Gary Jeffries era and the transition to the young, charismatic Faulds.

Laurier played McMaster closely in a late regular-season game, so it was perhaps less than a shock that behind Campbell, it was able to build a two-score lead, 20-7, after 30 minutes at Ron Joyce Stadium. Top CFL Canadian college draft prospect Kwaku Boateng was omnipresent with two sacks and a fumble recovery, as the Golden Hawks bent but didn't break against record-setting quarterback Asher Hastings (who was 20-of-31 for 320 yards passing, with two touchdowns). The second half swung on a six-yard scoring pass from Eric Morelli, a midseason replacement at quarterback, to the veteran big receiver Greg Nyhof.

Laurier pulled out every stop for this one, including a nifty 49-yard pass thrown by wide receiver Daniel Bennett.

The win means Faulds will face a mentor, coach Greg Marshall and the unbeaten Western Mustangs, in a semifinal.

Fittingly, Carleton earned its first playoff win since returning and first since 1986 at the expense of Queen's, a one-time Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference contemporary. The Ravens rolled, getting touchdowns from star running back Jahvari Bennett and receiver Wilson Birch within their first nine offensive plays, and scoring on three of their first four drives for a quick 21-0 lead. Quarterback Jesse Mills had little difficulty piling up a 15-of-21, 337-yard, three-TD passing line, with CFL prospect Nathaniel Behar amassing 161 yards on eight receptions.

Defensively, Carleton, led by defensive back Nathaniel Hamlin and active defensive linemen such as Stefan Carty, sacked first-year Gaels starting quarterback Nate Hobbs seven times. It also held Queen's to a grand total of one point on its two first red-zone visits and didn't allow a touchdown for the first 3½ quarters. Queen's slotback Doug Corby caught an eight-yard jump-ball TD from Hobbs as a final salvo for ready-to-be-razed Richardson Stadium.

There is a goodly chance the Laurier-Western and Carleton-Guelph semifinals on Nov. 7 will be lopsided, likely renewing the carping about a lack of parity. The flip side of that is the OUA at least has some new faces in its final four. It will be the first Yates Cup Semifinal Saturday without McMaster since 2008. It will also be the first with neither Queen's nor Ottawa since those two eastern Ontario teams rejoined the conference in 2001.

The ambitious teams have to play the powerhouses in order to have a measuring stick, even if they get beaten with it. So whatever Carleton and Laurier might muster against the Guelph giants and mighty Mustings might be a bonus.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @naitSAYger.