Western Mustangs, Marauders' Hastings and Gee-Gees' Wendel rewrite CIS record book

Perish the thought that Ontario University Athletics is a conference that defence has forgot.

Or perhaps Western's Will Finch, McMaster's Asher Hastings and Ottawa's Derek Wendel, the triumvirate of quarterbacks who reset Canadaian university football records on Saturday, are just that prolific. The suspicion that records aren't made to last in Canadian Interuniversity Sport was verified Saturday. Within minutes of each other, Finch and second--ranked Western set a standard for points in a season, whilst Hastings eclipsed legendary Chris Flynn's 26-year-old single-season touchdown record in the game. Wendel, with his Ottawa team squeezed out of frame in the OUA playoff picture, broke the two-year-old CIS passing-yards mark.

In the process, that helped lock in the bracket for the Yates Cup playoffs, with Laurier-McMaster and Carleton-Queen's quarter-finals on Halloween while Guelph and Western host semifinals on Nov. 7.

In order of mention:

— At Hamilton, coach Greg Marshall and his 8-0 Mustangs mauled McMaster 46-24, to finish with a record 494 points and 64 touchdowns. The coach's son, running back Tom Marshall, had the record-setting score with a short rushing TD in the fourth quarter.

Yannick Harou had the record-breaker in the third quarter, which merely happened to be his OUA-leading 13th TD on just 61 rushes. Western's primary porteur de pigskin, Alex Taylor, finished with 1,068 yards and an average of 9.79 per carry. Finch, the fourth-year quarterback, directed an offence that hit paydirt 58 times, while the defence and special teams were good for another half-dozen house calls.

Marshall and Mustangs likely won't be stopped in their bid for a fifth Yates in nine seasons, and have home-field advantage through the Mitchell Bowl national semifinal that will be a Quebec-Ontario clash. Whether those video game stats — try 9.6 yards per rush — are redeemable in four weeks against either Laval or Montreal, winners of the last three national titles, remains to be seen.

The former records for points (481 by Laval in 2003) and TDs (62 by Saint Mary's in 2001) had each stood for more than a decade. Each of those teams captured the Vanier Cup.

— Hastings broke Flynn's record on his final fling of the regular season. The 23-year-old Regina native notched his 31st TD pass on a five-yard salvo to likely all-Canadian receiver Danny Vandervoort with 1:54 remaining in the Western-McMaster game.

Vandervoort was a fitting target, since the grab was his CIS-leading 11th, on just 39 receptions.

Hastings has averaged one score per 9.2 throws. The Regina native also finished with 31-to-5 touchdown/interception ratio (not as good as Flynn's 30-2 in '89) and a 71.5 per cent completion rate.

Flynn set the old mark of 30 in a seven-game schedule in 1989, but his Saint Mary's Huskies only played three opponents in the Atlantic Conference.

— Over in eastern Ontario, the favour that either Toronto or Ottawa needed to make the playoffs never materialized. The Michael Faulds-coached Laurier Golden Hawks locked up sixth place by throttling Queen's 49-26 (in the last Queen's homecoming before Richardson Stadium is rebuilt).

That out-of-town outcome left Ottawa playing for unlucky seventh and the sake of posterity. Wendel and blockers and catchers went to work, as the Belleville, Ont., native finished 34-of-46 for an OUA-record 564 yards and a CIS seasonal-standard 3,136.

Wendel, who connected with graduating slotback and CIS receiving leader Ian Stewart for 175 yards and two scores, checked out in favour of backup Victor Twynstra with 6:03 left. Wendel went back in with 2:25 left after Ottawa discovered he was 50 yards shy of former Bishop's Gaiters star Jordan Heather's two-year-old record. After graduating centre Cody Moynes stated, "We got to take a shot," Wendel aired out on a deep post to rookie receiver Kalem Beaver for 51 yards. A three-yard shallow cross to Luke Ffrench also finalized Wendel's CIS marks of 216 completions and 346 attempts.

That at least gave Ottawa some salvation for a season where it played the toughest schedule in the OUA, losing to five teams that finished .500 or higher. They lost two games where they scored at least 40 points.

Wendel's 564-yard day eclipsed the 561 that Queen's Tom Denison put up on Nov. 2, 2002, although that came in an OUA semifinal against Western that was played in a snow squall.

Calgary Dinos legend Greg Vavra's national single-game record of 627 is safe, for another week or few.

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