On August 25, the U of T Varsity Blues’ football team took on the Western Mustangs in its regular season debut, ultimately suffering a 50–14 loss. The game, held on U of T Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day, included festivities such as raffle give-aways and a Jumbotron contest that awarded winners with Duke of York pub certificates.
The Mustangs managed to quickly score two touchdowns, giving themselves a 14–0 lead. The Blues made a slow offensive start, while the team’s defenders struggled to contain the downfield passes and scrambling ability of Mustangs’ budding star quarterback Will Finch. It appeared as though the Blues were hesitant to take shots downfield, relying instead on passes at the line of scrimmage. These short passes were intended to take advantage of off-coverage, but the speed of the Western corners forced the Blues to make high throws to avoid interception.
After stalling two drives with conservative play-calling, the Blues began taking shots downfield. U of T quarterback Chris Jugovic displayed some impressive accuracy in getting the ball to his receivers on corner routes; however, both passes resulted in incompletions because of the excellent defense displayed by Western cornerbacks.
Nevertheless, the Blues mustered some confidence throughout the game; Jugovic connected with a diving Boris Isakov for a 40-yard bomb down the sideline. The drive concluded with what appeared to be broken coverage by Western, with wide-open receiver Michael Kanopoulos in the corner of the endzone. However, the excitement was short-lived; the Mustangs scored shortly thereafter, finishing the half with a lead of 33–7.
The second half began promisingly for the Blues, with a fumble returned for a touchdown by Chris Johnson. Unfortunately, this was the last touchdown that the Blues scored for the rest of the game. On the following drive, the Mustangs scored with a touchdown by Brian Marshall, further extending their lead.
The Blues could not answer to the superior talent of the Mustangs’ offence from this point on. The sole entertainment for Blues fans was a non-nude streaker during the fourth quarter who no one wanted to tackle. Sadly, the streaker may have been the Blues’ leading rusher that day.
