You can forgive Waterloo Warriors head coach Chris Bertoia if he was checking for horses on the sidelines.

After all, an errant hoof made all the headlines in the last playoff matchup between the Warriors and Ottawa Gee-Gees, overshadowing a 44-37 Ottawa victory in the 1997 Churchill Bowl national semifinal. Bertoia was a third-year offensive lineman on that '97 team; he had a field-level view of the most bizarre illegal participation penalty in Canadian football history. 

So, when the head coach watched linebacker Kurtis Gray (Waterloo/) undercut a route, pick off the ball, and race down the sideline on his way to extending Waterloo's lead, Bertoia might have been extra-sensitive to the whereabouts of Gee-Gee, the cartoonish, galloping spirit-leader of the Garnet and Grey.

But it was a clear field ahead for Waterloo's Gray, whose 75-yard pick-6 sealed the game midway through the fourth quarter. And it was clear sailing for the Warriors, all the way to the OUA semifinal, with their first post-season victory in twenty years.

The Warriors saved their most complete effort of the season for their most important game, as they dispatched the Gee-Gees 44-21 in their OUA quarter-final matchup at Gee-Gees field on Saturday afternoon. The victory was Waterloo's first in the playoffs since their 1999 Yates Cup title, when Bertoia was still on the Waterloo offensive line.

The closest thing to a horse on the field this time was Waterloo quarterback Tre Ford (Niagara Falls/). The reigning OUA MVP had the kind of dual-threat statline that would drop jaws and bulge eyes, if it weren't for the fact that it's commonplace by now: Ford completed 16 of 24 passes for 225 yards and 2 touchdowns, while rushing 16 times for 114 yards and two more scores on the ground. Nearly 350 total yards and four touchdowns, just another ho-hum day at the ball field for the most electric player in the country.

All-Canadian receiver Tyler Ternowski (Hamilton/) caught 6 balls for 109 yards on the day, while the Warriors also got touchdown receptions from Brandon Metz (Cambridge/) and Rushon Dagelman (Niagara Falls/). Running back Dion Pellerin (Abbotsford/) added 72 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, as the Waterloo option and play-action attacks constantly froze the Gee-Gees in their tracks all day.

But it was the Waterloo defence, much-maligned coming into the post-season, that might have made the biggest statement of the afternoon. They were led by a monster day from Gray, who added two sacks and a pass breakup to his huge pick-six in the fourth. Daeshaun Jupiter-Deane (Pickering/) also came up with a massive endzone interception, while the Warriors collected four team sacks and seven tackles for lost yardage on the day. The 21 points were the second-fewest Waterloo has surrendered in 2019.

If there was doubt that the Warriors would be aggressive in their game management and play-calling, it was erased on the game's first series, when Ford and Ternowski hooked up for a 45-yard catch-and-run on 3^rd-and-10 from midfield. Two plays later, Ford scampered in from seven yards out, and it was 7-0 Warriors.

After a five-yard touchdown run from Pellerin capped an 11-play, 100-yard drive early in the second quarter, the Gee-Gees offense awoke. First, a Campbell Fair 28-yard field goal got Ottawa on the board, and on their next possession, Joshua Britton-Bailey scored on a 3-yard plunge to cut the Warriors lead to 14-10. A Ford interception and a 26-yard boot from Fair ended the half, as the Waterloo advantage had been reduced all the way to one point; the visitors went into halftime leading just 14-13.

But the momentum shifted again, thanks to the ball-hawking ways of the Waterloo secondary: working with a short field in their first drive of the second half, Ottawa quarterback Matt Mahler – making just his second career start – had driven his team into the red zone in search of their first lead of the afternoon. But Mahler's shot to the end zone was picked off by Jupiter-Deane, and the Warriors got the ball back early in the third quarter. From there, it was all Waterloo.

Ford led the ensuing drive 90 yards, finishing it off with a 15-yard hookup over the middle to Metz for a Warriors major. Then, after the defence forced a two-and-out, the Warriors pivot used a deft ball fake to march in to the endzone from 23 yards out for another quick score. Just minutes after facing the prospect of their first deficit of the game, Waterloo was back ahead 27-13.  

The Warriors extended their lead early in the fourth when Ford hit Dagelman for a three-yard touchdown pass, making it 34-13. Ottawa's next possession again looked promising for the hosts, but Gray snuffed it out with the aforementioned 75-yard pick-six, and the Warriors were on their way to the OUA semifinals.

Mahler finished the game 21-35 for 286 yards and a touchdown, to go along with a pair of interceptions in a losing cause. Carter Matheson registered game-highs in catches (9) and yards (137), while the Warriors held Ottawa to just 113 total rushing yards on the day. Kyle Roger led all players with 10 solo tackles for Ottawa, as the Gee-Gees saw their season end on home field for the second straight year.

Now, with their first playoff win in two decades – and their first win of any kind over Ottawa since 1966 – the Warriors will turn their attention from one horse to another, as they'll face the undefeated Western Mustangs in the OUA semifinal next week. It's been almost three full years since Western lost to an OUA opponent, but the Warriors came as close as anyone earlier this season, when they dropped a 45-42 heartbreaker in London in week 7.

So while Bertoia and his staff will prepare to face the nation's top team, one thing will be certain: with a dominating playoff win now under their belt, the Warriors won't be scared of the Mustangs.

And they won't have to worry about where that mascot is, either.