GUELPH, Ont. - After starting their regular season with a road win over Waterloo last weekend, the Guelph Gryphons men's rugby team were ready to try and duplicate that effort but this time in front of their home crowd.

With the Western Mustangs in town to take on the Gryphons, Guelph came out flying in their home-opener and ultimately came away with a 44-27 victory."It was awesome to get the crowd involved," said Gryphons Head Coach Cory Hector. "I think the crowd and the number of people here fired the guys up and that was a big contributor to our start."

The start for Guelph could not have gone any better. In just the 2nd minute of the match the Gryphons scored their first try when Max Goodwin put the ball down in the end zone. Then just seven minutes later it was Cameron Hurst's turn to score a try putting the home side up 14-0. Unfortunately for the Gryphons, even with all the momentum they had built up early on, the visitors managed a strong response. A pair of penalty kicks, along with a Guelph turnover deep in their own end that directly resulted in a Western try suddenly had the Mustangs within one point.

"We let the foot off the gas, and seemed to think it was going to be too easy and we paid for it," Hector said.

However, the Gryphons did not leave their foot off the gas for long. Following Western's 20th minute try, Guelph put momentum entirely back in their corner before the half. It was just five minutes later when Mitchell Talbot scored his first try of the game to put his team back up by eight points. Then in the 40th minute, Aria Keshoofy found pay dirt and suddenly Guelph carried a 28-13 advantage into halftime.

With the second half underway, the first ten minutes saw a bit of back and forth between the two sides, until the Gryphons began to put the game out of reach with three straight tries. Getting it started in the 51st minute, it was Kirk Addai Sarfo increasing the Gryphons lead. Then Max Goodwin hit the end zone for the second time during the 58th minute, before Alexander Williamson further padded the lead with a 63rd minute try.

Leading 49-13, Guelph did surrender a pair of late tries before the final whistle sounded on a 49-27 Gryphons victory. "I think it's just a credit to their attitude," said Hector when speaking on his teams win. "While we didn't play perfectly, I thought every time something went wrong they were able to assess, fix it and put together the performance they did. I'm really happy they were put in those situations because that is just going to make us better."

Now 2-0 to start the season, the Gryphons will shift their focus to the Queen's Gaels who will also enter the match with a record of 2-0. "When you give quality teams opportunities they are going to score points, so minimizing those opportunities for teams will be critical to our success, especially next week with Queens," Hector said. "We won't be able to give them any sort of breathing room because they'll take those points every time."

The Gryphons will place host to the Gaels on September 20th at 7:00pm from Varsity Field.