The York University Lions football team had top receiver Colton Hunchak in the line-up for the first time this season and his presence sparked the offence in a 53-31 loss to the No. 5 nationally-ranked Laurier Golden Hawks in their home season finale on Thursday night at Alumni Field.
 
Hunchak suffered an injury in the team's pre-season game against Sherbrooke in mid August and returned on Thursday night to catch 14 balls for 170 yards and two touchdowns. Both of the scoring passes came from his older brother Brett Hunchak, who had his best game of the season going 34-of-49 for 388 yards and one interception. He also added another 50 yards on the ground on five carries and scored a rushing touchdown.
 
The Lions moved the ball all night, picking up 519 total yards on 75 offensive plays. The Golden Hawks, meanwhile, ran only 56 plays but averaged more than a first down per snap thanks to a number of big plays.


 
The defending champion Golden Hawks got off to a quick start in the first quarter and led 14-0 less than six minutes into the game. But the Lions settled down after that and slowed the Laurier offence while picking up yardage of their own. The Hunchak-to-Hunchak connection put the Lions on the scoreboard for the first time with 5:47 remaining in the second quarter, and Laurier carried a 22-7 advantage into halftime.
 
The Golden Hawks added to their lead on their first drive of the third quarter, but on the ensuing kick-off Kadeem Hemmings found some space and returned it 96 yards for the touchdown to cut the deficit to 29-14.
 
Kurleigh Gittens Jr. and Brentyn Hall each scored their second touchdown of the game early in the second half, but the Hunchak brothers both found the end zone to cut Laurier's lead to 12 points at 36-24. However, that was as close as the Lions would get and the defending champions improved to 5-1 with the victory.
 
Daniel Bennett rounded out the scoring late in the contest with a 43-yard touchdown. York rookie kicker Dante Mastrogiuseppe and his Laurier counterpart, Nathan Mesher, also both kicked a field goal from 34 and 24 yards, respectively.
 
Gittens Jr. finished with eight catches for 210 yards, a whopping 26.3 yards-per-catch average. Starting quarterback Michael Knevel was 21-of-29 for 431 yards and five touchdowns.
 
Thursday's game was the last of the season at home for the Lions, who will close the year with a pair of road games against the Queen's Gaels and Windsor Lancers. Up first is a trip to Kingston, Ont., for the Queen's Homecoming next Saturday, Oct. 14 at 1pm.