If the University of Waterloo football team needed proof that this year is different, they found it last weekend.

At halftime, the Warriors were down 30-10 to the Carleton Ravens.

Fourth-year quarterback Lucas McConnell had been in that situation before. In his first three years at Waterloo, the team had won only one of its 24 games.

“We would have lost 70-10,” he says.

Like his players, Waterloo coach Chris Bertoia figured the team’s unbeaten start to the 2017 season was likely only two quarters away.

In his halftime speech, Bertoia told his players to prove something to themselves by winning the second half.

Instead, they won the game.

“Our guys played as a team, and that’s why we came out victorious,” Bertoia says.

Halfway through their season, the Warriors sit tied for the OUA lead at 4-0. Down the street, the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks are 3-0. Both teams are ranked in the national top 10 – Laurier fifth and Waterloo, in the rankings for the first time in a decade, ninth.

That unusual circumstance that has led to heightened excitement for this year’s Battle of Waterloo, which takes place Saturday at Warrior Field.

Laurier has won the last 13 editions of the cross-Waterloo matchup, which has Bertoia preaching caution in advance of this weekend’s matchup.

“We haven’t done anything to earn their respect,” he says.

“We need to compete against them, and see what we can do to hopefully be victorious.”

On the other side of University Avenue, quarterback Michael Knevel says his Laurier teammates are exactly where they expected to be at this point in the season, and wondering why they seem to be an afterthought in their own city.

“We’re 3-0. We’re the defending Yates Cup champs,” he says.

“We’re a good team too, and everyone seems to be talking about Waterloo, so we’re excited to just take it to them.”

Laurier coach Michael Faulds says he’s working to get his team ready to stop Waterloo’s quarterback duo of McConnell and Tre Ford, while offering up a balanced attack of their own.

He’s also expecting a raucous atmosphere in the stadium, particularly given that the game has already sold out.

“It used to be, the last few years when Laurier and Waterloo met, there wasn’t much buzz and excitement,” he says.

“This year, there’s definitely more.”

The Western Mustangs are also undefeated through their first four games. They play Laurier Sept. 30, and will not meet Waterloo during the regular season.

With reporting by Randy Steinman