AROUND OUA: Mustangs pick up first win of season with victory over Waterloo

SCOREBOARD

Trent 17 @ Laurier 25

Waterloo 0 @ Western 48

Guelph 117 @ Brock 0

Mustangs pick up first win of season with victory over Waterloo

LONDON, Ont. – The Mustangs bounced back from their season opening loss with a dominating 48-0 victory after battling the Waterloo Warriors and poor weather on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Field. With the win Western matches the Waterloo record at 1-1 to tie for second place in the OUA Shiels Division.
 
According to head coach John Weller, maintaining intensity for the full 80 minutes was key in the team's first victory of the season.
 
"I thought we played a pretty complete game, we had a good intensity throughout. Last week we played with good intensity for 25 minutes, but this week we brought it for the whole game."
 
"We came out, and we didn't take Waterloo lightly," added Veronica Harrigan. "We had beat them in preseason, but didn't let that affect our game. We really came out hard and brought it from the first minute to the last minute. It was a really big step up from our last game, all cylinders were firing."
 
Putting up points for the Mustangs was Hilary Dingman, Veronica Harrigan, Paige Farries, Charlotte Dunn, Lexi Smith, Jessie Strong, and Kaitlyn Eckert. Harrigan and Farries each scored two tries, leading the team in scoring for the afternoon.
 
The Mustangs dominated the field from kickoff, with Dingman recording a try less than five minutes into the game. Her score was all the Mustangs needed to win the game, but the purple and white continued to fight for the remaining 76 minutes.
 
Harrigan would twice find the Warrior's in-goal area before the end of the half, while Farries added a try of her own with a convert from Dunn. Heading into halftime, Western had a 22-0 advantage over Waterloo.  
 
Returning for the second half, Western wasted no time in adding to the scoreboard. Smith punched through Warrior line to add an extra five points to the board and line up an easy convert for Dunn just three minutes in. Farries, Strong, and Eckert would all also record a try in the second half, with Smith stepping in for a successful convert.
 
The Warriors, however, continued to struggle offensively, rarely able to keep play in the purple and white half for any period of time. By the time the final whistle was blown, Waterloo was shut out 48-0.

"We want to build on this performance," said Weller. "Today, everything kind of clicked and we were able to keep going for the whole game. We want to use this as a springboard for next week and see where we go from there."
 
The Mustangs are back in action on Saturday, September 24, when they head to St. Catharines to take on the Brock Badgers.
 
"Anything from here is going up," said Harrigan about her expectations for next week's matchup. "We're really going to bring the same intensity, and just go up from there. We really want to bring it to Brock, and I think we can."

Source: Western Mustangs

Gryphons dominate Badgers

ST. CATHARINES, ON - Saturday afternoon in St. Catharines, the Gryphons women's rugby team won 117-0 over the Brock Badgers. With the win, the Gryphons improve to 2-0 on the season while Brock falls to 0-2.

Brock lost their opening game of the season 70-0 versus York. And things did not get any easier with the No. 2-ranked team in the country coming to town.

A total of 10 different Gryphon players scored tries on the day. In all, Guelph recorded 19 tries. Third year centre Breeann Keogh-Chin had a team-high 4 tries. Alexandra King and Alyssa McDonald each had three. Kendra Blackbourn had 11 converts on the day to go along with a try of her own.

The Gryphons will next be in action on Saturday, September 24 when they host the Laurier Golden Hawks.

Source: Guelph Gryphons