Gold quest begins

St. Kitts native Randy Mearns brought back as coach of national men’s field lacrosse team

The St. Catharines native who led Canada to the gold medal at the 2014 men’s field lacrosse world championships will once again be coaching the national team at next year’s world championships in Israel.

“I am thrilled and humbled to have once again been selected as the head coach of the Canadian senior men’s national field team,” Randy Mearns said. “I would like to thank the Canadian Lacrosse Association and the national team executive for this incredible honour.”

Mearns, who earlier this summer was hired as the first-ever head coach at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, N.Y., has been involved with the Canadian national team program for the past 30 years.

His experience was something that couldn’t be overlooked.

“We are excited to have Randy return as Canada’s head coach,” Dean French, chairman of the national team program, said. “His leadership at the world championships in 2014 was one of the reasons Canada brought home the gold medal.”

Before starting a 19-year run as head coach at Canisius College in Buffalo, Mearns was a player on the silver-medal-winning team at the inaugural under-19 world championships in 1988 in Adelaide, Australia.

He captured another silver medal for Canada 10 years later at the senior championships in Baltimore.

Brock edges champs

Brock edged the defending Canadian men’s champion Western Mustangs 12-11 in to take over sole possession of first place in the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association.

The Badgers, who improved to 6-0, jumped out to a three-goal lead and were up 8-3 heading into the final half of Sunday afternoon’s game at Alumni Field.

Brock was up 10-6 after three quarters and held on for the onegoal victory after the Mustangs netted five goals in the final quarter.

Kurtis Woodland, with four goals; Connor Brown, Brandon Slade, three each; Davis Neal and Tyrus Rehanek accounted for the Brock scoring.

The Badgers defeated the McMaster Marauders 22-2 Friday night in Hamilton thanks to goals from Grayson Houghton, seven; Slade, four; Jake Nyhuus, three; Nicholas Rybka, Saul van der Zalm, Kurtis Woodland, two; Alex Pace, Neal.

Winning weekend

London, Ont., doubled as the winners circle for Brock on the weekend in university women’s field lacrosse.

After defeating the McMaster Marauders 9-4 in a neutral-site game Saturday, the Badgers topped the Laurier Golden Hawks 12-5 the following afternoon, also at Western.

Tessa Czerlau, Victoria Halliday, Shania Porter, with two each; Eryn Brown, Emma Mete and Gillian Webster scored for Brock in Saturday’s game.

Brown, Halliday, with three apiece; Lindsay Highfield, two; Kendra Byers, Olivia Langdon, Brittany Schwende and Mete found the back of the Laurier net.

Badgers earn split

Brock rebounded from a 4-0 loss with a 10-4 victory to split its season series with the Western Mustangs in university baseball.

The Badgers collected just six hits off Western starter Dustin Godden in Game 1 of Sunday’s doubleheader in London, Ont.

Badgers starter Derek Zwolinski allowed three runs, one earned; on five hits while striking out two. Jake Near closed out the game allowing one run on one hit over one inning of work.

Matthew Legg went 2-for-4 for Brock with Justin Gideon, Ryan Bench, Jaiden Hill, Tyler Nakamura all collecting one hit each.

In the second game, Gideon paced the Badgers at the plate 2-for-5 with a double, home run and three RBIs.

Noah Koffman continued to swing a hot bat going 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Jaiden Hill also collected two hits with singles going to Legg, Josh Wray, Nakamura, Matthew Casburn and Michael Enns-Ward.

Jacob Ebbs went 5 1/3 innings allowing four runs on five hits while striking out one. Nick Subramaniam finished with 1 2/3 innings of shutout ball with three strikeouts.

On Saturday at George Taylor Field, Brock swept the visiting Laurier Golden Hawks with 9-3 and 3-2 victories.

More than 30 former players and coaches were in attendance as Brock baseball celebrated its annual Alumni Day.

Brock starter Alex Nolan threw five innings allowing two runs on eight hits while striking out seven for the victory in Game 1. Southpaw reliever Andrew Raponi pitched the remainding four innings allowing one run on five hits with one strikeout.

In Game 2, Chase Porter threw 6 1/3 innings allowing two runs on three hits while striking out eight. Lefty Ryan Bench got the Badgers out of a jam in the seventh and Jake Near closed the door in the eighth retiring the Golden Hawks in order for the save.

Badgers corral Mustangs

Liam Wilson, Alex Mukubya and Jordan Smalling scored unanswered goals to give Brock a 3-1 victory over the visiting Western Mustangs.

The Badgers improved to 3-5-1 with Saturday’s come-from-behind win, while the 10th-ranked Mustangs fell to 5-2-2 in league play.

Goalkeeping clinic

Marilena Spagnolo recorded her third shutout of the women’s university soccer season Sunday in Windsor backtopping the Brock Badgers to a scoreless draw verus the Lancers.

With the point, the Badgers improved their record to 2-4-3 moving ahead of 1-3-5 McMaster Marauders in the race for the sixth playoff spot in the OUA West Division.

Fourth-place Windsor improved to 3-2-6 on the year.

The Lancers outshot the Badgers 5-3.

It was the second game in as many days for the Brock women, who dropped a 1-0 decision at home Saturday to the Western Mustangs.

Spagnolo was a standout for the Badgers in the loss stopping seven shots, including a diving save on a free kick 58 minutes into the match.

Runners open season

Brock runners beat the heat, and more than a few competitors, when they opened the cross country season at Bill Salter Western International on the weekend in London, Ont.

Conditions of the day were tough, the temperature was 26 C at the start of the women’s six-kilometre race and rose to 28 C by the start of the men’s eight-km race.

The Brock men’s team, comprised mostly of rookies, finished ninth overall with Jelmer van den Hadelkamp the first Badger to cross the finish line in a time of 26.36, fast enough for 31st overall.

He was followed by teammates Aric Emery; 28.21, 56th; Jeremy Mol, 28.22 57th; Salvatore Fiume, 28.4, 59th; Lucas Salazer-Reid, 28.41, 60th; Branden Gallagher, 29.26, 64th; and Daniel O’Rourke, 29.33, 68th.

Brock placed 11th among women’s teams. Second-year runner Paulina Sergnese, with a time of 24.13, 36th overall; was the first to finish for the Badgers, followed by Joanna Francolini, 24.33, 42nd; Cassandra Hinz, 25.28, 62nd; Annelise Martin, 25.42, 66th; and Erin Laughlin, 25:49, 68th.