Soccer standout corrals Mustangs
Western outshot Brock 17-2 on the pitch in women’s university soccer but thanks to Marilena Spagnolo the Badgers were able to corral the Mustangs on the scoreboard.
The St. Catharines native and Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School graduate stopped every shot she faced as she backstopped Brock to a scoreless draw with the fifth-ranked Mustangs.
Spagnolo’s game-saving save came when she stopped Western’s top striker on a penalty kick.
“A big shout-out to Marilena, she read their striker’s body language really well. It was a great save,” head coach Kevin Trethowan said in praising the play of the third-year goalkeeper.
Brock, now 2-4-3 in league play, hosted Western on Sunday hoping to rebound from a 2-1 the day before to the Windsor Lancers, also at home.
“Two mistakes cost us, but we outplayed them, we outworked them,” said Trethowan, whose team’s offence was provided by Alysha Bonany with an unassisted goal in the 71st minute.
He suggested the Badgers “thoroughly deserved” the point they earned in the tie.
“The stats may show that Western dominated the game, but the girls worked and defensively we were unbelievable today,” Trethowan said.
Sunday’s home game marked the Ontario University Athletics debut of centre back Kodi Wright, a St. Catharines native who played high school soccer at
Saint Francis.
The men’s team tripled Windsor 3-1 and played Western to a scoreless draw to improve to 3-5-1.
Jared Agyemang, Alexander Makubuya and Jordan Smalling scored for Brock and Alexander May played both games in goal for the Badgers.
“In the second half Windsor came out and changed their formation, but it didn’t catch us by surprise,” head coach Lucio Ianiero said. “We were battling with them, but it wasn’t anything to warrant any changes on our end.”
Both Brock teams are on the road this weekend visiting the Guelph Gryphons Saturday and the York Lions Sunday.
Baseball
Pitching carried Brock into the win column in men’s university baseball Sunday in Toronto.
The Badgers blanked the RyerMother son Rams 4-0 and 11-0 to extend their winning streak to six games and improve to 6-2.
In the opener, Alex Nolan pitched a complete game for Brock.
He struck out 13 batters and allowed eight hits.
In the second game, Chase Porter fanned three and limited Ryerson to one hit over three innings in his first start of the season.
“Nolan and Porter are two of our more-experienced pitchers, and they performed like veterans,” pitching coach Fabio Del Rio said.
“No earned runs and only a handful of hits allowed? Nice day at the office.”
Noah Koffman led off the sixth inning of the opening game with a double, Jacob Underwood walked, Josh Wray executed a sacrifice but and Koffman scored on Nathan Laird’s groundout.
Connor Humphrey’s double drove home Underwood and Humphrey scored on Dawson Veeneman’s single.
In the nightcap, Humphrey hit a home run, Ben Tiw went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs and Veeneman doubled twice and drive in two runs.
Though her name didn’t appear anywhere in the boxscore,
Nature deserved a save with a rained-out doubleheader in Sudbury on Saturday giving the Badgers an extra day of rest.
“The guys seemed extra eager to hit the field today after getting washed out on Saturday versus Laurentian,” Del Rio said. “They played with great enthusiasm, which led to two very clean, wellplayed games.”
The Badgers are home for back-to-back doubleheaders. They play the Western Mustangs Saturday and Guelph Gryphons Sunday. First pitches on both days are noon and 3:30 p.m. at George Taylor Field in Merritton.
Softball
Brock tamed the York Lions 15-0 and 15-1 to improve to 9-3 in the Ontario Collegiate Women’s Fastpitch Association’s West
Division,
Rookie Grace Blamauer drive on a total of seven runs.
“Grace Blamauer is having a great all-around year, showing her skills both offensively and defensively while also showing off her speed on the bases,” head coach Mark Hall said.
Madi Clinton paced Brock at the plate with four RBIs in the first game, while Katie Oberle struck out three and surrendered two hits in four innings on the mound.
Emily MacDonald and Chanelle Church drove in three and two runs, respectively, in Game 2. Taylor Punter had three strikeouts, allowed a hit and an unearned run.
Brock hosts the division-leading Western Mustangs, 11-1, in a
doubleheader 2 p.m. Saturday at Lancaster Park in St. Catharines. The Windsor Lancers visit for two games — 11 a.m., 1 p.m. — the following day.
Rugby
Taylour Hurd scored four trys and added a convert to help
Brock blank Waterloo 65-5 to remain undefeated in women’s university rugby.
Katelyn Heyens, with two; Hope Blackmore, Niamh Haughey, Breanna Jeremiah, Taylor Moore and Jenna Rainville also had trys as the Badgers improved to 3-0 with before a large crowd on homecoming weekend. Meagan Hart scored four converts.
“Today was just special. Having such a large group of alumni supporting these ladies was incredible,” head coach Stefanie Pavolich said. “From former teammates to former athletes I have coached, it was truly special.”
The Badgers close out the regular season Saturday in Peterborough against the 2-1 Trent Excalibur.
A 109-0 loss to the Queen’s Gaels Saturday in Kingston was the third in a row for the men’s team and dropped their record to 1-3. A bright spot for the Badgers was the standout play of fly-half Carter Bondy. He did his best to pin Queen’s in poor field position and his kickoffs led to the Badgers recovering the ball several times.
The Brock men play Trent, also 1-3, on the road Saturday.
Field lacrosse
Brock teams combined to go 0-3 in university field lacrosse on the weekend.
While the women lost to the Laurier Golden Hawks, 15-3, and the McMaster Marauders, 5-4, in a doubleheader played Sunday at Waterloo, the men dropped an 8-7 decision at home a day earlier to the Western Mustangs.
Brock fell to 2-1 despite leading the rematch of last year’s national championship by 4-1 at one point in the game.
“Getting off to a strong start was important to us because we had two bad starts to begin the season,” head coach Scott Luey said.
“We wanted to end that trend of slow starts.
“That was definitely one of the positives our coaching staff took from the game.”
Parker Campbell, with three goals; Cree Blakely, Connor
Ham, Tyrus Rehanek and Kurtis Woodland scored for the Badgers.
The men’s team closes out the regular season with road games against the Toronto Varsity
Blues Friday and the Laurentian Voyageurs Saturday.
The Brock women, 1-5, are home Sunday hosting McMaster at 10:15 a.m. and Laurier at 1:45 p.m. at Alumni Field.
Hockey
Jensen Murphy and Julia Pettella combined to make 32 saves backstopping Brock a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees in women’s university exhibition hockey Saturday in St. Catharines.
Annie Berg and Kat Whiteye scored for the Badgers in the Alumni Reunion game Saturday at Seymour-Hannah Sports and Entertainment Centre.
This weekend has the Brock women at Kincardine competing
in a pre-season tournament.
Cross country
Brock was in the running for top finishes when the university cross-country season opened in London, Ont.
Jeremy Mol led the men’s team to a 10th overall finish at the Bill Salter Invitational hosted by Western University with a time of 26:22 in the men’s eight-kilometre race.
Alex Ratcliffe had the fastest time for Brock — 23 minutes, 46 seconds — finishing 43rd overall in the 6K women’s race.
Pauline Sergnese crossed the finish line four seconds later and team captain Erin Lauglin placed 46th overall in a time of 24 minutes.