Badgers dominate
Brock improves to 2-0 in women’s rugby; baseball Badgers sweep Toronto in twin bill to open year
The Brock Badgers women’s rugby team improved to 2-0 routing Trent Excalibur 97-7 Saturday afternoon in front of a hometown crowd.
Brock opened up the scoring with four tries in the opening five minutes and held onto a 55-0 lead at the half.
The Badgers offence continued to roll in the second half as they went up 90-0 before the visitors from Peterborough spoiled the shutout with a try of their own late in the contest.
Brock closed out the game with their 14th try of the afternoon for their largest victory in the program’s history.
In two games this season, the Badgers have already outscored their opponents 179-7.
Leading the Brock offence were kicker Meagan Hart, 12 converts, one penalty goal for 27 points. Taylour Hurd, Sara Shaw and Katelyn Heyens all contributed with three tries each.
Lauren Wilks, Jessi Zandbelt, Kaylah Moehling, Autumn Gervais and Victoria Liebig all chipped in with one try each.
Top athletes take a bow
Brock University’s top athletes for the week ending Sunday are men’s lacrosse player Brandon Slade and women’s rugby player Meagan Hart.
Slade, a fifth-year kinesiology major from Orangeville, helped lead Badgers to road victories over the Laurier Golden Hawks, 21-5; and Laurentian Voyageurs, 28-8. He scored 16 goals and 10 assists in the two games, with a seven-point performance against Laurentian pushing his career point total at Brock to 250.
On Monday, Slade signed at contract with the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League.
Hart, a fourth-year therapeutic recreation major from Brantford, led the Brock women’s rugby team to a 97-7 victory over the Trent Excalibur Saturday at home.
She finished with a career-best 12 converts and one penalty goal for 27 points. Hart’s 12 converts ties the Brock single game record, and she currently leads the province in scoring with 33 points in two games.
Play ball!
The Brock Badgers opened the university baseball season by taking both ends of a doubleheader from the Toronto Varsity Blues at George Taylor Field in Merritton.
Brock trailed 4-2 after two innings in the opening hame, but over the next five innings plated nine rounds from an 11-5 victory.
At the plate, the Badgers were led by Matthew Legg, 2-for-3, RBI; Dawson Veeneman, 2-for-4; and Noah Koffman, 2-for-5, RBI.
After being walked three straight times, Justin Gideon got a pitch over the plate and belted his first home run of the season with a tworun blast.
Nick Spillman, Blake Stepien, Jaiden Hill and Matthew Casburn all added one hit each.
Starter Alex Nolan went three complete innings allowing four runs, two of them earned, while striking out five and walking two.
Southpaw Andrew Raponi held the Blues scoreless and hitless for three innings to earn the victory. He walked four and struck out three.
In Game Two, the Badgers trailed 7-2 and rallied back to take an 8-7 lead. In the top of the sixth, Toronto tied the game 8-8 and in the bottom of the seventh, with a runner on second, Koffman recorded a walkoff single for the game winner.
Leading the Badgers offence were Koffman, 2-for-4, 2 RBI; Hill, 2-for2, 2 RBI; Gideon. 2-for-3, RBI.
Newcomer Matt Pigat drove in two runs while Stepien, Tyler Nakamura and Legg all chipped in with one hit each.
Starting pitcher Chase Porter threw four innings allowing four runs on three hits while striking out seven and walking two. Bryson Maclean recorded the victory throwing a shutout inning in the seventh.
Road warriors
The Brock University men’s field lacrosse team dominated the Laurentian Voyageurs 28-8 Sunday afternoon in Sudbury.
In three games this season, the Badgers have scored 66 goals averaging 22 goal per game. With the new additions up front and Matt Attwood as the offensive co-ordinator this team is built to score.
Laurentian held a 3-2 lead seven minutes into the opening period, before the Badgers answered with 13 straight to take a 15-3 lead with 14 minutes remaining in the second period.
Brandon Slade, with two goals and five assists; paced Brock in points.
Connor Brown and Kurtis Woodland, with five goals apiece; Connor Ham, Grayson Houghton, Josh Kelly, two each; Tyrus Rehanek, Alec Tamas, Cree Blakely, Davis Neal, Mackenzie, Josh Harris, Alex Pace, Saul van der Zalm, Jake Nyhuus and Latrell Harris rounded out the scoring for the Badgers.
Brock opened the regular season Friday night in Waterloo, giving Tim Luey a victory in his debut as Badgers head coach with a 21-5 win over the Laurier Golden Hawks.
Slade, with four goals; van der Zalm, three; Ham, Neal, two apiece; Alex Pace, Parker Baile, Houghton and Woodland found the back of the net for Brock.
Season opens 1-1
The Brock Badgers rebounded from a 12-7 loss to the Western Mustangs by defeating the Guelph Gryphons 14-8 to open the university women’s field lacrosse season.
The Badgers were able to even the game up at half against the Mustangs 4-4. Western outscored Brock 8-3 in the second half on route to the 12-7 road victory.
Eryn Brown led Brock in scoring with three goals and one assist. Victoria Halliday scored two goals with Brittany Schwende and Lindsey Highfield finishing the game off with one goal each.
In their afternoon matchup, the Badgers came out strong against Guelph.
Brock was able to bury six goals before half time as they held onto a two-goal lead 6-4. Emma Mete led the scoring with four goals and one assist, followed by Jill Webster who buried three goals.
Halliday supported the team with two goals and one assist. Hannah-Brie Scott, Kendra Byers, Brown, Schwende, and Highfield added in one goal each. Assists from Ally Brown and Mikayla Vaz.
Season kicks off on road
The Brock Badgers soccer teams split on the road Friday night against the Guelph Gryphons.
The Brock women opened the night with their first victory of the season as they defeated Guelph by the score of 1-0. The Brock men suffered their first loss of the 2017 season dropping a tough 1-0 decision under the lights.
Scoring the lone goal for the Brock women was Cassandra Stirpe who beat Guelph goalkeeper 10 minutes into the opening half.
The Badgers defence was stellar for the entire 90 minutes allowing just one shot on goal which was stopped by starting goalkeeper Marilena Spagnolo who registered her first shutout of 2017. The women are now 1-1-2 on the season.
The Brock men fall to 2-1-1 on the season.
20-year drought ends
Brock University opened its first season in women’s tennis in 20 years with a 7-0 sweep of the McMaster Marauders Saturday in Hamilton.
The day started off with doubles play, where first-seed doubles pair Liana Biktimirova and Kalyna McIntosh came back from 3-0 to take the win 8-4.
Brock’s second and third doubles pairs walked away with default wins, giving the Badgers the doubles point.
The Badgers were just as impressive in singles play, taking all six matches to secure a 7-0 win. The top three seeds of Biktimirova, Nicole Jordan and Claire Alexander all managed to pull out impressive wins.
McMaster was forced to default seeds four through six.
The women’s team will travel to Waterloo this Sunday, looking to extend their record to 2-0 on the season.