Ottawa, ON – In a battle of the top two ranked teams in U SPORTS women's rugby, the No. 1 Ottawa Gee Gee's came out on top, defeating the No. 2 StFX X-Women 39-7 Friday night in exhibition action.
The Gee Gee's jumped out to a 10-0 lead after the first half of play. X-Women head coach Mike Cavanagh thought they team played really well in the opening half. "We controlled most of the play and Ottawa was only in our half twice but they scored both times. We controlled possession and territory but just couldn't punch it in."
"In the second half our defense began to fall apart and we didn't tackle well. The Gee Gee's scored twice quickly and we began to give up."
Ottawa increased their lead in the second half to 31-0. The X-Women finally got on the board with a try from Danielle Cormier (Halifax, NS) that was converted by Danielle Franada (Grand Prairie, AB). The Gee Gee's touched down for one more try before the game was over to close it out at 39-7.
The two squads then played a second game with their second-string squads and the score favored the visiting X-Women this time at 22-15.
Coach Cavanagh was impressed with his team's play, commenting "the rookies played awesome tonight. They moved the ball well, tackled well and spread the ball around. It was a better game to watch and they really impressed me."
The X-Women scoring in the second game was handled by Chloe Cullen (North Vancouver, BC), Katie Pentz (Trenton, NS), Maddie Harroun (Halifax, NS) and Keely MacCuish (Trenton, NS), along with one conversion from Jacqui Salvatore (Scarborough, ON).
StFX will be back in action on Saturday for another exhibition doubleheader against the U SPORTS No. 5 ranked Queen's Gaels. Kick-off is 11:00 am in Ottawa.
-30-
Courtesy StFX Sports Information