X-Women defeat Huskies 64-5

Antigonish, NS - After the team's first AUS loss since 2015 last weekend to UPEI, the StFX X-Women rugby squad came out proving a point with a 64-5 win over the St. Mary's Huskies Saturday afternoon at STFX Stadium.

STFX opened the scoring early on with veteran Hannah Ellis (Halifax, NS) touching down for a try within the first five minutes.

Danielle Franada (Grand Prarie, AB) put the X-Women up 10-0 sevens minute later. After knocking on the door, X broke through again with a try off a nice run from Sarah Hoerig (Whitby, ON). Franada nailed the conversion, bringing the score to 17-0 with 25 minutes gone.

Hoerig had another try with 11 minutes left in the first half, with a Franada conversion, making the score 24-0 but it didn't stay that way for long with Ellis finding the end zone again and Franada booting another conversion to increase the lead to 31-0.

Hoerig made it a hat trick with three minutes left in first half, with Franada again converting. Ellis broke though for a hat trick of her own in injury time, with Franada again converting to bring the score to 45-0 at halftime.

After half, X hit lit up the scoreboard again with Hoerig's fourth try of the afternoon in the 52^nd minute X-Women prop Annie McMullon (Rothesay, NB)  added another try with just under 20 minutes left in the half, with Franada kicking her sixth conversion of the afternoon.  

STFX pressured Saint Mary's throughout the game, with the Huskies not able to break through until 15 minutes were left to play, as Queenel Lumbamba (Edmonton, AB) powering in for a score.

Claudia Fulton (Aylesford NS) rounded out the scoring for X in the last minute with Franada again converting as she finished with 19 points on the day for the X-Women.

With 20 points in the game on her four tries, fifth year centre Sarah Hoerig took home Subway player of the game honours for the X-Women. Lauren Maye was named player of the game for the Huskies.

Hoerig noted that it was good to be back on home turf and after "getting our butts kicked in the first half of last week's game, we really needed to turn it on and I felt we did do that. We worked hard in practice and the energy and intensity was definitely up throughout the week."

"We took that energy and came out and had a good game and we knew we couldn't take them lightly and we were happy to turn our game around this week."

STFX (1-1) will next see action when they host Acadia (2-0) next Saturday, September 25th in a 2:00 p.m. game at STFX Stadium. The Huskies (0-2) will host UPEI (1-0) on the same day and time.

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Courtesy Matt Draper, STFX Sports Information

SCORING SUMMARY
SMU 0-5: 5
StFX 45-19: 64 

First half
STFX – Hannah Ellis try, 5^th minute
STFX – Danielle Franada try, 12^th minute
STFX – Sarah Hoerig try, 24^th minute (Danielle Franada convert)
STFX – Sarah Hoerig try, 29^th minute (Danielle Franada convert)
STFX – Hannah Ellis try, 32^nd minute (Danielle Franada convert)
STFX – Sarah Hoerig try, 37^th minute (Danielle Franada convert)
STFX – Hannah Ellis try, 40^th minute (Danielle Franada convert) 

Second half
STFX – Sarah Hoerig try, 52^nd minute
STFX – Annie McMullon try, 61^st minute (Danielle Franada convert)
SMU – Queenel Lumbamba try, 64^th minute
STFX – Claudia Fulton try, 80^th minute (Danielle Franada convert) 

Players of the Game:
Lauren Maye, Saint Mary's
Sara Hoerig, StFX