Gaels top Varsity Blues for first win

Gaels top Varsity Blues for first win

By Communications Staff

September 26, 2016

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[Gaels Football]
The Queen's Gaels celebrate after Eric Dodwell scored the first touchdown for the team at the revitalized Richardson Stadium. (Photo by Jason Scourse)

The following is a roundup of the Queen’s Gaels results from this past weekend:

FOOTBALL

The Queen’s Gaels football team (1-3) earned their first win of the season on Think Pink Saturday in the revitalized Richardson stadium, beating long-time rivals Toronto (1-4) 20-5.

In a battle of brothers, with Nate Hobbs starting at quarterback for Queen's and Marcus Hobbs doing the same for Toronto, the tricolour pivot had a better day on the field.

After going down 5-0 in the first quarter, Queen's scored 20 unanswered points to claim their first victory in the new Richardson Stadium. The Gaels conceded a safety and Toronto kicker Ethan Shafer converted from 39 yards out to give the Varsity Blues the lead heading into the second quarter.

In the second frame, Queen's engineered a 76-yard drive, which culminated in the first Oil Thigh ringing around the new stadium. Nate Hobbs completed two passes each to Chris Osei-Kusi and Rudy Uhl before Eric Dodwell scored from short. Kicker Nick Liberatore added a 34-yard field goal before the half for a 10-5 Gaels lead.

Nate Hobbs helped stretch the lead with a six-yard pass to Peter Hannon in the fourth quarter and Liberatore added another field goal to make it 20-5. 

WOMEN'S SOCCER

The Queen's Gaels women’s soccer team (6-2-0) recorded a pair of wins on the weekend with a 4-0 victory over the Toronto Varsity Blues (3-4-2) on Sunday and 2-0 win over the Ryerson Rams on Saturday (2-5-1).

Brittany Almeida scored twice while Laura Callender and Jenny Wolever, also found the back of the net against Toronto. Majita Skoko and Tara Bartram scored against Ryerson. Madison Tyrell earned a pair of shutouts.

MEN'S SOCCER

It was a tough weekend for the Queen’s Gaels men’s soccer team (4-3-1) as they tumbled to a pair of 4-0 losses at the hands of the Toronto Varsity Blues (6-1-2) on Sunday and the No.3 Ryerson Rams (7-0) a day earlier.

Saturday was "Think Pink" day in support of breast cancer awareness. Breast cancer affects millions of people and together we can make a future without breast cancer possible. Fans are encouraged to help varsity athletes and men's rugby reach their fundraising goals by donating online to the Varsity Athlete CIBC Run For The Cure page or the Men's rugby page

MEN'S RUGBY

On a day when they celebrated the latest inductees to the hall of fame, the Queen's Gaels men's rugby team (3-1) did not disappoint as they took care of the visiting McMaster Marauders (3-1) 27-11 on Saturday afternoon at Nixon Field.

In front of yet another great crowd at Nixon Field with many alumni back to support the Gaels, it was the Marauders who silenced the home team with a quick try to go ahead 5-0. The Gaels were able to respond as Michael Douros put down a try finishing off a five-yard run. After Dylan Young hit the conversion Queen's was ahead 7-5 at just 11 minutes in. Each team added a pair of penalty goals to make the score 13-11 at the half with Queen’s ahead.

In the second half, the Gaels started off with a big try from Brendan Blaikie to make it 20-11 after a successful conversion. Kainoa Lloyd added an insurance marker that saw another successful conversion and Queen's took the victory 27-11. 

The Gaels honoured their newest hall of fame members as builders Luke Follwell and Pete Huigenbos, and three players, Alistair Clark, Steve Orchard, and Ryan Kruyne, were celebrated with a special ceremony.

WOMEN'S RUGBY

The No. 4 Queen's Gaels (2-1) were defeated by the No. 1 McMaster Marauders (3-0) on Friday night 32-0 in a rematch of the 2015 CIS Championship gold medal game.

In the first half the Marauders held just a slim 7-0 lead against the Gaels, with Queen's holding strong and pressing the Marauders try line. The tricolour are the last team to have defeated McMaster, beating them in their home opener last season at Nixon Field.

Despite holding McMaster to just seven points in the opening frame, McMaster pushed through with 25 straight in the second half, showing why they are the defending national champions and No. 1 ranked team in the nation.

CROSS COUNTRY

The Queen's men's and women's cross country seasons started this weekend at the Western Invitational in London hosted by the Mustangs.

The Gaels men's team had a sixth overall finish led by Robert Kanko who was 15th in his score placement and 20th overall while the women, who ran with four entries and thus did not have a team score, were led by Brianna Bradley who finished 21st overall. Joining Kanko on the men's side in the top three for Queen's were Joey Stel, who came through the finish in 20th and 25th overall, followed shortly after by Millar Coveney who was 27th and 32nd overall.

The Gaels will next take their talents south of the border as they travel to Bethlehem, Pa., for the annual Paul Short Run.