Oct. 21: Brock roundup
A women’s hockey player and a men’s soccer player were named athletes of the week at Brock University for the weekend ending Oct. 20.
Mikalya Flanagan, a first-year forward who is studying nursing, scored two goals against the No. 9-ranked Western Mustangs on the road on Oct. 19. Flanagan scored her first career OUA goal early in the second period to tie the game and then put Brock ahead 2-1 just six minutes later. In their season opener at Windsor, Flanagan also registered an assist.
Smalling, a third-year winger from who is studying sport management, scored three goals in two games to help the Badgers clinch home-field advantage for the upcoming OUA playoffs. Smalling netted two goals during a 4-1 win over the visiting Waterloo Warriors and scored Brock’s lone goal during a 5-1 loss at McMaster.
Men’s hockey
It was a tough weekend for the Brock men’s hockey team.
The UQTR Patriotes scored five goals, three of them on the power play in the first period, to skate away with a 7-4 win over the Badgers in Quebec Saturday.
The Pats led 5-0 after the first period. Centre Tyler Rollo scored at 12:45 of the second during a man advantage to finally put Brock on the board.
Ayden MacDonald, Cole Thiessen and Jordan Sambrook added singles for Brock.
Sambrook also contributed two assists and fellow defenceman Johnny Schaefer tallied two helpers.
Brock outshot UQTR 45-34. The Patriotes went four-for-six on the power play.
Friday at UQTR, the Badgers lost 4-3 in overtime.
The Badgers worked their way back after trailing 2-0 as Jared Marino scored two goals. His second found the back of the net in the dying seconds of the game to send it into overtime.
“Hard-fought game and I was proud of the guys when they came back in the third with two goals to tie the game,” head coach Marty Williamson said. “Unfortunately, overtime didn’t go our way, but a good point.”
Brayden Stortz also netted a goal early in the third period. Justin Brack, Adam Berg, Christian Girhiny, Ayden MacDonald and Christian Dedonato each tallied an assist.
Goalie Mario Cavaliere faced 26 shots in the loss.
Up next, the Badgers (1-3-1-0) return home to host the Laurier Golden Hawks (1-3-2-0) on Thursday at 7:15 p.m.
Women’s soccer
The women’s soccer team secured home-field advantage heading into the first round of the OUA playoffs.
Erica D’Alesio scored the game-winning goal as the Badgers defeated the McMaster Marauders 1-0 in a crucial final regular season game at Ron Joyce Stadium in Hamilton on Sunday afternoon.
Brock needed to defeat McMaster, who was narrowly ahead of them in the standings, in order to clinch home field for the post-season.
The Badgers completed the regular season with a 7-3-4 record for fourth place in the OUA West Division standings and reached the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
Goalkeeper Marilena Spagnolo made five saves for her fourth consecutive and 10th shutout of the season.
McMaster outshot Brock 11-10.
Ivana Kanisek and Adrianna Belfer-Marin each registered three shots. Samantha Bayer fired two shots and Cassandra Belme added a shot.
Saturday at home, Samantha Bayer capitalized on chaos in front of the net to score the game-winning goal and lift the Badgers to 1-0 victory over the Waterloo Warriors at Brock Alumni Field.
Late in the second half, Sydney Sica steered the ball toward the net as the Badgers crashed the crease.
“We penetrated and Ivana Kanisek was in a position where her back was to the goal,” head coach Lucio Ianiero said. “She had no where to go, so she did a spectacular turn and put her foot on it to cause all of this chaos in front of the net.”
Bayer pounced on the ball and fired it into the back of the net for her third goal of the season at the 84th minute.
“When we’re firing on all cylinders we are unstoppable,” Ianiero said. “However, when we don’t perform it really shows. Today was not one of our best games. Nerves came out today, because we told them to play this game like it was a playoff match. We gave a lot of passes away that we don’t normally do. Hopefully this will settle them in.”
Spagnolo made four saves for her third consecutive shutout. Bayer led the attack with four shots and Cassandra Belme contributed three shots.
Kanisek and Melanie Schouten each tallied two shots, while Sica, Erica D’Alesio, Adrianna Belfer-Marin, Emily Cirone and Cassandra Stirpe each chipped in a shot.
Men’s soccer
The men’s soccer team concluded their regular season with a 5-1 loss to the McMaster Marauders in Hamilton Sunday.
The Badgers now look forward to hosting the Western Mustangs, who Brock beat 1-0 on the road earlier this season, in the first round of the OUA playoffs Wednesday, Oct. 23.
Brock winger Jordan Smalling opened the scoring 12 minutes into the match, but McMaster potted three goals for a 3-1 lead at halftime.
Joseph Guindy led the Marauders with two goals.
McMaster outshot Brock 13-4.
Brock completed the regular season with a 6-5-3 record for fourth place in the OUA West Division.
The Badgers Saturday clinched home-field advantage for the first round of the OUA playoffs with a 4-1 win over the visiting Waterloo Warriors.
“Our whole back line did well, because Waterloo is a very crafty team who have two great wingers,” head coach Lucio Ianiero said. “Our fullbacks did well and out centre backs held their own. Teams in the OUA don’t surrender. They just keep coming at you.”
Brock striker Sebastian Agudo opened the scoring at the 18-minute mark before the Warriors’ Luka Frankovich tied it up just before halftime.
In the second, Jared Agyemang netted the eventual game-winning marker for his league-leading 13th goal. Jordan Smalling scored twice in seven minutes to seal the deal for Brock.
“Jared and Jordan slipped behind their defensive line twice to score, which showed great determination by our guys with tired legs,” Ianiero said. “Our guys played in the right paths, and were in the right place.”
Women’s rugby
The women’s rugby team’s season came to an end with a fourth-place finish.
The Badgers lost 41-3 to the McMaster Marauders in the OUA bronze-medal game at Ron Joyce Stadium on Saturday night.
Head coach Mark Smerdon said his student/athletes surpassed his expectations during his first season with the Badgers, who were promoted to the league’s top tier division this year.
“I didn’t know what to expect coming into this season, but we knew it was going to be tough and yet one of the biggest things that struck me was the positive tone surrounding this group,” Smerdon said. “The veterans of the team did a great job of bringing the rookies in this year and made them feel welcome and part of the program.”
Everyone bought into what the coaching staff was trying to accomplish, added Smerdon.
“One thing supports the other. You got that positive tone, you got people buying in and then those leaders really stepping up when things aren’t going perfectly well,” he said.
Brock used their matches against top-ranked opponents Queen’s and Guelph as learning tools and set realistic goals during the regular season.
“I think by achieving those goals kept the team positive whereas other teams would have been totally demoralized without them going into the playoffs,” Smerdon said.
The Badgers had three players named to the OUA all-star team: back three Sara Shaw, centre Niamh Haughey and second row Kiara Stecko.
Men’s rugby
The men’s rugby team is forced to watch from the sidelines to see if they make the OUA playoffs.
Brock’s post-season hopes rest in the hands of the second-place Waterloo Warriors as they host the Laurier Golden Hawks, who are chasing the Badgers in the standings.
If Laurier wins, they’ll bump Brock from a post-season berth.
On Friday, the Badgers completed their regular season after falling 47-14 to the Guelph Gryphons on the road.
The game was tied 14-14 at halftime.
Zach Zorbas and Victory Eichie each scored a try and Steven Commerford added two converts.
“It was a tough loss,” head coach Phil Sullivan said. “They led by seven after about 50 minutes and we played the best rugby we had played in years, but Guelph pulled away in the last quarter of the game.”
The Badgers finished the regular season with a record of 3-3.
Swimming
The Badgers varsity swimming team opened their season with a splash at back-to-back competitions over the weekend.
On Sunday at the Brock Invitational, swimmer Gokhan Bozyigit, a fourth-year physical education student, won gold in the 400-metre freestyle with a time of 4:11, which was 11 seconds faster than the second-place finisher.
Other Brock swimmers placing in the top three include Maggie Smith, Steven Taylor, Daniel Tsaiger, Victoria Cabraja and Anthonie Korstanje.
At the annual OUA Fall Invitational in Guelph on Oct. 19, the Badgers placed third behind the host Gryphons and a strong Laurentian squad.
Smith led women’s team with two medals. The third-year medical sciences student secured a silver in the 50-metre backstroke and bronze in the 50-metre butterfly.
For the men’s team, Taylor, a second-year who also studies medical sciences, snagged silver in the 50-metre backstroke and Tasaiger, a first-year sport management student, earned silver in the 50-metre butterfly.
Up next, a small group of Badgers will compete in Brantford from Nov. 9-10 before the entire squad returns to Guelph to compete at the deBray Divisional Championships in late November.
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