Game 2 Pool A CIS women’s rugby championship: Lethbridge blanks tourney hosts in first outing

Photo credit Matt Stetson

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. (CIS) – The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns are off to a solid start at the CIS women’s rugby championship following a 35-0 shutout of the tournament host Trent Excalibur at Justin Chiu Stadium, on Friday morning.

First place in pool A and a spot in the gold-medal final will be on the line Saturday at 10:30 a.m. when the Pronghorns face defending national champion St. Francis Xavier (1-0). StFX routed Trent 76-3 in Thursday’s group A opener.

The Excalibur (0-2) are eliminated from medal contention and will play for fifth place for the second straight year, Sunday at 10 a.m. They finished sixth in 2010.

Canada West rookie of the year and all-Canadian Kayla Moleschi, a fullback from Williams Lake, B.C., was the star of the game for the winners with three ties.

Fellow all-Canadian Kelsey Willoughby of Lethbridge and Sophie Butler of Lakefield, Ont., added a try apiece. Laura Murphy-Burke of Surrey, B.C., converted the Pronghorns’ first three scores, while Sarah Gordon, also of Surrey, converted the last two.

The Canada West champions jumped out to an early 21-0 lead with three converted tries in the first 13 minutes of play, and never looked back.

“We did great to get out to a quick start,” said Lethbridge head coach Neil Langevin. “We played a tough team today, but we did enough to move on and look forward to some great games the rest of the tournament.”

After Moleschi made it 21-0 with her first try of the day on a 50-metre run, the Excalibur dug in their heels and showed toughness and a never-say-die attitude they have become known for. They kept their rivals off the scoreboard for the next 36 minutes, but failed to turn any of their own opportunities into points.

“We saw what we were made of and went toe-to-toe with the Canada West champs,” said Trent assistant coach Craig Harris. “Once we got the butterflies out we were right there against a talented team. We’ll take a lot from it and carry that over to our game on Sunday.”

Following Moleschi’s second try at the 49-minute mark, Trent used smart ball distribution by scrum-half Ashley Burton and tough running by Andi Luke, Kaitlin Newton and Karlie Robinson to get the ball inside the Pronghorn five-metre line, but was not able to punch it in for a try.
Moleschi capped off the scoring in the 65th minute and who was named Lethbridge’s player of the match.

Ashley Burton earned the honour for the Excalibur.

SCORING SUMMARY

LET: 21-14-35
TRE: 0-0-0

First half
LET: Kelsey Willoughby try (Laura Murphy-Burke convert) 5th minute
LET: Sophie Butler try (Laura Murphy-Burke convert) 8th
LET: Kayla Moleschi try (Laura Murphy-Burke convert) 13th

Second half
LET: Kayla Moleschi try (Sarah Gordon convert) 49th
LET: Kayla Moleschi try (Sarah Gordon convert) 65th

Players of the game
LET: Kayla Moleschi
TRE: Ashley Burton

Legend:
Try: 5 points
Penalty goal: 3 points
Convert: 2 points

POOL STANDINGS, SCHEDULE & RESULTS

Pool A

GP W L T PF PA PTS
1. StFX 1 1 0 0 76 3 5
2. Lethbridge 1 1 0 0 35 0 5
3. Trent 2 0 2 0 3 111 0

Pool B

GP W L T PF PA PTS
1. Laval 1 1 0 0 24 10 4
2. Guelph 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3. McMaster 1 0 1 0 10 24 0

NOTE 1: A win is worth 4 points and a tie 2 points.
NOTE 2: 1 bonus point is awarded for scoring 4 tries or more in a game.
NOTE 3: 1 bonus point is awarded for a loss by 7 points or less.

Thursday, Nov. 3
10:30 Round-Robin Pool A: StFX 76 Trent 3
13:30 Round-Robin Pool B: Laval 24 McMaster 10

Friday, Nov. 4
10:30 Round-Robin Pool A: Lethbridge 35 Trent 0
13:30 Round-Robin Pool B: McMaster vs. Guelph (SSN Canada webcast)

Saturday, Nov. 5
10:30 Round-Robin Pool A: StFX vs. Lethbridge (SSN Canada webcast)
13:30 Round-Robin Pool B: Laval vs. Guelph (SSN Canada webcast)

Sunday, Nov. 6
10:00 5th place: Trent vs. third place Pool B (SSN Canada webcast)
12:00 Bronze medal: Second place Pool A vs. second place Pool B (SSN Canada webcast)
14:00 Championship final: First place Pool A vs. first place Pool B (SSN Canada webcast)

-CIS-