By Noel Arnason
The Holland Hurricanes had a busy weekend across the AFL, ACAA and ACBA, highlighted by a second straight football win, three baseball victories and a strong weekend from the women’s soccer team.
The football team won its second straight game Saturday, defeating the UNB Reds 29-10 and putting itself in position to clinch a home playoff game for the first time since 2017. With a win against either Dalhousie or Saint John over the next two weeks, the Hurricanes would clinch a home playoff game for the first time since 2017.
The Hurricanes got on the board first against the Reds, with a strong defensive stand that forced UNB to take a safety in its own end zone. The offence found the end zone with five minutes left in the first quarter as Troy McLaren threw a touchdown pass to Mikey Henneberry.
On the following drive, Holland had a quick two-and-out and was forced to take a safety itself, making the game 9-2. The Hurricanes’ defence kept UNB’s offence off the field before McLaren threw a 43-yard pass to Makhi Magloir to set up first and goal. Pierce Saunders punched it into the end zone with a run up the middle to make it 16-2. Another safety and a 27-yard field goal by John MacGillevray closed out the first half with Holland leading 21-2.
Greg Sutton had a giant 37-yard touchdown run for the Hurricanes to make it 28-2. The Reds responded late in the third quarter with a passing touchdown and successful two-point convert to shorten the score to 28-10. MacGillevray punted through the end zone for a rouge, giving the Hurricanes a 29-10 victory.
The women’s soccer team went 1-0-1 this weekend, tying UKC and beating MSVU. The tie and win bumped them up a spot in the standings, to fourth place in the ACAA and two points behind UKC for third place.
Saturday, Oct. 3 — 2-2 T vs. UKC Blue Devils
Neither team got on the scoresheet until the 40th minute, when Georgia Doucette made it 1-0 for the Hurricanes off a Karissa George pass.
The Blue Devils got to work in the second half, tying the game 1-1 in the 51st minute. From there, Holland and UKC went back and forth until Yuki Komined made it 2-1 with a goal assisted by Evelyn Guignion MacFarlane in the 85th minute. The Blue Devils responded a minute later to tie the game 2-2 for the final score.
Tasha Kowalchuk made four saves on six shots, while the Hurricanes had 11 shots on goal, with George leading them with five and Kristyn Taylor with three.
Sunday, Oct. 4 — 3-1 W vs. MSVU Mystics
The Hurricanes have proved to be a second-half team this season, as they let MSVU take a 1-0 lead in the 33rd minute. But they came out of the half firing on all cylinders, with their core offensive players leading the way.
In the 48th minute, George tied the game for the Hurricanes before Kristyn Taylor scored to make it 2-1 11 minutes later. Six minutes after that, Liv MacDougall put the Hurricanes up 3-1 for the final score.
The Hurricanes had 23 shots total, with 12 of those on net. Taylor had five of those, with MacDougall also getting three. Kowalchuk had six saves on seven shots.
The men’s soccer team went 1-1 this weekend against the UKC Blue Devils and MSVU Mystics, remaining in second place in the ACAA. They are tied with the first-place UNBSJ Seawolves with 15 points, but Holland has played two more games. The third-place STU Tommies trail them by one point and also have two fewer games played. The next few weekends could prove crucial in the ACAA standings.
Saturday, Oct. 3 — 2-0 L vs. UKC Blue Devils
The Hurricanes found themselves in a tight defensive battle for the first half of Saturday’s game against the Blue Devils. In the 64th minute, Nikalaus Neitz tripped a UKC forward and received a red card. Playing down a man, the Blue Devils capitalized a minute later to make it 1-0 before adding another goal shortly afterward for a final score of 2-0.
Sunday, Oct. 4 — 1-0 W vs. MSVU Mystics
On Sunday, the Hurricanes bounced back into the win column against the MSVU Mystics.
Another defensive battle for most of the game, the only goal came in the ninth minute when Colby Munro shot from the top of the box across the net.
Rookie goalkeeper Parker Munro stepped between the posts on Sunday and delivered a shutout to help the Hurricanes secure a 1-0 victory over MSVU.
The baseball team picked up its first wins of the season this past weekend, going 3-1 against the UNB Reds and St. Francis Xavier X-Men. Those three wins give them lots of momentum heading into the ACBA playoffs, which the Hurricanes host in three weeks.
On Saturday, the Hurricanes lost their first game of the doubleheader to the Reds 9-4 despite out-hitting them. Matt Peacock, Wil White, Cayle Coffin and Drew Watts each had two hits. The ’Canes had 11 hits total for the game. Seth Bulger, Watts, Coffin and Peacock had the four runs scored.
The second game on Saturday saw Holland beat UNB 10-9, highlighted by Seth Hansen’s 450-foot home run in the ninth inning. He also had three hits, including a single in the third inning. The Hurricanes collected 16 hits in total, with Nolan Hill, Wil White, Dylan Drummond, Peacock, Coffin and Watts all recording multiple hits.
At the top of the seventh inning, the ’Canes took the lead after Gabe Waugh walked, Hansen singled and Hill hit a sacrifice fly. Jack Pepeljuhovski got the win for the Hurricanes, allowing three hits and three runs over three and two-thirds innings, striking out five and walking four.
On Sunday, the Hurricanes returned to P.E.I. for a doubleheader against the X-Men. The first game saw Holland beat STFX 6-4, with Jake MacEwen, Jaxon Arsenault and Pepeljuhovski combining for seven of the team’s 11 hits. The ’Canes’ offence came out hot, scoring five runs on six hits to take a 5-2 lead. An X-Men error caused two of those runs.
Hansen earned the win for the Hurricanes, allowing six hits and four runs over five innings, striking out eight and walking four.
In the second game, Holland snuck out a 9-8 win against STFX. The ’Canes were down 8-7 in the bottom of the seventh inning when Peacock homered to right field, scoring two runs. Holland collected 12 hits in the game. Pepeljuhovski surrendered three hits and two runs over two innings, striking out four and walking none.
The women’s rugby team played its first home games of the season Saturday, dropping all four games against the Dalhousie Rams and UNBSJ Seawolves.
The Seawolves won the first game 22-7, followed by a 32-5 victory for the Rams. The Seawolves shut out the Hurricanes 27-0 in the third game, before Dalhousie won the final game 22-5.
The men’s and women’s cross-country teams had their second meet of the season this past Saturday at Crandall University in Moncton.
Emilie Doucette finished second in the women’s race for the Hurricanes with a time of 25:46.6, just 30 seconds off first place. Grace Higdon and Bianca Barnett finished 18th and 19th, respectively, with times of 30:31.3 and 30:41.1.
In the men’s race, Benjamin Perrin finished ninth overall with a time of 33:06.7, finishing 4:14.4 behind the winner. Brayden Linthorne finished 20th for the Hurricanes with a time of 36:05.7, and Miles MacPherson came in 24th with a time of 37:56.1.
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