Photo by Marc Lafleur
MONTREAL – The Carleton Ravens women’s rugby team played their first road game of the 2021 season Sunday afternoon at the historic Percival-Molson Stadium in Montreal. The Ravens would get out to an early first-half lead and never look back, rocking the Martlets 75-0.
The matchup, which featured two teams searching for their first win of the season, was a rematch of the 2019 consolation semi-final where the Ravens beat the Martlets 59-5.
The Ravens took almost ten minutes to score their first try when Mariah MacLeod (Halifax, N.S.) marked her first of three on the afternoon. Before the first half had come to a close the Ravens had added two tries Lauryn Walker (Brampton, Ont.) and one each from Vanessa Chiappetta (Rigaud, Que.), Delishia Dixon (Ottawa, Ont.) and Rachel Getz (Tsawwassen, B.C.).
The Ravens continued to press throughout the second half while rotating in a full complement of substitutes. Demonstrating continued speed and great depth through the roster the Ravens added tries from MacLeod, Sierra Devries (Smiths Falls, Ont.) Mckenna Taylor (Stirling, Ont.), Savanah Sketchley (Erin, Ont.) and Katie Cox (Fall River, N.S.).
Cox carried most of the kicking duties for the Ravens converting on 6 of 11 conversion attempts, while the Ravens also added to their point total when Vanessa Chiappetta converted a penalty in the 64th minute to go along with her first-half try.
The win ties the record as the third-largest margin of victory in program history, matching a win by the same score, against the same opponent in 2018.
For the Ravens, the matchup was an opportunity to build off last week’s strong second half.
“At the beginning, we left some points on the board but once the rhythm got going we were able to push some pace and build that momentum,” said coach David Luong adding it was a very good all-around team performance.
Asked to comment on the contributions from across his lineup coach Luong added: “We want everyone to be an attacking threat and having that balanced attack allows for us to develop more threats.”
Looking ahead to a rematch with McGill next week coach Luong feels it’s an opportunity for his team to continue to improve on their form and bring along their younger players. “Those that came to finish the game still pushed the pace and we were still attacking that allowed for some other players like Katie [Cox], Mariah [MacLeod] and Savannah [Sketchley] to score their first tries as Ravens.”
The Ravens welcome McGill to Ravens Field when the two teams are back in action on Saturday, September 25, 2021, at 4:00 p.m.
