It was a busy weekend for the Wolves with all four outdoor teams in action. Let's dive in and see how each team fared during week 2 of OCAA competition.
Women's Soccer (3-0-0)
It was a successful home opening weekend at the Algonquin Sports Field for our women's soccer team who gained 6 points on the OCAA standings after taking down the Fleming Phoenix and the Durham Lords on Saturday and Sunday.
The Wolves came away with a 5-0 win on Saturday against Fleming, but the game was closer than the scoreboard indicated. Algonquin got the lead early when Week 1 OCAA Star of the Week and Wolves Den Athlete of the Week Jordan Blades-McHenry scored off of a pass from Samantha Jones. The score would remain 1-0 until the 70th minute. At that point Brighton, Ontario native Olivia Lambert exploded for 4 goals in a row to put the game away for the Wolves. Demetra Georgiou, Samantha Jones, Olivia Bradley and Sarah Garrett assisted on the goals. The Wolves moved to 2-0-0 on the season and put on a show for the home crowd.
Algonquin then turned their attention to the Durham Lords who came into the game hot after beating St Lawrence 6-0 the night before in Kingston.
It was a back and forth first half. Algonquin took a 1-0 lead off a free kick from Samantha Jones that found the back of the net in the 4th minute. Durham answered back quickly after scoring in the 8th minute. In the 18th minute Alexandre Aubin found Sarah Garrett who restored the Wolves lead. Durham would reply in the 42nd minute and the teams went into the locker room tied 2-2. In the 65th minute Samantha Jones took a corner kick and Cassandra Vanderlaan got a head on it to score the go ahead goal. Wolves fans were excited to see the 4th year centre back get on the scoresheet after she sat out the 2023 season with a knee injury. Olivia Bradley scored the insurance goal in the 75th minute off another Jones corner and the Wolves came away with a 4-2 victory.
The team now sits in 2nd in the OCAA East standings. They will take on the Loyalist Lancers on Wednesday night at 6:00 pm in Belleville. You can catch the action on OCAA.LIVE.
Men's Soccer (3-0-0)
After a big road win in week 1, the Wolves were excited to play in front of their home crowd for the first time in 2024. Just like the women, it was a successful 2 games as they earned 6 points and moved up to 1st place in the OCAA East standings.
Algonquin scored early and often on Saturday against the Fleming Phoenix. The team finished the game with a convincing 15-0 victory. Star of the game for the Wolves was #17 Jaeden Mercure who scored 5 goals and added 1 assist. The Wolves striker played his first game in an Algonquin uniform and did not disappoint. Other goal scorers were #5 Hamza El-Karafi, #7 Gershom Dupuy, #13 Jacob Toste-Gyurik (2), #14 Cayden McMullin, #20 Arebi Halab (3) and #25 Tristan Serra (2).
On Sunday, the Wolves would get a much tougher test when they Welcomed the 2-0-1 Durham Lords to the Algonquin Sports Field. The Lords were coming off a 3-2 win in Kingston against St Lawrence.
#22 Connor David got the scoring started for Algonquin with his first of the season in the 11th minute off an assist from Gershom Dupuy. 12 minutes later Jaeden Mercure continued his start scoring his 6th of the season off a pass from Connor David. The Wolves went into the locker room with a 2-0 lead. The scoring continued early in the 2nd half when Kerim Tosun scored in the 46th minute off a corner kick from Cristian Aviles-Molina. In the 57th minute Claude Byilingiro got in on the action scoring the Wolves 4th goal off another assist from Aviles-Molina. Hamza El-karafi finished things off, scoring his 2nd of the weekend in the 74th minute assisted by Gershom Dupuy. The Wolves would concede a goal in the 88th minute, but it wouldn't matter as they came away with a 5-1 victory.
Next up for the Wolves is a trip to Cambrian College to take on the 1-2-1 Cambrian Golden Shield on Saturday September 21st at 2:30 pm. You can catch the action on OCAA.LIVE.
Women's Rugby Sevens (1-2-0)
Our women's Rugby 7s team played their first tournament of the year in Belleville Ontario with games against the Loyalist Lancers, St Lawrence Surge and Fleming Phoenix.
In game 1 the Wolves came away with a 17-7 win against the host Lancers. Tries were scored by Morgan Payne, Mackenzie Cosh and Princess Ikeson.
The team had a tougher time in game 2 dropping a 19-5 decision at the hands of the Surge. Faiza Faucher-Ahmed scored the lone Wolves try in this one.
In their final game of the day, Algonquin dropped a close one losing 12-10 to Fleming. Faiza Faucher-Ahmed scored her 2nd try of the day and Sydney Seymour had the 2nd Wolves try.
The team will be back in action next weekend in Kingston when they will take on Durham, Humber, Conestoga and Seneca.
Men's Rugby (0-1-0)
The Wolves men's Rugby team hosted the Humber Hawks at Twin-Elm Rugby Park for the first game of the regular season.
The young Algonquin squad fought hard but came up on the losing end against an experienced Hawks squad who should be a force in the OCAA this season.
The team will be back in action next weekend on the road when they take on the Conestoga Condors.
Make sure you stay tuned to AlgonquinWolves.com to follow our teams this season!