(FREDERICTON, NB) On a special night, in front of a large College Field crowd, the UNB REDS defeated the St. Thomas Tommies 49-5 in the inaugural Mary Cronin Memorial Game, played in honour of the REDS’ veteran who passed away earlier this year.
“It was a slow start at first, but we were able to get ourselves together and started working as a team to get some points on the board,” said REDS center Madison Matchett. “We were focused on who we were playing for today, and I think that really helped bring us together as a team and help get the win.”
Matchett was named player of the game for UNB after her solid performance, making big tackles and setting up her teammates for a number of scores.
Ellie Cross got the scoring started for the REDS, netting a try off a successful lineout deep in STU territory.
The REDS would go on to score 17 unanswered points, led by two tries from Megan Stewart and another from captain Katherine Maxwell to increase their lead to 22-0.
With just under five minutes left in the first half, STU finally cracked the staunch UNB defense off a great run by Sarah Hetherington to close the gap to 22-5 at halftime.
UNB’s offence continued firing on all cylinders in the second half.
Alicia Simmie burst through a gap in the STU lines to open the second half scoring and increase the REDS lead to 29-5
“We wanted to come out of the half focused on our game rather than who we were playing against, slow the game down and do what we do best,” said Matchett.
UNB would add four more tries on route to the 49-5 victory.
Stewart would add a third try with singles coming from Ella Myers, Kirsten Dunn, and Alex Morrell.
As a part of the evening's events, the REDS raised over $3700 for UNB’s Mary Cronin Women in Engineering Bursary.
“This game brought back some emotions for me, as this is still pretty new for a lot of us,” said Matchett. “Especially with having a few of Mary’s cousins on the team, we wanted to show up and play hard to bring home a win for Mary and her family.”
The REDS now move to 4-and-0 on the season and sit atop the ACAA standings heading into the Thanksgiving break.
UNB will host the Holland College Hurricanes on Sunday, Oct. 16 at 2:00pm, at College Field.
RECAP BY: Evan Richtsfeld/UNB Athletics
PHOTOS BY: Lauren Tidd/for UNB Athletics