SHERIDAN 24, CONESTOGA 5

CAMBRIDGE, Ont. - After a quick start - scoring a try in the third minute - it looked as though the Sheridan Bruins women's rugby team (2-3 OCAA) might be able to run away from Conestoga.

While that didn't quite happen, they were still in control for nearly the full 80 minutes and emerged with a 24-5 triumph, for their second straight win.

"I thought we played probably our best game of the year," co-head coach Matt Piemontese said. "We made one simple mistake the whole game and that was not getting down to the breakdown, right away. That's the only weakness we had today. In all areas of the game we've improved - tackling, rucking [and] offensively, so we're getting there."

The Lady Bruins advanced the ball deep into Conestoga territory in the opening minute but were prevented from scoring the try by a held ball.

Sheridan won the ensuing scrum five metres from goal and after a Conestoga penalty, Shannon Paterson was able to give the visitors a 5-0 lead.

Conestoga was able to gain a lot of ground in Sheridan territory after their kickoff and even crossed over the goal line, but another held ball set up a scrum from five-metres.

The Lady Bruins won it again and took full advantage of the turnover, reversing field position and - with the help of another infraction from the home side - advancing into Conestoga territory where Terri-Lynn Burns touched it down under the posts.

Paterson converted from there - her first of three conversions on the day - to put the visitors up 12-0 and the scoreline would remain that way at the half.

Just before the hour mark the Double-Blue won another scrum in the shadow of the Conestoga goal posts as Sarah Llew-Williams passed to Ashley Hill who broke free from two tackles to score the touchdown.

Sheridan would score a fourth try when Angela Zdrilich broke free from a pack of defenders and dashed towards the goal line, untouched over the final 30 yards.

Conestoga was able to score a late unconverted try to provide the game's final scoring.

The club now has two weeks to prepare for their final home game against Humber and Piemontese says that they will use that extra time to continue to do work on the practice field.

"We'll just go back to the basics again," he said. "We've done a lot of this, but for the next set of practices we're just going to work on what happens at the tackle. Conestoga did that really well today and we need to mirror that. We want to make those practices really fulfilling and getting all the girls there and committed."

Source: Sheridan I.T.