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A quick roundup of ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Gaels teams and athletes in action over the weekend:

The ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Gaels football team (3-3) fell to the No. 1 Western Mustangs (5-0) in a heartbreaking 26-23 loss on Saturday afternoon at Richardson Stadium.

After the Gaels opened the scoring on an early rouge, the Mustangs drove down the field for 75 yards on eight plays for a 7-1 lead.

The Gaels chipped into the deficit to start the second quarter with a field goal by Nick Liberatore.

After a Western rouge, the Gaels scored their first touchdown as quarterback Nate Hobbs capped off a 93-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run. A Western field goal sent the teams into the half tied 11-11.

The Gaels grabbed the momentum after the break as Hobbs ran in his second touchdown for an 18-11 lead. The Gaels then forced them safety before a Liberatore field goal in the fourth made it 23-12. 

But the Mustangs weren’t done.

A 20-yard touchdown run made it 23-18 and, after stopping the Gaels defensively, the Mustangs took the following possession down the field for the go-ahead score.

Before the game, ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ welcomed members of the 1963 Yates Cup, 1968 Vanier Cup, 1978 Vanier Cup and 1983 Dunsmore Cup championship teams on to the field for a pre-game ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Football Alumni Celebration.

The game also was the conclusion to the Blood Battle. After weeks of the Canadian Blood Services taking appointments from fans both ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ and Western tied.

WOMEN’S RUGBY

The No. 6 Queen’s Gaels women’s rugby team (3-1) crushed the York Lions (1-3) 90-5 at Nixon Field on Saturday. With the win Queen’s will finish as the No. 2 seed in the OUA and have earned themselves a bye in the first round of playoffs. 
¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ got on the board quickly with three tries within the first 15 minutes of the match, two of which came from Victoria, B.C. native Sophie de Goede.

The Gaels continued to score try after try while York was barely able to carry possession into the opposing half. The Gaels reached the half-time break with the advantage being 54-0. A standout from the first half was fullback Nadia Popov who scored a try and converted all but one of the Gaels kicks in the half.

The second half was more of the same for the Gaels as they extended the lead to 90 points. The Lions were finally able to respond just before the final whistle with a try of their own. 

MEN’S RUGBY

The Queen’s Gaels men’s rugby team (5-0) scored a big road victory against the Guelph Gryphons (4-1) by a score of 40-13. 

The Gryphons got off to a quick start with two penalty kicks making the score 6-0. However, the Gaels would soon reply with a pair of tries by James MacDonald and Dylan Young, and the teams headed to the break with the score 14-6.

The teams exchanged tries within the opening moments of the second half to make it 26-13.

The Gaels added to their advantage with two more second half tries and managed to maintain their impressive defensive record, having now allowed only 49 points on the season through five matches.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

The Queen’s Gaels (7-2-1) were clicking on all levels with a pair of wins on the weekend – 3-1 over the Ryerson Rams (2-4-5) and 4-0 over the Toronto Varsity Blues (4-5-2).

On Saturday, the Rams scored the opener in the 25th minute but the Gaels came roaring back with three goals in the final 12 minutes of the game,  including two by Jenny Wolever and the capper by Christie Gray.

On Sunday, Wolever added to her tally with a goal in the 10th minute and Gray added another in the 19th.

After the break Wolever scored again and Kelsie McGinn wrapped it up with a goal in injury time.

MEN’S SOCCER

The Queen’s Gaels men’s soccer team (6-5-0) came out of the weekend empty-handed with a pair of losses – 4-1 to the Ryerson Rams (9-0-1) and 3-1 against the Toronto Varsity Blues (8-3-0).

On Sunday the Tricolour conceded a penalty to the Varsity Blues in the 17th minute for an early 1-0 deficit. Another goal shortly after the break made it 2-1 but a pushback from the Gaels made it 2-1 with a goal by Sean Inaki Hew. In the closing seconds of the game, however, the Blues added a third goal.

On Saturday in Toronto, the Gaels grabbed an eighth-minute lead with Matthew Readle finding the back of the net but the Rams struck back just four minutes later with a goal off a free kick.

The hosts added another before the break and two more in the second half.

CROSS COUNTRY

The men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Paul Brown Invitational hosted at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. against some of the top schools in the NCAA.

The women’s team put on an impressive performance as they finished seventh in the women’s 6km race in the gold division.

Most impressive was rookie Brogan MacDougall who won the individual gold medal with a time of 20:21. Teammates Makenna Fitzgerald, Kara Blair and Laura Yantha all finished with the top 100 to secure a top-10 finish for the team.

The men’s team grabbed the top spot of the men’s 8km race in the Brown Division finishing 54 points ahead of second place Cornell University.

Mitchell De Lange finished the race in 25:09 which was good enough for sixth overall. Teammate Brett Crowley was right behind him finishing with a time of 25:16, which put him in eighth. The entire team finished within the 25-minute mark as no Gael finished lower than 42nd.