P.E.I. natives Corrigan and Hogan carry Axewomen past Panthers 57-12

By Thomas Becker

Dressed in Acadia red, a pair of Islanders returned to their old stomping grounds and put on a show, as the Axewomen took down the UPEI Panthers 57-12 Saturday afternoon.

Alysha Corrigan – who made a name for herself as a member of the Panthers – led the way with 15 points on a try and five conversions, while Tignish native and rookie Tori Hogan recorded two tries and a conversion for 12 points.

"It's definitely hard coming back here, I spent four years on this field," Corrigan said. "It brings back a lot of good memories and playing against the girls is hard, but at the end of the day we're all still friends and they know what's best for me."

Corrigan did most of the damage in the first half, scoring 13 of the team's 33 points. Bailey Dembicki, Kathleen Curran, Laura Pfleiderer and Hogan also added tries in the opening half.

"We have so much depth this year that we have the luxury to play around and see who we want where, so we're still trying to figure that out," Corrigan said.

Hogan was the focal point in the second half, where she put up seven of her 12 points. Keisha Kane, Valerie Wideski and Sarah Boudreau each scored tries to close out Acadia's scoring.

While she was excited to make her return to the Island, Hogan also admitted it was bittersweet.

"It's great to see some familiar faces, but then you look up and you're about to hit one of your best friends."

Looking ahead at rival school St. FX, the Axewomen worked on elements of their game to get an edge in next weekend's anticipated match.

"We're trying to work on our chop tackles right now. When we play bigger teams like St. FX, we have to work on getting lower on our tackles," said Hogan, who was named Subway Player of the Game. "We're also working on our line speed. We could've got the ball out a little bit wider, but I think it's coming along well." 

For Panthers head coach John LaBoyne, it was just another game to improve an up-and-coming program, regardless of who was on the other side.

"It was no big deal. The message was: there are no friends in red today and that's the way we played."

After getting shutout in the first 40 minutes, LaBoyne's team showed life in the second half, where Lauren Sheidow and birthday girl Anneke Dykerman found the try line for back-to-back scores. That cut to the lead to 40-12 before Acadia closed it out 57-12.

"Overall, we're quite pleased," LaBoyne said. "It's about the little things. For example, we got stuck in our own end, went through our patterns and kicked for touch to relieve the pressure. It's exactly what we needed to do, so I felt we made good choices today."

The Panthers play their final regular season game at home against the Saint Mary's Huskies on Oct. 13 at 2 p.m.