Recruits, Cunningham Power Sacred Heart to Win Over Army
Recruits, Cunningham Power Sacred Heart to Win Over Army
Getting all excited about freshman recruits is a dangerous game, as those players can often take a few years to make an impact ... or not.
For Sacred Heart, a few critical pieces of the puzzle showed up on campus this summer, with sisters Reece and Olivia Woods, as well as Reese Torticill, were among the first-years recruited for the Pioneers. The present of these powerful athletes with rugby knowledge certainly seemed to inject confidence into a Pioneer team that was coming off a pretty good 2022-2023 effort.
And it all came together perhaps quicker than anyone expected, with a resounding 31-7 defeat of West Point Friday night.
Sacred Heart ran hard and were powerful in the breakdown and controlled field position throughout the first half. A relatively young Army side found itself scrambling to handle SHU's physicality up front and the brilliant playmaking ability of flyhalf Alyssa Cunningham. SHU pressured early thanks to some good ball-handling and hard work in the breakdown. That got them near the goalline and then the ball was sent quickly out to wing Fabiola Millian Fausten, who did the rest to score the opening try in the corner.
With both Woods sisters making significant yardage with ball in hand and the SHU pack as a whole looking solid in the scrum, the Pioneers had the Black Knights on the back foot once more. This time a quick tap got them down into the 22 and the ball was sent out to Cunningham, who set up Torticill for the second try. Cunningham converted and it was 12-0.
Sacred Heart continued to control the territory and the ball—West Point hardly saw any usable possession—and added two converted tries, one more from Torticill and one from Ashley Torres-Brown, to lead 26-0 at the break.
Army did make some adjustments and with No. 8 Sophia Linder along with outside back Olivia Popp they asked questions of the Sacred Heart defense.
But those questions were generally answered. Some excellent work in the backs did set up a try on the outside. But several other really good scoring chances for Army fell by the wayside. An errant pass, a poor or slow decision, or a jarring tackle stymied all of those chances.
In the final 15 minutes or so Sacred Heart got the momentum back and camped out in the Army half. Eventually they worked off a penalty and the backs did their job, finally giving Cunningham a chance to set up Torticill's third to ice it 31-7.
This was a surprisingly dominant performance by Sacred Heart. But in other ways it wasn't a surprise at all. The Pioneers have been looking to break through and their recruiting addressed some of the needs they had—winning the physical battle with the ball and on defense was a need and the Woods sisters brought the wood and more. And the rest of NIRA's DI better be on the lookout.