Hurricanes fall to Dalhousie Tigers in AFL action
Charlottetown, PE – A season of offensive struggles continues for the Holland Hurricanes, who lost to the 4-0 Dalhousie Tigers 49-8 at Wickwire field in Halifax on Saturday.
The last time the Hurricanes faced up against the Tigers, they captured their third straight league championship in a 32-24 nail-biter. In this outing, the Hurricanes offence struggled to put points on the board, finishing the game with only one offensive touchdown and no field goals.
The Hurricanes opened the scoring early in first quarter on a 2-yard rush from Steeve Julien for the first points scored against the Tigers this season. However, the lead would not hold up and the Hurricanes’ offence would be stalled for the remainder of the game.
With the offence unable to put together solid drives, pressure was on for the Hurricanes defence to overcome the high powered Dalhousie offence.
After leading at the end the first quarter, the Holland College defence surrendered a touchdown on the first possession of the second quarter, tying the game 7-7.
Minutes later, a Hurricanes’ punt resulted in a safety against the Tigers in what would be the final score of the night for Holland College. The Tigers went into halftime with a 24-8 lead following a flurry of activity which included a touchdown pass from Nick Hunsley to wideout Guillaume Bernier, a forced fumble that was run back for a defensive score and a 32-yard field goal by Dalhousie’s Brock Saumure to end the quarter.
The Hurricanes defense held for the 3rd quarter, but was unable to defend against the strong Tigers offence and Hurricane turnovers in 4th quarter. The Tigers walked away with a landslide victory of 49-8 on the strength of a three TD performance from quarterback Nick Hunsley, and 17 unanswered points in the last seconds of the half.
“We just have to learn from this and move on,” said assistant coach Steve Letner when speaking to his team after the game.
Putting the loss behind them, the Hurricanes hope to bounce back as they prepare for battle against the 2-2 University of New Brunswick Fredericton Red Bombers. The game will take place at UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place on October 15 at noon. This is an hour earlier than the originally schedule kick-off time.