LOCAL SPORTS
AUS: The Acadia Axemen picked up their first win of the football season with a 24-22 win over the X-Men, thanks to a last second field goal from Nick Swain on a blustery, wet Saturday afternoon at St. FX Stadium. Swain’s game winner came just over a minute after St. FX kicker Ben Hadley booted a 46-yarder to give the X-Men a late 22-21 lead. Acadia’s record is 1-2 while the three-time conference champion X-Men find themselves in unfamiliar territory, falling to 0-2 early in the season. On offense, X-Men quarterback Silas Fagnan went 15-22 through the air, including a touchdown, and picked up another 81 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Zachary Houde had three receptions for 70 yards and a score. On Defense, Zechariah Willems picked up six tackles, while James McGill had 5 and a half. The X-Men return to action at St. FX Stadium on Saturday when they host Mount Allison in a 2 pm kickoff.
In rugby, the defending conference champion X-Women defeated Saint Mary’s 35-7 in a rainy and windy season opener at Huskies Stadium. Janet Kennedy, who scored two tries, was named Player of the Game for St. FX. The X-Women return home to host the UPEI Panthers next Sunday at 2 pm.
St. FX teams did very well at the Acadia University Cross Country Invitational, held at Hennigar’s Farm. Poppy Moon and Caroline Ash placed second and third in the women’s competition, which combined with Eileen Benoit, Caden Lee, and Allie Sandluck finishing fifth, sixth and seventh respectively, put the X-Women atop the team standings. The X-Men team also finished first, led by Liam McCullagh who finished third, while his teammates Joel Gallant, Griffin Gamble, Liam Patterson and Brett King took fourth through eighth place. The next meet on the cross country calendar is September 21 at St. FX.
On the soccer pitch, St. FX hosts the Dalhousie Tigers for a pair of matches today, beginning with the Women at 1 and the Men at 3:15.
PRE-SEASON HOCKEY
Junior B: The Strait Pirates fell 7-5 to the Membertou Juniors on Saturday. Tonight, the Pirates host Membertou at 5:30 at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre, then the Antigonish Bulldogs face off with the Penguins at 6:30 in East Hants.
U15: The Wearwell Bombers dominated in a 9-1 defeat of the Truro Bearcats. The Bombers host the Novas at the Wellness Centre at 11 this morning.
U16 AAA: The Cabot Highlanders lost a close 3-2 game against the Fundy Thunder. Next up for the Highlanders is a match against the Cape Breton Jets at 3 in Membertou.
U18 Major: The CB West Islanders defeated the Sydney Rush 4-3, while the Weeks Majors fell 5-4 to Steele Subaru. The teams meet again today: the Islanders and Rush in Port Hawkesbury at 1:15, then the Weeks Majors and Steele Subaru at the RBC Centre at 1:30.
The season finale at Riverside Speedway has been pushed back to October 12, as organizers were concerned last night’s rain combined with today’s precipitation meant the track would be too wet to race. Full details on the event will be announced as available.
NATIONAL SPORTS
Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton all emerged victorious in Saturday’s C-F-L triple-header. The Blue Bombers gained a share of first place in the West Division with a 26-21 Banjo Bowl win over the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders; the Elks moved out of the West basement with a 37-16 win over the visiting Calgary Stampeders; and the Redblacks moved three points back of the East Division-leading Montreal Alouettes with a 41-27 victory over the visiting Toronto Argonauts.
Spencer Horwitz homered twice, José Berríos pitched six effective innings and the visiting Toronto Blue Jays beat Atlanta 9-5 to knock the Braves out of the final N-L wild-card berth. The Braves fell one game behind the New York Mets. Berríos allowed one earned run and five hits to set a career high with his 15th win of the season. Horwitz finished 4-for-5 with three R-B-Is.
Fredericton’s Danielle Dorris won gold today at the Paris Paralympics in the women’s S7-50 metre final with a time of 33.62 seconds. Dorris captured gold in Tokyo three years ago. Dorris also competed at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she was the youngest member of Canada’s team at 13 years old.
The Vancouver Whitecaps hit three goal posts but couldn’t find net and had to settle for a scoreless draw with visiting F-C Dallas. With the draw, Vancouver stays in sixth-place, one back of the Seattle Sounders in the Western Conference. Seattle squashed the host Columbus Crew 4-0 earlier on Saturday. Dallas remains 10th in the West and below the playoff bar.
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus beat American Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 in the women’s singles final at the U-S Open for her first title in New York, and the third Grand Slam title of her career. Sabalenka won the Australian Open in 2023 and again this year, but entered Saturday’s match having lost two straight finals at Arthur Ashe Stadium. It was the first time Pegula played in a Grand Slam singles final.
Jewell Loyd scored 20 points and Jordan Horston added 16 and five rebounds as the fifth-place Seattle Storm whipped the visiting Phoenix Mercury 90-66. Diana Taurasi led the seventh-place Mercury with 18 points. Both teams have clinched post-season berths.
Angel Reese’s historic rookie season is over. The Chicago Sky forward says on social media that she has a season-ending injury, which the W-N-B-A team confirmed was to her wrist. Reese finishes the season averaging 13.6 points and 13.1 rebounds. It’s the highest rebound average in the history of the W-N-B-A. Reese also set the rookie record with 26 double-doubles.
Saturday Scoreboard
CFL
Ottawa 41 Toronto 27
Winnipeg 26 Saskatchewan 21
Edmonton 37 Calgary 16
MLB
Interleague
Toronto 9 Atlanta 5
N.Y. Yankees 2 Chicago Cubs 0
L.A. Dodgers 7 Cleveland 2
Houston 11 Arizona 5
St. Louis 2 Seattle 0
American League
Detroit 2 Oakland 1
Tampa Bay 7 Baltimore 1
Texas 6 L.A. Angels 4
Kansas City 4 Minnesota 2
Boston 7 Chicago White Sox 5
National League
San Francisco 6 San Diego 3
N.Y. Mets 4 Cincinnati 0
Miami 9 Philadelphia 5
Milwaukee 5 Colorado 2
Washington 5 Pittsburgh 3, 1st game
Washington 8 Pittsburgh 6, 2nd game
MLS
Vancouver 0 Dallas 0
Seattle 4 Columbus 0
St. Louis 2 New England 2
Sporting KC 1 N.Y. Red Bulls 1
Los Angeles FC 0 Houston 0
D.C. United 2 Chicago 1
WNBA
Seattle 90 Phoenix 66
Sunday’s Games (All times Eastern)
NFL
Arizona at Buffalo, 1 p.m.
Carolina at New Orleans, 1 p.m.
Houston at Indianapolis, 1 p.m.
Jacksonville at Miami, 1 p.m.
Minnesota at N.Y. Giants, 1 p.m.
New England at Cincinnati, 1 p.m.
Pittsburgh at Atlanta, 1 p.m.
Tennessee at Chicago, 1 p.m.
Denver at Seattle, 4:05 p.m.
Las Vegas at L.A. Chargers, 4:05 p.m.
Dallas at Cleveland, 4:25 p.m.
Washington at Tampa Bay, 4:25 p.m.
L.A. Rams at Detroit, 8:20 p.m.
MLB
American League
Tampa Bay (Littell 5-9) at Baltimore (Burnes 13-7), 12:05 p.m.
Chicago White Sox (Flexen 2-14) at Boston (Bello 12-7), 1:35 p.m.
Minnesota (Woods Richardson 5-3) at Kansas City (Wacha 11-7), 2:10 p.m.
L.A. Angels (Dana 1-0) at Texas (Heaney 4-13), 2:35 p.m.
Detroit (TBD) at Oakland (Ginn 0-0), 4:07 p.m.
Interleague
Toronto (Rodríguez 1-6) at Atlanta (Sale 16-3), 1:35 p.m.
Seattle (Castillo 11-12) at St. Louis (Mikolas 8-10), 2:15 p.m.
N.Y. Yankees (Cole 6-3) at Chicago Cubs (Taillon 9-8), 2:20 p.m.
Cleveland (Bibee 11-6) at L.A. Dodgers (Flaherty 11-6), 4:10 p.m.
Arizona (Nelson 10-6) at Houston (Verlander 3-5), 7:10 p.m.
National League
Washington (Corbin 5-12) at Pittsburgh (Jones 5-7), 1:35 p.m.
Cincinnati (Aguair 1-0) at N.Y. Mets (Severino 10-6), 1:40 p.m.
Philadelphia (Johnson 0-0) at Miami (Cabrera 3-6), 1:40 p.m.
Colorado (Freeland 4-7) at Milwaukee (Peralta 10-7), 2:10 p.m.
San Francisco (Bivens 3-1) at San Diego (Musgrove 5-4), 4:10 p.m.
WNBA
Minnesota at Washington, 3 p.m.
Atlanta at Indiana, 4 p.m.
Las Vegas at New York, 4 p.m.
Dallas at Chicago, 6 p.m.
Connecticut at Los Angeles, 9 p.m.