SACKVILLE, NB - For the first time in school history, the Mount Allison Mounties have finished the AUS football regular season undefeated. The Mounties put the finishing touches on an 8-0 regular season on Saturday by defeating the second place StFX X-Men 18-10.
The CIS No. 7 ranked Mounties and their CIS No. 1 ranked defense went to work early as Jordan Redding recovered a DeJon Lynch fumble just three minutes into the game to give Mount Allison good field position in StFX territory. Mounties kicker Ryan Lambert missed a 38 yard field goal but they still collected a rouge point to take a 1-0 lead.
The Mounties defense held on the next possession and then Mounties returner Michael Bohan returned a Jeremy Ford punt 38 yards to the StFX 44 yard line. From there the Mounties offense drove to the one yard line and Christian Plante did the rest, pushing his way to the end zone to give the Mounties an 8-0 lead after the convert.
StFX answered back less than two minutes later when Randy Roseway took a short Tivon Cook pass 67 yards all the way to the Mounties end zone to make the score 8-7. This marked the first touchdown given up by the Mounties since September 20th.
Ryan Lambert would add three field goals before halftime, the first set up by a Devante Sampson interception that brought the ball back to the StFX 15 yard line and the second by a Josh Blanchard punt return that gave the Mounties the ball on the StFX 30 yard line. Lambert added a third field goal from 14 yards to bring the score to 17-7 for the Mounties at halftime.
Both defenses tightened up on the second half with only four total points being scored in the final 30 minutes. The Mounties stretched their lead to 18-7 when they picked up a single point on Lambert's second missed field goal of the game.
StFX would draw within one score when Jeremy Ford hit from 27 yards with seven minutes remaining, but that was as close as the game would get. The Mounties defense shut the door and when Tivon Cook was picked off by Devante Sampson for the second time with 15 seconds remaining, the Mounties needed only to take a knee for the win.
Offensively, Mounties QB Brandon Leyh was 19 of 36 for 216 yards and one interception while Tivon Cook was 31 of 56 for 472 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions for StFX.
Mounties freshman Chris Reid pounded out 128 yards on the ground on 25 carries to leave him just 13 yards shy of that magical 1,000 yards rushing plateau. Reid finishes the season with 987 yards in just seven games. Rod Joseph led the Mounties with 5 catches for 53 yards while for the X-Men Jordan Catterall had 13 catches for 244 yards and Randy Roseway had 7 catches for 145 yards.
Defensively for the Mounties Devante Sampson had 2 interceptions and 4.5 tackles while fourth year defensive lineman Jacob LeBlanc had 2.5 sacks and 1.5 tackles for losses. Demetrius Ferguson led the X-Men with 9 tackles and 1 interception.
The Mounties win today was their 12th straight AUS regular season and playoff win dating back to October, 2013. The Mounties, who had already clinched first place in the AUS, now enter a bye week as StFX hosts Acadia in the Subway AUS semifinal game on Saturday, November 2nd. The winner will return to MacAulay field to face the first place Mounties for the Subway AUS Loney Bowl on Saturday, November 8th at 2PM.