Saint Mary's drops final game to StfX

(HALIFAX, N.S.)—The Saint Mary'sHuskies played for their playoff lives on Saturday afternoon.  In the end, it was not enough as the visiting StFX X-Men upended the Huskies 14-4 in Atlantic University Sport men's football action from Huskies Stadium.

The X-Men scored the only points of the opening quarter on a set of unusual circumstances.

A Chase Bowden (St. Catharines, ON) 37-yard run put StFX to the SMU 26-yard line.

Two SMU penalties later, put the X-Men at SMU's 1 yard-line.

StFX's quarterback Quinn Stewart (Richmond, ON) fumbled on the next play and it was returned 111 yards by Saint Mary's for the apparent touchdown. However, a defensive offsides penalty wiped out the Saint Mary's score and Stewart made no mistake on the ensuing play, scoring on a 1-yard plunge for a 7-0 lead after Keiran Burnham's (Cambridge, ON) extra-point with 5:09 left in the first quarter.

The Huskies started the second quarter forcing two quick punts by the X-Men.

SMU started their second possession of the quarter from their own 20.

A 19-yard strike from Avery Clayton (Ottawa, ON) to Robert Hemming (Halifax, NS) pushed the Huskies up to their own 39-yard line.

Clayton's next pass was tipped by SMU's receiver and it fell into the hands of Cole Virtanen (Nanaimo, BC) who returned it 42 yards for the pick 6 touchdown.

StFX led 14-0 with 8:35 left in the half.

After several punts were traded back and forth—there were 23 in the game—SMU started their drive at their own 34-yard line and in seven plays drove 56 yards to the X-Men's 20-yard line.

Saint Mary's kicker Brian Hope (Port Coquitlan, BC) knocked thru a 27-yard field goal—SMU's first points of the afternoon—as the Huskies trailed StFX 14-3 at halftime.

Hope added a single rouge in the third quarter, as the fourth was scoreless and StFX held on for the 14-4 victory.

Hope tied the AUS career field goal record of 65 set by SMU's Justin Palardy (2006-2009).

StFX ends their campaign at 2-6.

Saint Mary's and Mount Allison were battling for last playoff spot versus Bishop's coming into Week 8 with identical records of 3-4.

Mount Allison lost to Acadia 33-31 on Saturday, as their last second field goal went wide.

The Mounties and SMU split the regular season, but Mount A held the point differential at +8 (48-39).

Dominic Nolasco, SMU Communications

Photo Nick Pearce