Mounties top Huskies 26-25

(HALIFAX, NS)—The Saint Mary's Huskies dropped their AUS regular-season finale to the Mount Allison Mounties 26-25 Saturday afternoon at Huskies Stadium.

The Mounties opened the scoring with a 38-yard pass from quarterback Jakob Loucks (Cornwall, ON) to receiver Malik Richards (Brampton, ON) and kicker Ryan Lambert (Grimbsy, ON) converted the PAT for a 7-0 MTA lead with 10:07 left in the first quarter.

The Huskies answered back with two Brian Hope (Port Coquitlan, BC) field goals from 41 and 34-yards out and SMU trailed 7-6 after 10 minutes.

Both Lambert and Hope traded field goals in the second quarter, from 34 and 26 yards out respectively and the Mounties led 10-9 with 7:31 left in the first half.

Loucks and Richards hooked-up again on a 9-yard toss and catch, extending Mount Allison's lead 17-9 with 5:55 left in the second quarter.

A 2-yard touchdown run by Leonard Mantuila (Edmonton, AB) saw the Huskies trail 17-16 with just under three minutes in the half.

Saint Mary's took the lead on a 15-yard field goal with 31 seconds left in the half and took a 19-17 halftime lead.

Both kickers were responsible for the only scores of the third quarter when Hope added his fifth field goal from 20-yards out and Lambert's 17-yarder saw SMU lead after three quarters 22-20.

Hope's sixth and final field goal from 42-yards out were the last points for Saint Mary's and the Huskies took a 25-20 lead with 14:19 left to play.

The Mounties were not to be outdone and used a four-play, 69-yard drive to take the lead 26-20 on a Chris Reid (Brampton, ON) 16-yard scamper which found the end zone with 1:24 left in the game, as the Mounties failed on the two-point conversion.

Saint Mary's had one last drive from their own 39-yard line with 73 seconds left.

Penalties against both teams saw the Huskies with the ball at the MTA 51-yard line.

On the next play, SMU fumbled the ball on a 16-yard pass and Mount Allison recovered at their own 35-yard line and ran out the clock for the win.

The Mounties end their season at 4-4 and lost the tie-breaker with StFX for the final play-off spot.

Saint Mary's drops to 5-3 and will host the 4-4 StFX X-Men Saturday, November 4^th at 2 pm in the 2017 Subway AUS Football Semi-final from Huskies Stadium.

Dominic Nolasco, SMU Communications

Photos Mona Ghiz