X-Men in hunt for 1st place

Courtesy Monty Mosher, The Chronicle Herald

It may not last long, but there is a whiff of a race for first place in the AUFC entering the final two weekends of the regular season.

The St. Francis Xavier X-Men escaped the carnage of interlock weekend by ripping sad-sack McGill 40-7 in Antigonish last week, bringing their record to 3-3, earning a playoff spot and keeping the first-place Saint Mary’s Huskies in sight. Saint Mary’s had 10 turnovers in a 37-20 loss to Montreal and failed to clinch at 5-1. Mount Allison lost 66-13 at Concordia to slip to 2-4 and Acadia remained winless at 0-6 after a 32-2 loss at Sherbrooke.

To remain in contention for the first-round bye, the X-Men must win today at Acadia and have Mount A upset Saint Mary’s in New Brunswick. If that happens, the X-Men would need a seven-point win at Saint Mary’s to close the regular season to snatch a week of rest and home-field advantage for the conference championship on Nov. 8. The X-Men led the Huskies 23-0 two weeks ago before giving it all back.

X-Men head coach John Bloomfield said his team is excited to get on some artificial turf and show its speed at Acadia and Saint Mary’s over the next two weeks. He said he’s less concerned about the final regular-seasons standings. "I don’t care right now if it’s first, second or third, I just want to be healthy and at our best in the playoffs," he said. "And we don’t want to back in. We want to win these next two games."

X-Men at Axemen
St. F.X plays its second winless team in as many weeks, but Acadia forced the X-Men to overtime last month. The Axemen, with 10 consecutive losses over the past two seasons, have never won fewer than two games in a season. Acadia can still make the playoffs by beating the X-Men, having the Mounties lose to SMU, and beating the Mounties head-to-head by 22 points on the final day of the regular season at Mount A.

St. F.X. will send a steady diet of running backs James Green and Jeremy Marchand at an Acadia defence that has withered against the run. Green, with 814 rushing yards and seven touchdowns, can be the first X-Men to break 1,000 yards since Paul Carty in 1997. Green wrenched his ankle in the second half last week and left the game, but is expected to play today.

Pounding McGill gave the X-Men a lift entering the home stretch. "It was kind of about time," Bloomfield said. The Axemen have only scored six touchdowns all season, none on the ground, and average only 12 points per game.

Huskies at Mounties
Beware an ornery dog. Steve Sumarah’s team finally had its own version of a market correction. After getting by with some shaky play at times in earlier games, their abundant mistakes led to a crash against the Carabins. "It gave us an opportunity to address some things that maybe have been hanging over us a little bit," said Sumarah.

The Huskies hope to start rookie quarterback Jack Creighton if he’s sufficiently recovered from a rib injury. Creighton quarterbacked the Huskies to the come-from-behind win against St. F.X. two weeks ago. Quarterbacks Nathan Marsman and Ted Abraham, who combined for four interceptions last week, haven’t done enough with their chances to win over their head coach. No. 1 Erik Glavic remains sidelined until at least the playoffs. The Huskies get running back Devon Jones back from strep throat. Slotback Carl Hardwick is still out with a high-ankle sprain.

Mount A cornerback/return specialist Bradley Daye is out for the year with an MCL/ACL injury and will require surgery, according to head coach Kelly Jeffrey. The Huskies have won the last 18 straight in the series since Oct. 24, 1998. Mount A led SMU 20-7 in the first half Sept. 19 in Halifax before the Huskies stormed back to win 50-20.

"Turnovers are going to play a huge part of it and I think we really feel we’ve got to stop the run," said Jeffrey. "Those are two very big things for us." SMU has dominated Mount A at MacAulay Field over the last seven meetings by a combined 371-49.