X-Men open season with victory over Mounties

Sackville, NB - The StFX X-Men opened the 2016 AUS season with a 29-14 victory over the Mount Allison Mounties to the StFX X-Men on a warm afternoon in Sackville.  In a rematch of last year's Subway AUS Loney Bowl, the X-Men used a strong first half to build a 15-0 lead and although the Mounties climbed to within 6 points in the 2nd half, the X-Men held on for the win. 

StFX opened the scoring at 7:53 of the first quarter when kicker Jonathan Heidebrecht connected on a 31 yard field goal to give the X-Men the lead.  Four minutes later the X-Men stretched their lead to 10-0 when Dejaun Martin took an 8 yard pass from Tivon Cook and found a hole all the way to the end zone.  The 79 yard scoring play was the longest of the day for either side. 

Heidebrecht hit his second field goal of the game, this time from 38 yards, three minutes into the second quarter to give the X-Men a 13-0 lead.  A Mount Allison safety with 90 seconds remaining in the first half stretched the X-Men lead to 15-0 at half time. 

The Mounties conceded another safety at 10:50 of the 3rd quarter and then Heidebrecht hit his 3rd field goal of the day with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter to run the score to 20-0.   

The Mounties offense found some life late in the third quarter when freshman quarterback Jakob Loucks drove his team 75 yards on 8 plays before running back Chris Reid scored from 1 yard out.  Lambert's extra point made the score 20-7.  After the Mounties defense forced a two and out and forced good field position, the Mounties offense went back to work.  Back-to-back strong runs by Chris Reid and Kiel Ambursley put the Mounties back in scoring position and Reid once again found the end zone, this time from 3 yards out.  After Lambert's extra point the Mounties were within 6 at 20-14. 

But this is as close as Mount A would get as veteran StFX quarterback Tivon Cook once again drove his team down the field before Jordan Socholotiuk punched it in from 1 yard out.  StFX added another Heidebrecht field goal before the end of the fourth quarter to make the score 29-14. 

The Mounties defense had two interceptions, one each by Dylan Cossar and Philip Thompson, and they were able to sack Tivon Cook five times.  For the X-Men, Hayden Peters had an interception and Adam Kuntz led all defensive players in the game with 12 tackles.

The Mounties and X-Men have won the last three AUS titles with the Mounties grabbing AUS championships in 2013 and 2014 before StFX claimed the Loney Bowl last fall.  The Mounties (0-1) now go on the road for week 2 as they travel to Saint Mary's (0-1) next Friday, September 16th at 7PM. The X-Men (1-0) will host Acadia (1-0) on Saturday, September 17th at 2PM. 

Courtesy Mount Allison Mounties communications