(SACKVILLE, N.B.) - 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 in front of a delighted MacAulay Field crowd.
The CIS No. 7-ranked Mounties went to work early as Jordan Redding recovered a DeJon Lynch fumble just three minutes into the game to give the Mounties good field position in StFX territory.
Mounties kicker Ryan Lambert missed a 31-yard field goal but the Mounties still collected a rouge point to take a 1-0 lead.
The Mounties defence 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 offence 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 was the first touchdown given up by the Mounties since Sept. 20.
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 defences 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 defence 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 quarterback Brandon Leyh was 19-of-36 for 216 yards with one interception while Tivon Cook was 30-of-56 for 463 yards with 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 the 1,000 yards rushing plateau.
Reid finishes the season with 987 yards in just seven games.
Rod Joseph led the Mounties with five catches for 53 yards while for the X-Men Jordan Catterall had 11 catches for 231 yards and Randy Roseway had nine catches for 154 yards.
Defensively for the Mounties Devante Sampson had two interceptions and 3.5 tackles while fourth-year defensive lineman Jacob LeBlanc had 2.0 sacks and 1.0 tackles for losses.
Demetrius Ferguson led the X-Men with 10.5 tackles and one interception.
Mount Allison's win today was their 12th straight AUS regular season and playoff win dating back to October of 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 'Semi-Bowl' game on Saturday, Nov. 2.
The winner will return to MacAulay Field to face the first-place Mounties for the Subway AUS Loney Bowl on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 2 p.m.
Source: Mount Allison Sports Information