(Sackville, N.B.) - The Mount Allison Mounties celebrated Homecoming with a 20-12 win over the Acadia Axemen Saturday afternoon in front of 1,257 fans at Alumni Field.
Phase two of Alumni Field included the completion of a new score clock, flags at the field, a new press box and new bleachers.
The game started slowly on offense with a scoreless opening quarter. A number of penalties offset any potential offense from emerging in the early going.
The Mounties struck first five minutes into the second quarter when kicker Ryan Lambert hit from 37 yards to give the Mounties a 3-0 lead.
Acadia put their first points on the board five minutes later when they forced the Mounties to a safety, bringing the score to 3-2.
Mount Allison would add to their lead before halftime thanks to a nine-play, 63-yard drive that ended with Lambert's second field goal, this time from 34 yards out to give the Mounties a 6-2 advantage at the half.
Acadia opened the scoring in the second half, driving 54 yards on six plays for their only major of the day. The touchdown came when Sabastian Robinson scored from one yard out to give the visitors a 9-6 lead at the midway point of the third quarter.
The Mounties responded quickly when Michael Bohan took the ensuing kickoff back 38 yards to midfield to give the Mounties great field position. Freshman pivot Jakob Loucks then took over and drove his squad in Acadia territory. All-Canadian running back Chris Reid capped the drive with back-to-back runs, first for nine yards and then from six yards to find the end zone to put Mount Allison up 13-9. The Mounties would not trail in the game again.
Acadia did close to within one point early in the fourth quarter thanks to a Brandon Jennings 16-yard field goal to narrow the gap to 13-12.
However, less than two minutes later the Mounties got a huge play on special teams as rookie linebacker Aidan McKenna blocked an Acadia punt, sending the ball rolling into the Acadia end zone. Senior Quinn LeBlanc jumped on the ball to give the Mounties their second major of the day. Lambert converted the PAT kick to make it 20-12 to round out the scoring.
Loucks earned Subway Player of the Game honours, completing 26-of-40 attempts for 238 yards passing. He also added 76 yards rushing on 8 carries.
For the Axemen, Cody Cluett finished 27-of-46 for 298 yards passing on a day where his squad only had 17 rush attempts.
Mounties sophomore receiver Maleke Richards hauled in 10 catches for 128 yards while Dakota Brush added 7 catches for 80 yards.
Acadia's Sabastian Robinson had 11 receptions for 127 yards while Eli Prochanu had 10 catches for 100 yards in a losing effort.
Defensively the Mounties were led by Damian Halstead and Kyle Horsman who had 8.5 tackles each on the afternoon. Acadia's Brady Switzer was credited with three sacks on the day.
The Mounties, now in a three-way tie for second in the AUS standings with a 1-3 record, will travel to Saint Mary's Friday, October 7th for the second of three meetings with the Huskies this year.
The Huskies defeated the Mounties earlier this year by a 32-27 margin.
Friday's game can be seen live on Bell Aliant Fibe TV1 or via webcast at www.AUStv.ca.
Source: Mount Allison Communications