By: Monty Mosher
Jordan Socholotiuk's university football career will end at Laval. All that's left to decide is whether it will be this week or next.
The St. Francis Xavier running back, the most valuable player in Saturday's Loney Bowl win over the Saint Mary's Huskies, will play the Laval Rouge et Or in the Uteck Bowl national semifinal this Saturday at Laval.
The winner will play either the Saskatchewan Huskies or the defending national champion Western Mustangs for the Vanier Cup the following week on the same field.
Again, the AUS team must climb a mountain with a few gorillas on its back. The conference has one victory in a national semifinal since 2003 and most of the results have been terribly unflattering.
Last year, Western, a powerhouse, defeated the Acadia Axemen 81-3 in Wolfville on their way to the title. Acadia had limited time to prepare for the game due to circumstances beyond its control, but the result shocked the football nation and rekindled a debate that the Atlantic conference had lost its right to an automatic berth in the final four.
Laval overpowering at home
It's hardly breaking news that Laval, with the best fan base in Canadian university sports, is nearly impossible to take down at home. Montreal played them close this season, but Concordia, McGill and Sherbrooke all fell by 35 points or more in their visits to Quebec City.
The X-Men, now with three conference banners in the past four years, had a 6-2 regular-season. They lost two close decisions to Saint Mary's.
But St. F.X. circled back to defeat Acadia 33-10 in the semifinal and the Huskies 33-9 in the final to earn their crack at the Rouge et Or.
What makes the 22-year-old Socholotiuk special? The Waterford, Ont., native ran for 242 yards, including a 103-yard touchdown effort against the Axemen, and followed up with 179 yards on a grinding 34 carries against the Huskies.
It came at the end of a regular season that saw Socholotiuk run for 1,009 yards, his second year over the 1,000-yard milestone, and allowed him to finish his career with 3,047 yards. All but 38 of those yards, and all 14 of his rushing touchdowns, came in his final three seasons after taking over the No. 1 job from Ashton Dickson.
Dickson a soft-spoken mentor
Dickson, who died at age 25 in a shooting in Ottawa in 2017, had 3,178 yards from 2011-15 and was conference MVP in his final season. He was Socholotiuk's mentor.
"At the end of the day we're confident in what we bring to the table," the five-foot-nine, 200-pound Socholotiuk said about facing Laval. "We're not going to look at the outside noise and all the things that are said about heading to that stadium. We have a very clear-cut focus and that is to win a football game."
Some of the X-Men have made the journey to Laval before. St. F.X. lost 64-0 at Laval in 2015 during interlocking play between the two conferences.
But the X-Men have played two national semifinals since that day, losing to the UBC Thunderbirds 36-9 at home in 2015 and 50-24 at Calgary the following year. Socholotiuk ran for 85 yards in the loss to the Dinos.
"Laval has a storied history and they've won a lot of games there," said Socholotiuk, who played in high school in Fort McMurray, Alta., for former X-Men player Kwame Osei. "A lot of the guys are very pumped up to play there. They are very excited.
"It's going to be a hostile crowd, but it will be fun to play in front of that many people. I'm just really encouraging the guys to take it all in. It's a business trip, but it's a very fun environment when you're the underdog and no one is going to give you the credit to go in there to win. There's no pressure on us. We're going to play our game the way we have been all year long."
It's an X-Men team forged in the disappointment of last season. The team, chasing three straight league banners in 2017, began a significant turnover of players and couldn't get past the semifinal.
Team focus changed in 2018
"It was definitely a learning year," said Socholotiuk. "We had a lot of new players at new spots. We're a better-equipped team now because we went through where we knew what it was like to lose. The focus we've had this year is a lot different."
Saint Mary's cleared a path for the X-Men, racing out to a 7-0 record and clinching first place early while garnering some national attention. But the only two blemishes on the X-Men schedule were the two tight defeats, 20-13 and 27-24, to the Huskies.
Socholotiuk said there are lessons that can be taken from the team's playoff losses to UBC and Calgary.
"The biggest thing that I took away from those games was just having the confidence to go into a game believing you can do it. There will be news articles talking about our conference not being up to par with the rest. But that's just all talk. At the end of the day you've got to play football. That's one thing I'm trying to get across to the guys. When you go into these games, both teams have to play football."
It's been a year of reflection for Socholotiuk as his fifth season ticks down. He's taken the time to appreciate it, understanding it has been his privilege to wear the blue and white.
Sometimes it leads him to thoughts about Dickson, who generally only spoke when he felt it was necessary.
Select company in record book
"He showed me that every run isn't going to be a homerun. But you use them as punishing runs to set up the big one. I guess that's where a lot of our blue-collar mentality comes from. He would play nicked up. You couldn't take him off the field. He was gritty. He was everything that embodies St. F.X. football. Carrying the ball is an absolute honour considering the ones, like him, who have done it before me."
Socholotiuk will depart the X-Men as the only back in team history with multiple 1,000-yard campaigns, according to the AUS record book. Mount Allison's Eric Lapointe had three in a span of four seasons and Mounties' Grant Keaney and Huskies' Luis Perez had two each.
(Monty Mosher is an award-winning sportswriter with more than 30 years covering university sport in Atlantic Canada. He can be reached at mosher100@eastlink.ca)