Second-half dominance leads to Axemen road win

(ANTIGONISH, N.S.) - The third interception of the game by fifth-year senior Brett Backman late in the fourth quarter was the exclamation point on a 40-11 win for the Acadia Axemen over the StFX X-Men in AUS football action Friday night in Antigonish.

With 1:42 remaining in regulation at Oland Stadium, the defensive back returned a Clay Masikewich pass 64 yards, untouched, for a touchdown.

The major score, with the Ryan Begin conversion, highlighted a second half in which the visiting Axemen outscored the X-Men 30-3.

"We wanted to bounce back from a tough start [to the season]," Backman told Bill MacLean after the game during the StFX Varsity Club webcast on AUStv.ca.

It was the first interception return for a touchdown in Backman's university career.

The Axemen opened the scoring on their first drive of the game, marching 75 yards on eight plays, with the TD coming on an 11-yard pass from Evan Brown (14-25-221), his first of three on the night, to Sabastian Robinson (2-30). The wide receiver's only two receptions resulted in six points for the Axemen.

With 1:03 left in the first quarter, the quick-strike X-Men offence tied the score, when Devon Bailey (4-100) soared for a Masikewich (18-37-249) pass, taking it 74 yards for a touchdown.

On the ensuing kickoff, Hayden Peters scored a rouge, giving the X-Men an 8-7 lead.

Early in the second quarter, the Axemen conceded a safety, but the points for the X-Men were negated by an offside call.

Late in the half, Begin scored the only points of the second quarter, booting a 34-yard field goal.

The Axemen took a 10-8 lead to the locker room in a mistake and penalty-filled first half for both sides.

A Begin rouge on the opening kickoff of the third quarter, giving the visitors an 11-8 lead, started a streak of 22 unanswered Axemen points in just over 10 minutes of playing time.

Although Acadia could not capitalize on a blocked punt, they did take advantage of Backman's second interception of the game (his first came on the final play of the first half). The turnover culminated in a 29-yard touchdown pass from Brown to Tristan Hercules (3-53).

After Peters failed in a first-down run attempt off a fake punt attempt by the X-Men, the Axemen rode back-to-back running plays by Thomas Troop (8-60), including a six-yard touchdown, to a 25-8 lead with 9:17 remaining in the third quarter.

With 4:35 left in the stanza, Robinson caught his second touchdown, extending the Axemen advantage to 32-8, after another point-after from Begin.

The X-Men wrapped up the third-quarter scoring on a 34-yard Jeremy Ford field goal, cutting the disadvantage to 32-11.

The Axemen scored the only points of the fourth quarter on the Backman interception return and a Begin rouge.

Acadia amassed 430 yards in total offence, including 196 on the ground.

StFX could only muster 17 yards rushing as part of 249 total yards in the game.

Veteran Taylor Renaud was the top receiver for the Axemen with three catches for 54 yards.

Jordan Catterall collected the most catches (five) for the X-Men, collecting 37 yards, while freshman Keon Hughes caught four balls for 48 yards.

On the ground for the X-Men, tailback Ashton Dickson gained 35 yards on nine carries.

Defensively, Alex Graham led the Axemen with five tackles, while Derek Naugler and Brayden Guy chipped in four apiece.

Acadia sacked Masikewich three times, including 1.5 from linebacker Jessie St. James.

For the X-Men, Ron Omara led the way with nine tackles, while Brett Hubbeard and Hugo Rajotte chipped in eight and seven, respectively.

Samni Adereti recorded the only sack for StFX.

In other AUS football action Friday, the Mount Allison Mounties defeated the visiting Saint Mary's Huskies 29-15 in Sackville, N.B.

The X-Men (2-1) return to action Friday, Sept. 27, when they visit Halifax to face the Huskies (1-2), while the Axemen (1-2) will host the Mounties (1-2) in Wolfville Saturday, Sept. 28.

Both games are scheduled to kick-off at 7 p.m.

Source: StFX Sport Information