X-Men clinch first place with decisive win over Saint Mary's

(HALIFAX, N.S.) - The StFX X-Men spoiled Homecoming for Saint Mary's, defeating the Huskies 45-6 Saturday afternoon in AUS football action. 

With the win, the X-Men (5-1) clinch first place in the AUS standings, ensuring a first round playoff bye and earning the right to host the 2016 Subway AUS Loney Bowl on Nov. 12. 

Tivon Cook (Scarborough, Ont.) had 405 passing yards for StFX and connected on three touchdowns, including a 21-yard strike to Dejaun Martin (Scarborough, Ont.) on a seven-play, 73-yard opening drive.  

A Paolo Lach-Edwards (Hamilton, Ont.) score on a 27-yard interception return improved the X-Men cushion to 14-0 with 6:04 left in the opening quarter. 

Cook hit Kaion Grant (Toronto, Ont.) on a 80-yard bomb in the second quarter and StFX added three more scores, two field goals by Jonathan Heidebrecht (Camrose, Alta.) and another connection by Cook to Grant, this time pulling in a 65-yard score. 

The Huskies rallied late in the first half but quarterback Brock Berglund's (San Diego, California) one-yard sneak was denied by StFX and the half ended 34-0. 

Brian Hope (Port Coquitlan, B.C.) put Saint Mary's on the scoreboard using a 12-yard field goal with 4:38 left in the third quarter to trim the X-Men lead 34-3. 

Another X-Men interception return for a touchdown, this time by Justin Holland (Parksville, B.C.) for 19-yards, saw StFX end the third quarter up 41-3. 

The kicking game took over in the fourth, with both kickers collecting all seven points scored. 

Heidebrecht had an eight-yard field goal and added a rouge for StFX while Hope booted a 40-yard field goal with 3:33 left in the game for Saint Mary's, ending all the scoring 45-6. 

StFX led the Huskies in first downs (19-16), total offence (522-263), rushing yards (113-63) and passing yards (429-253). 

Jordan Socholotiuk (Fort McMurray, Alta.) paced the X-Men with 106 yards on the ground while Berglund led the Huskies with 37 rushing yards. 

Cook's 405 yards passing was good on 19 for 25 attempts and one interception while Berglund went 21-35 for 159 yards and three interceptions. 

Saint Mary's Trevor Erdmann (Ardrossan, Alta.) finished with 94 passing yards and a pick. 

Grant had five catches good for 230 yards and two scores while Martin finished with seven grabs, 112 yards and a StFX touchdown. 

Spencer Wiechert (Dartmouth, N.S.) had nine catches for 75 yards for Saint Mary's while teammates D'Shawn Miller (Brampton, Ont.) and Leonardo Mantuila (Edmonton, Alta.) had four catches each. 

Kadel King (London, England) had 6.5 tackles and Kay Okafor (Enugu, Nigeria) four sacks for StFX while Emmanuel Agbozo (Surrey, B.C.) had 9.5 tackles for the Huskies. 

StFX improves to 5-1 and Saint Mary's falls to 2-4. 

Both teams hit the road next week with StFX visiting Acadia (1-5) while the Huskies travel to Mount Allison (2-4) Oct. 22. 

Kickoff for both games is set for 2 p.m. 
 

Source: Dominic Nolasco for Saint Mary's Athletics Communications