Huskies clinch playoff berth with 55-11 Homecoming win over Gaiters

(HALIFAX, N.S.) Coming off a bye week, the SMU Huskies opened up Homecoming celebrations with a 55-11 win on Saturday afternoon over the Bishop's University Gaiters from Huskies Stadium. 

SMU opened the scoring with a six-play, 31-yard drive in 1:43 when quarterback Liam O'Brien (Parksville, B.C.) came in on short-yard situations and plunged in from one-yard out.  

Kicker Brian Hope (Port Coquitlan, B.C.) added the point-after try for SMU and the Huskies led 7-0. 

Bishop's defence put the Gaiters on the board with 5:32 left in the quarter when Elijah Williams (Pickering, Ont.) returned a SMU fumble five yards for the major. 

Vincent Dube (Montmagny, Que.) made good on the point-after attempt for Bishop's and tied the game 7-7. 

Dube put Bishop's ahead when he nailed a 27-yard field goal with 47 seconds left in the quarter. 

On the next play, SMU's Johnny King (Grennsboro, North Carolina) returned the Dube kickoff 99-yards for the score and the Huskies led 14-10 after 10 minutes. 

The second quarter saw little scoring action other than Leonard Mantuilla's (Edmonton, Alta.) two-yard run, which capped off an eight play, 74-yard drive for SMU and Dube had a rouge point for Bishop's. 

SMU took a 21-11 halftime lead into the locker room. 

Hope added two more field-goals in the third quarter, connecting from 41 and 28 yards and built a 27-11 SMU cushion. 

A team safety for SMU added two more points before King would get his hands on a punt return and return it 56-yards for the major. 

At the end of the third quarter SMU led 36-11. 

Two more team safeties for Saint Mary's sandwiched two defensive touchdowns by the Huskies. 

Antoine Lyte-Myers (Scarborough, Ont.) and Jabari Evans (Virginia Beach, Virginia) each returned interceptions for touchdowns as Lyte-Myers went 84 yards and Evans 51 for their scores. 

Hope added a rouge point to bring the final score to 55-11 for the Huskies. 

Saint Mary's improves to 5-1 on the year while Bishop's falls to 1-5. 

Both teams return to action Oct. 21. The Huskies travel to Acadia to face off against the Axemen (5-2) at 2 p.m. AST. Bishop's will play host to the Mount Allison Mounties (2-4) at 2 p.m. EST (3 p.m. AST).

Source: Dominic Nolasco for Saint Mary's Athletics Communications