Mounties top Huskies 26-25 in final game of AUS regular season

(HALIFAX, N.S.) The Saint Mary's Huskies dropped their AUS regular-season finale to the Mount Allison Mounties 26-25 Saturday afternoon at Huskies Stadium. 

The Mounties opened the scoring with a 38-yard pass from quarterback Jakob Loucks (Cornwall, Ont.) to receiver Malik Richards (Brampton, Ont.) and kicker Ryan Lambert (Grimbsy, Ont.) converted the PAT for a 7-0 Mount Allison lead with 10:07 left in the first quarter. 

The Huskies answered back with two Brian Hope (Port Coquitlan, B.C.) field goals from 41 and 34-yards out and SMU trailed 7-6 after 10 minutes. 

Both Lambert and Hope traded field goals in the second quarter, from 34 and 26 yards out respectively and the Mounties led 10-9 with 7:31 left in the first half. 

Loucks and Richards hooked-up again on a nine-yard toss and catch, extending Mount Allison's lead 17-9 with 5:55 left in the second quarter. 

A two-yard touchdown run by Leonard Mantuila (Edmonton, Alta.) saw the Huskies trail 17-16 with just under three minutes in the half. 

Saint Mary's took the lead on a 15-yard field goal with 31 seconds left in the half and took a 19-17 halftime lead. 

Both kickers were responsible for the only scores of the third quarter when Hope added his fifth field goal from 20-yards out and Lambert's 17-yarder saw Saint Mary's lead after three quarters 22-20. 

Hope's sixth and final field goal from 42-yards out were the last points for Saint Mary's and the Huskies took a 25-20 lead with 14:19 left to play. 

The Mounties were not to be outdone and used a four-play, 69-yard drive to take the lead 26-20 on a Chris Reid (Brampton, Ont.) 16-yard scamper which found the end zone with 1:24 left in the game, as the Mounties failed on the two-point conversion. 

Saint Mary's had one last drive from their own 39-yard line with 73 seconds left. 

Penalties against both teams saw the Huskies with the ball at the Mount Allison 51-yard line. 

On the next play, Saint Mary's fumbled the ball on a 16-yard pass and Mount Allison recovered at their own 35-yard line and ran out the clock for the win. 

The Mounties end their season with a 4-4 record, tied for third in the AUS standings with the StFX X-Men. The X-Men win the tiebreaker, with more points in head-to-head matchups versus the Mounties, and claim the third and final AUS playoff spot. 

Saint Mary's drops to 5-3 and will host the X-Men Saturday, Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. in the 2017 Subway AUS Football Semifinal from Huskies Stadium. 

Source: Dominic Nolasco for Saint Mary's Athletics Communications