Mounties Clinch Playoff Spot with 38-0 Road Win Over Saint Mary's

The AUS has its first 5-0 football team since the 2008 season as the CIS 8^th ranked Mount Allison Mounties defeated the Saint Mary's Huskies 38-0 in Halifax Saturday afternoon.  With the win the Mounties improve to 5-0 on the season, reeling of their 9^th straight AUS regular season and playoff win.  It's also the 5^th straight win for the Mounties over Saint Mary's, dating back to the 2012 season.

The first half saw almost no scoring as the most either team could put on the board was a rouge point for the Mounties on a missed field goal by Ryan Lambert.  The Mounties had other chances to score but a fumble on the 5 yard line and an interception in the end zone kept the score at 1-0 at halftime.

The 3^rd quarter started with more of the same but the Mounties eventually nudged field position in their favour until the Mounties defense forced Saint Mary's to concede a safety, pushing the score to 3-0 late in the 3^rd quarter.  On the ensuing possession the Mounties went to work from their own 35 yard line and QB Brandon Leyh wasted no time hitting Josh Blanchard for a 53 yard reception and moving the ball to the Saint Mary's 22 yard line.  Four plays later Leyh found Blanchard in the end zone from 6 yards out for the game's first major to give the Mounties a 10-0 lead.

As the fourth quarter began the Mounties came life, putting 4 more touchdowns on the board before it was all said and done.  After the Mounties defense forced a two and out a short punt by Saint Mary's gave the offense the ball on the SMU 22 yard line.  From there the Mounties only needed three plays for Leyh to hit Joseph from 1 yard out to stretch the score to 17-0.  Three minutes later freshman standout Chris Reid rushed from 9 yards out for another Mounties touchdown making it 24-0.

On the ensuing possession after the Mounties defense once again held the Huskies deep in their zone, sophomore Mountie Jessie Myers blocked Chase Kodejs' punt, scooped it up and ran 4 yards for the end zone.  Fourth year Mountie QB Alex Field made the most of his late game action, rushing from 9 yards out on a 3^rd down play to score his first career TD and to round out the scoring at 38-0.

The Mounties defense were dominant in shutting down the Saint Mary's offense.  The Mounties allowed only 5 first downs and 110 yards of total offense.  The Mounties recovered 3 fumbles and had 5 sacks on the afternoon. This marks the 2^nd straight week the Mounties have held an opponent to under 5 points and the 3^rd straight week they have kept the opposition under 10 points.  All-star linebacker Te Nguyen led the Mounties with 6.5 tackles.

Offensively, freshman Chris Reid just keeps getting better as he ran for a staggering 246 yards on 38 carries.  This is the biggest single game total in the AUS this year and Reid now leads the AUS with 653 rush yards in only 4 games.  Quarterback Brandon Leyh was 14 of 18 for 184 yards and 2 touchdowns while Josh Blanchard had 10 catches for 139 yards and 1 touchdown.  For the Huskies QB Drew Jacobsen was 4 of 13 for 20 yards while Melvin Abankwah had 57 yards on 13 carries.

The Mounties sit alone in first place in the AUS at 5-0 while StFX improved to 3-2, Acadia sits at 1-4 and Saint Mary's remains winless at 0-5.  With the win the Mounties have clinched a playoff spot and are now guaranteed to finish no worse than 2^nd place in the AUS.  The Mounties and Huskies reunite for their final matchup of the 2014 season next Saturday, October 11^th at 2PM at MacAulay field.