Defending Champion Mounties Open With 38-6 Win Over Saint Mary's

The two time defending AUS football champion Mount Allison Mounties opened the new season with a 38-6 win over the Saint Mary's Huskies on Friday night in Halifax.  The win is the 15^th straight AUS regular season/playoff win for the Mounties, dating back to 2013.  The Mounties week one win is also their 6^th straight win over Saint Mary's.

Sophomore kicker Ryan Lambert from Grimsby, ON led the way for the Mounties, tying a Mount Allison school record with 5 field goals.  Lambert connected from 13 yards, 39 yards, 27 yards, 42 yards and 11 yards on the night.  The Mounties also got a big 66 yard punt return touchdown from 4^th year Mountie Michael Bohan in the 1^st quarter.

The Mounties, who are currently ranked 8^th in the CIS, opened the scoring with Lambert's first field goal 8 minutes into the game.  The Mounties were given great field position after an errant snap on a Saint Mary's punt gave the Mounties the ball on the Huskies 17 yard line.  The Mounties defense then forced a two and out and on the ensuing punt, the 2013 AUS Special teams All-Star Bohan housed a 66 yard returned to make it 10-0.  Three more field goals and a 1 yard touchdown run by Reid gave the Mounties a 26-0 lead at halftime.

Midway through the 3^rd quarter the Mounties engineered a 10 play, 95 yard drive capped off by a 21 yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brandon Leyh to Dan Boissiere.  The catch was Boissiere's first career CIS touchdown.  Saint Mary's answered with a 7 yard touchdown from Daniel Sule but they missed on the 2 point convert to leave the score at 33-6. Mount Allison rounded out the scoring with another Lambert field goal and a Saint Mary's safety.

The defending AUS champs had 23 first downs on the night and gained 386 yards of total offense while holding the Huskies to 191 yards.  Fourth year Mounties quarterback Brandon Leyh was efficient is his first start of the year, going 15-20 for 187 yards and 1 touchdown.  The Mounties sophomore running back duo of Chris Reid and Kiel Ambursley slowly took over the game, each providing 53 yards on 10 carries apiece.  Ambursley also had 86 receiving yards on 5 catches.

Defensively, Mounties Andrew Klain and Te Nguyen each had interceptions while 5^th year Mountie Christian Plante led the Mounties with 7.5 tackles, including 2 tackles for losses.  The Mounties had the number one ranked defense in the CIS in 2014.

The Mounties will now return home to play their first game on their brand new turf field on Saturday, September 19^th when they host Acadia at 2PM.  The game can be seen live on Bell Aliant's TV1 (channel 1 & 401).