Playoff races in full swing
Huskies out to extend home win streak over Mounties
It's time for the annual home-and-home phase of the AUS football schedule.
When the CIS No. 10 Acadia Axemen finish their two games with the St. Francis Xavier X-Men, and the Saint Mary's Huskies are done with the Mount Allison Mounties, the playoff situation could be abundantly clear.
The weekend begins Friday night with the Mounties visiting Huskies Stadium, where they haven't won since 1997. Both teams are 1-3.
Acadia, with a two-game lead on the rest of the conference at 3-1, takes a two-game winning streak into Antigonish on Saturday afternoon. The X-Men, 1-3, are on a three-game slide.
The Axemen can all but sew up first place, and home-field advantage for next month’s Loney Bowl, with a win this weekend. The team with the opening-round playoff bye is unbeaten in the conference title game since the format began in 2002.
Mounties (1-3) at Huskies (1-3): In the only Friday night game for the Huskies on this year's schedule, Saint Mary’s can go from last to second in less than a week.
Saint Mary’s got yeoman work from power back Michael Dawes last week in a 202-yard performance, the top rushing effort in the AUS this season.
“We definitely ran the ball very well,” said Huskies head coach Perry Marchese. “The passing game is still going to be a challenge for us but we’re working on it as we speak.”
The Huskies are trying to make it work at quarterback with Drew Jacobson, who began the year as No. 3 on the depth chart.
“I think he keeps getting better,” Marchese said of his quarterback. “His understanding just keeps getting better. Especially at the quarterback position, everything starts to slow down the more you play.”
The Mounties will need to toughen up against the run. They allow a league-worst 207 yards per game.
Mount A has run for 150 yards per game, the best in the AUS. The Mounties will face a run defence allowing just 93 yard per game.
Kelly Jeffrey’s team has been competitive at Saint Mary’s in recent years and led a few times at the half before faltering.
“I think it’s important to play a complete game,” Jeffrey said. “When Saint Mary’s gets going in that home stadium they really are tough to stop.”
Protection for Mount A quarterback Brandon Leyh, who got battered last week at Acadia, could be an issue. The Huskies have a league-high 17 sacks while Mount A has surrendered 19 sacks.
Huskies receiver/returner Jahmeek Taylor starts the day 37 punt-return yards from 2,000 in his career. Only three CIS players have broken the 2,000-yard barrier.
Axemen (3-1) at X-Men (1-3): The two highest-scoring offences in the conference meet for the first time this year in Antigonish.
Acadia has won eight in a row against AUS opposition since last October. The only loss this season for the Axemen came in Week 2 at Laval, and they were in that contest until the half.
The Axemen offence, led by fifth-year quarterback Kyle Graves, rolled up more than 500 yards of offence on the Mounties last week and still weren’t all that crisp.
Taylor Renaud (31-468) and Mike Squires (25-330) are one and two in AUS receiving.
Acadia head coach Jeff Cummins said he won’t allow any complacency around the Axemen camp with the team eyeing a Vanier Cup appearance. He has made it clear to his players that spots on the dress roster, and snaps on the field, have to be won each week.
“We’re looking for guys to compete and see who we can get to step up and make some plays,” he said.
“We had a few guys banged up (Tuesday) so we had some young guys taking some reps and it was nice to see some step up.”
Cummins has made kickers Thomas Blight and Ryan Begin battle it out every week for the right to take the job on game day.
Acadia has allowed only 16 points in the last two games while the X-Men have surrendered a combined 109 points in their three consecutive losses.
St. F.X. has had injury troubles on both sides of the line of scrimmage for the last several weeks. X-Men head coach Gary Waterman said he’s still going to be missing key pieces this week as well.
“It’s something we didn’t anticipate, but it’s one of those things. It is what it is. That’s football.”
Waterman said the league isn’t going to wait for the X-Men to get healthy.
“We want to stop the bleeding, so to speak. We’ve had a rough couple of games and we’ve got the No. 1 team (in the AUS) coming in, so it’s definitely a big game for us.”