Three teams vie for final two berths in AUS football playoffs
The final two weeks of the AUS football season ought to be plenty of fun, except for one team.
The Saint Mary’s Huskies, the Mount Allison Mounties and the St. Francis Xavier X-Men take 2-4 records into the final two games. Each can finish second and host a playoff game; each can finish last and miss the post-season.
The Huskies visit the Acadia Axemen at 2 p.m. on Saturday with the defending-champion Axemen already locked into first place at 5-1. Acadia will avoid the first round of the playoffs and host the Loney Bowl on Nov. 10.
“You really do try not to make more of games than what they are, but there’s a lot to this one, for sure," said Huskies head coach Perry Marchese. “It can be a statement and it can lock down a playoff spot. But we really just need our guys to go out and compete and play their tails off.”
Mount Allison goes to Antigonish to play the St. Francis Xavier X-Men on Saturday afternoon. The winner earns the all-important tie-breaker in their head-to-head series.
The Week 8 matchups are Acadia at Mount Allison and St. F.X. at Saint Mary's. Three teams at 3-5 is possible.
Huskies (2-4) at Axemen (5-1): Acadia won the first two meetings — 21-16 in Wolfville on opening day and 26-10 in Halifax two weeks later.
“Defensively they are the best in the conference besides us and offensively they have some weapons that can hurt you,” said Acadia head coach Jeff Cummins. “You’ve got to look out for them because they can hurt you with some of the things that they have.”
The Huskies were in a position to clinch a playoff spot last weekend when the Mounties surprised them 25-12 in New Brunswick.
The Axemen will likely attempt the same formula the Mounties used to beat Saint Mary's. Mount A worked overtime to stop the run game and the Huskies couldn't pass their way out of trouble.
The Axemen continue to carve up opponents with a strong pass attack, but found a run game to match last week. Rookie Thomas Troop ran for 152 yards and a major.
Acadia fifth-year quarterback Kyle Graves has 4,984 career passing yards and can become just the third Axemen pivot to top 5,000 yards.
Axemen receivers Taylor Renaud (43-652) and Mike Squires (40-503) could become the first AUS tandem with 50 catches each in a season. Both are nursing minor injuries.
Marchese isn’t sure why Saint Mary's turned in a lemon at Mount A last week with so much at stake.
“We’ve been doing some soul searching around the program about what happened and what we need to do to fix it and we hope we did,” he said.
Mounties (2-4) at X-Men (2-4): Mount A, given up for dead after a rocky first two weeks, can now host a playoff game.
Credit running back Jordan Botel (141-634) for much of the better fortunes around Mount A. B.C.'s Botel, a former 1,000-yard rusher in the junior ranks, carried 40 times for 194 yards last week and leads the AUS in rushing.
The run attack has been the key to Mount A’s playoff chase.
“The best part of our offence so far has been playing in behind our pads and trying to be a little more physical,” said coach Kelly Jeffrey. “The things we’ve done well, if you look statistically, is run the ball and take care of the turnover margin.”
St. F.X. won the season opener 51-5 at MacAulay Field while the Mounties came back to win 36-17 in the next meeting, also in New Brunswick.
The X-Men, beset by injuries, are in free fall. They've lost five in a row, although one game against Concordia was overturned due to forfeit, and haven’t kept any foe under 32 points over that stretch.
However, in spite of the negatives, a quick turnaround can save the season.
“We feel very fortunate at this point, having gone through some tough stretches, to still be in the mix here,” said X-Men head coach Gary Waterman.
“Mostly we’re disappointed that we haven’t played well enough and that we’ve put ourselves in this position with mistakes. But we’re still a confident team and the morale is still good.”