Huskies get rolling

38 - 10 win over Axemen

By MONTY MOSHER Sports Reporter

September 20, 2009

The Saint Mary’s Huskies got it going on both sides of the ball Saturday and that spelled trouble for the Acadia Axemen.

The CIS No. 10 Huskies, with 515 yards of offence to 152 for Acadia, evened their AUS football record at 1-1 with a 38-10 win over the Axemen at Raymond Field in Wolfville. The Axemen are also 1-1.

Huskies quarterback Jack Creighton hooked up on a pair of first-half touchdown passes to slotback Joe Doherty (6-83) to get his team up 20-7 at the half.

In Saturday’s other game, the eighth-ranked St. Francis Xavier X-Men moved to 2-0 with a 27-21 win over the Mount Allison Mounties in Sackville, N.B. The Mounties are 0-2.

The Huskies, humbled by their opening-week loss at St. F.X., ran for 216 yards and threw for 299. The defence limited the Axemen to 61 yards on the ground and 91 through the air.

Huskies head coach Steve Sumarah said the defence led the way against a team that torched the Mounties for 640 yards last week.

"They set the tempo for us," he said. "Offensively we didn’t make too many mistakes and kind of got back to more of a typical game-plan of run and pass. The key to today is I thought we got better and that’s the most important thing."

Acadia fifth-year receiver Devon Jones (Sacramento, Calif.) fired up a big crowd at the start, returning a missed field-goal try from Justin Palardy 122 yards for a touchdown less than three minutes into the game.

It marked the longest touchdown for an Axemen player since Al Charuk returned a punt 125 yards against Mount A in 1972.

The Huskies immediately responded, marching 57 yards with Creighton finishing on a 14-yard touchdown strike to Doherty.

Two powerful runs from Devon Jones (Edmonton) and a reverse to Jahmeek Murray put the Huskies into scoring position early in the second quarter and Creighton pounced again, completing a crossing route to Doherty for 32 yards and a 14-7 lead.

The Huskies added to the lead before the half with Aaron Racioppa taking a screen pass 61 yards to the Axemen 14. Palardy finished the drive with a 17-yard field goal for a 17-7 lead.

Huskies defensive end DeVon Hicks, a Florida native who attended Northwest Mississippi Community College and went to training camp in 2007 with the Green Bay Packers, made his first big play on the next series, stripping Axemen quarterback Keith Lockwood for a turnover. Palardy booted a 25-yard field goal for a 13-point advantage at the half.

Acadia’s Mike Godfrey and Palardy traded successful kicks in the first six minutes of the third quarter.

SMU broke it open on Craig Leger’s seven-yard burst at 8:40. Palardy made a 31-yard boot for a 33-10 spread before the end of the quarter.

Truro’s Palardy finished the scoring with a 15-yard kick, his fifth field goal of the night and ninth of the season, with just over two minutes to play. Palardy has 51 career field goals, five from a share of the AUS record owned by St. F.X.’s Jadran Mlinarevic.

Interlocking play between the Quebec and Atlantic conference resumes next weekend with St. F.X. at Concordia, Acadia at Montreal, Sherbrooke at Saint Mary’s and McGill at Mount A.

X-Men 27, Mounties 21 — It’s St. F.X.’s first 2-0 start since 2006 when the team also paid a Week 3 visit to Concordia. The X-Men came back from that trip on the wrong side of a 37-0 result.

The X-Men lost their last two games at Mount A and expected Kelly Jeffrey’s Mounties to be ornery after their 43-point loss at Acadia.

"They came to fight today," said X-Men head coach Gary Waterman. "It’s a credit to what Kelly Jeffrey has done keeping his team together."

St. F.X. led 9-0 in the first quarter on three field goals by Anthony Alix. Scott Brady’s third rushing major of the season for the Mounties made it 9-7 at the half.

The X-Men scored 18 straight points in the third quarter on a pair of safeties and touchdowns from receivers Nic Guest and Akeem Foster.

Touchdowns by Ben Stehr and Gary Ross, with nine seconds left in the game, gave the Mounties a late chance.

The X-Men defence turned in a second straight stout effort.

"We gave up a few plays here and there, but I thought our defence played outstanding again," Waterman said. "Offensively we are continuing to have some of the same problems. We have some big-play potential, but second-down situations have been giving us some difficulties."

All-Canadian tailback James Green was held down for a second straight week and didn’t play due to injury in the second half.

( mmosher@herald.ca)