In the nick of time

SMU beats Sherbrooke on last-second TD

Monty Moster, Sports Reporter, The Chronicle Herald

September 27, 2009

T’S HARD TO KNOW HOW GOOD the Saint Mary’s Huskies are in 2009 after three games. But it’s clear they are resilient.

The Huskies trailed the Sherbrooke Vert et Or twice on Saturday at Huskies Stadium before scoring a touchdown with six seconds left in the game for a 26-23 win in interlocking football with the Quebec conference.

Sophomore quarterback Jack Creighton marched the CIS No. 9 Huskies from their own 42-yard line with 1:20 left, completing a clutch third-and-eight pass to Carl Hardwick with the game on the line, and finished the drive with a one-yard dive.

"We’re winners," said Creighton, who completed 18-of-27 for 198 yards. "We don’t like losing. We lost our first game and we don’t want to do that again."

The AUS split its interlocking games with the seventh-ranked St. Francis Xavier moving to 3-0 for the first time in 19 years with a 19-17 win over winless Concordia in Montreal. The Acadia Axemen dropped a 34-13 decision to the Montreal Carabins in Montreal and the McGill Redmen sent the Mount Allison Mounties to 0-3 with a 49-27 win in Sackville, N.B.

Saint Mary’s trailed 16-0 in the second quarter only to come back to lead 19-16 into the final two minutes of the game. But the Vert et Or, in their first-ever contest with the Huskies, threatened to spoil the fun for 3,250 fans when they connected on a 55-yard pass to set up a two-yard touchdown run for Pascal Fils with 1:25 on the clock.

The Huskies are 2-1 while Sherbrooke heads home 2-2.

Creighton said the last drive was just something his team practises every day, then cracked a smile and admitted it wasn’t quite that routine.

"No one was nervous, that was the main thing," he said. "They had some holes in their defence and I hit them when I needed to."

The Huskies defence had another good day, despite allowing Fils, the top rusher in the CIS, a 205-yard game on 34 carries.

"They stepped up when they needed to, so that was good," said Creighton. "I’ve got a lot of faith in them. I hope they have a lot of faith in us now."

SMU linebacker Leroy Fontaine said the win showed the team’s grit.

"It builds character," said Fontaine. "We haven’t really truly been in a fight like this for a while."

Sherbrooke went up 9-0 in the first quarter on a conceded safety followed by a 77-yard drive ending with a one-yard Fils run.

Fils did most of the dirty work on Sherbrooke’s second touchdown drive in the second quarter. Vert et Or quarterback J.P. Shoiry (16-26-189) threw nine yards to Simon Charbonneau-Campeau to cap the 61-yard effort for a 16-0 spread.

Justin Palardy kicked a 19-yard field goal with 1:22 remaining in the half for a 16-3 half-time score.

SMU fought back in the third quarter with Devon Jones plowing over from the one to complete a 90-yard drive. Jones’s brother, Tristan, had the key play on the drive, a 33-yard run to the five.

The Huskies got their first lead six minutes into the fourth quarter when Creighton hit Joe Doherty on a third-and-goal from the three.

Saint Mary’s honoured former head coach Bob Hayes with a moment of silence prior to the game. Hayes died after a lengthy illness in the off-season.

X-Men 19, Stingers 17 — James Green and Peter Giannikopoulos had touchdowns in the first half as the X-Men built a 19-3 lead at the half.

But a blocked field-goal try early in the third quarter swung the momentum and the X-Men had to survive a late on-side kickoff to end a five-game losing streak in Quebec.

"We played a pretty good first half and had some opportunities in the second half and then sputtered a little bit," said Waterman. "We’re pretty happy to be 3-0 and get that monkey off our back against the Quebec conference."

X-Men QB Steve Snyder was 30-of-38 for 396 yards and Giannikopoulos caught 12 passes for 173 yards.

Concordia is 0-4.

Carabins 34, Axemen 13 — Marc-Olivier Brouillette threw for 265 yards and touchdowns to Kevin Rivet and Frank Bruno as Montreal pushed Acadia (1-2) to its second straight loss.

Rotrand Sene also had a 10-yard run for the winners.

Pierre-Paul Gelinas made four field goals.

Axemen quarterback Keith Lockwood (21-45-321) threw a 46-yard touchdown pass to Josh Pearsall in the second quarter for Acadia’s only major. Devon Jones had eight catches for 121 yards and another 126 yards on kickoff and punt returns.

Acadia trailed 20-8 at the half.

Redmen 49, Mounties 27 — Running back Andrew Hamilton ran for 254 yards and two touchdowns and caught two passes for 95 yards, including an 85-yard romp to the end zone, for Sonny Wolfe’s Redmen.

Mount A quarterback Jake Hotchkiss threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Gary Ross (4-106) and a five-yard TD toss to Adam Molnar (10-121). Ross also returned a punt 90 yards for a major and finished with 265 all-purpose yards.

Hotchkiss completed 18-of-31 for 258 yards, but allowed five interceptions.

McGill led 26-13 at the half.