Mounties Earn 16-8 Exhibition Victory Over StFX

The defending AUS champion Mount Allison Mounties opened the 2014 season with a 16-8 exhibition victory over the StFX X-Men on a blustery day at MacAulay in Sackville on Saturday.  On a day that saw both teams dress 90 players each (allowable under exhibition rules), it was special teams that made the difference for the Mounties.

Freshman Mountie Idahosa Yorke announced his arrival to the AUS with a 90 yard punt return touchdown with 4 minutes remaining in the first half.  Yorke, from Bowmanville, ON, scored the game's only major when he turned the corner and sauntered untouched up the sidelines for the longest play of the day.  The Mounties other points came from 3 field goals, one from each of the Mounties kickers who were in the lineup today.  For StFX, their 8 points came from 2 first quarter field goals and a safety late in the third quarter.

StFX opened the scoring less than 2 minutes into the game when they turned an interception on the first play of the game into a 21 yard Jeremy Ford field goal.  The X-Men stretched their lead to 6 points with 4 minutes remaining in the 1^st quarter when Jeremy Ford split the uprights again, this time from 18 yards.  The Mounties responded with a field goal of their own six minutes later, when Loney Bowl hero Kyle McLean connected from 26 yards out.

The score remained 6-3 StFX until 4 minutes remaining in the 1^st half when Yorke made his mark with the long field goal return.  StFX forced the Mounties to take a safety with 1 minute remaining in the 3^rd quarter against the wind.  With the wind in the 4^th quarter the Mounties used a 30 yard field goal from Freshman Ryan Lambert and a 22-yard field goal from 2^nd year Mountie Jordon Camp to ice the game.

StFX finished the game with more total offense than the Mounties but Mounties punter Kyle McLean did a great job of pinning the X-Men deep all day long, dropping the ball inside the StFX 20 yard line 5 times on the day. 

The Mounties now get ready for their regular season opener when the host the Acadia Axemen on Saturday, September 6^th at 2PM at MacAulay Field.  The last meeting between these two teams was a 19-10 victory for the Mounties in the Subway AUS Semi-Final last year.  StFX will open their season on the road against Saint Mary's on Friday, September 5th