THE SAINT MARY’S HUSKIES believed the St. Francis Xavier X-Men would be good this year.

Maybe they just didn’t believe it enough.

The X-Men christened a refurbished Oland Stadium with a 24-19 AUFC season-opening win over the CIS fourth-ranked Huskies, signalling to the football nation that they are a legitimate threat to win their first league crown since 1996.

It marked the first win for new head coach Gary Waterman, who took over from John Bloomfield in the off-season.

Rookie punter Anthony Alix ran 41 yards on a punt fake that led to quarterback Steve Snyder’s 10-yard touchdown pass to receiver Akeem Foster for the deciding points with 2:26 to play in the fourth quarter.

"It’s a huge win," said Snyder (19-33-245), one of 10 fifth-year seniors on a veteran-packed X-Men roster. "We’re a good football team, but we’ve still got a long way to go."

In the other AUFC opener in Wolfville, the Acadia Axemen won their first game at Raymond Field since 2006 by rolling up 640 yards of offence in a 58-15 pounding of the Mount Allison Mounties.

Before Waterman celebrated his first win he pulled his players to the sidelines to salute an adoring crowd of more than 5,000.

"We’re really excited to get the win," said Waterman. "But we’ve got to keep it in perspective. It starts us off on the right foot, but there’s so much more work to be done."

The Huskies had a chance after the Foster major, but Dave Skillen’s interception — one of four for the X-Men on the day off SMU starter Jack Creighton — killed the threat.

Reilly Penner, Nick Riva and Dylan Hollohan had the other interceptions for the X-Men. Mark Holden had one for the Huskies.

The X-Men defence, led up front by the robust Skillen, was the story, holding a highly touted Huskies ground game to 139 yards with no rush longer than 16.

Creighton threw for 299 yards, but was sacked twice to go along with the interceptions. Skillen had one of the sacks and shared the other.

"This is a veteran St. F.X. team and you could see that they were sharper and crisper than we were," said Huskies head coach Steve Sumarah.

Huskies fifth-year receiver Carl Hardwick, with six catches for 79 yards, said the Huskies came in too cocky.

"Down the road, this could be the best thing that’s happened to us," Hardwick said. "We had a couple of bad days of practice with guys too overconfident. Guys need to get that out of their heads and I think today did that."

X-Men tailback James Green was held to 27 yards on 12 carries, but had a one-yard plunge in the first quarter. Justin Palardy drilled three field goals, two in the last two minutes of the second quarter, as the Huskies took a 9-7 lead to the dressing room.

Nic Guest hauled in a 44-yard touchdown reception from Snyder three minutes into the third quarter and Alix made a 31-yard field goal later in the quarter for a 17-9 X-Men lead.

The Huskies came back on Palardy’s fourth field goal late in the third quarter and a Creighton’s one-yard dive with six minutes left for a 19-17 lead.

SMU receiver Joe Doherty had three catches for 99 yards.

Axemen 58, Mounties 15 — Acadia quarterback Keith Lockwood completed 28-of-39 for 435 yards and four touchdowns as Acadia matched last year’s win total before 1,800 fans.

It is Lockwood’s second-highest passing total for a game after throwing for 456 against McGill in 2007.

Devon Jones caught eight passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns while Will Tanner had seven receptions for 119.

Stu Clow had touchdown catches covering 61 and 30 yards and nearly made it three Axemen receivers over 100 yards.

Backup quarterback Kyle Graves added a pair of short touchdown runs. Brett Haenni was the top rusher with 95 yards on 16 carries.

Taylor Renaud returned a fumble on a kickoff 30 yards for another Acadia score.

Running back Scott Brady accounted for both Mount A majors.

It was 24-8 at the half.

( mmosher@herald.ca)

 

This page last modified Sunday, 07-Nov-2010 16:43:31 AST