SMU to meet Blake Nill’s Calgary Dinos in CIS semi
By Monty Mosher, The Chronicle Herald
 
THE SAINT MARY’S HUSKIES are heading down the Vanier Cup trail once again thanks to the unrelenting legs of Salmon River’s Craig Leger.

And they’ve got their dream date in next weekend’s Uteck Bowl to boot.

Leger, named game MVP, ran for 182 yards on 21 carries as the lone available tailback as the Huskies beat the St. Francis Xavier X-Men 31-22 Saturday in the Loney Bowl AUS football championship before 3,500 fans.

It is the third straight Loney Bowl win for the Huskies over the X-Men and their ninth title in the last 11 seasons. St. F.X. has lost 18 games in a row in Halifax since 1998.

The Huskies, 8-1, will host the Uteck Bowl national semifinal next Saturday at 1 p.m. against former head coach Blake Nill’s Calgary Dinos, with former SMU quarterback Erik Glavic at the controls. The Dinos beat the Saskatchewan Huskies 39-38 Saturday in the Hardy Trophy in Saskatoon.

The five-foot-nine, 185-pound Leger was on the spot all week with Devon Jones out due to suspension and his other brother, Tristan, sidelined with a bad shoulder.

The modest Leger, in his third year out of Cobequid, was uncomfortable in the spotlight.

"I was just going to do whatever I could do to help everyone out and try to fill the Jones brothers’ shoes," he said. "I didn’t like being in the situation with what happened to them. Hopefully, they’ll both be back next week and we’ll be back to what we do and we’ll just keep the ball rolling."

Leger was at his best in the fourth quarter after X-Men quarterback Steve Snyder hit Akeem Foster with a six-yard touchdown pass to pull the X-Men to within a touchdown at 27-22. Leger responded with two big runs to back the visitors on their heels and get Justin Palardy into range for a 38-yard field goal that provided a comfortable lead.

"When the lights were on him at the end of the game he shone and I’ve got nothing but great things to say about him," said Huskies head coach Steve Sumarah.

It was another in the trilogy of Loney Bowl battles between the teams. SMU led 10-6 at the half and 17-16 at the end of the third quarter.

"Give credit to those guys, they weren’t going to go down without a fight," he said. "But I think kudos to our guys, too. There were a couple of times when momentum swung and we were able to fight back hard."

"They know our stuff, we know their stuff," said Huskies receiver Carl Hardwick, who caught a 33-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jack Creighton (12-25-216) at 13:27 of the second quarter to take the Huskies to the half on top. "It was just coming out here, man to man, to see who’s the better team and I think that we proved that we are the better team."

Halifax’s James Green ended his varsity career with 152 yards on 31 carries, his best game of the season after getting lost for most of the season in the pass-first X-Men offence.

It’s a bitter end for Green and a host of X-Men, including Snyder, Kwasi Nkansah, John Skillen, Calvin Mims and Halifax’s Yahia Dalloul.

"The senior guys, we all promised each other we’d leave it on the field," Green said as he gasped through tears. "This team battled, it never quit, and that’s all you can ask for at the end of the day."

Skillen, a defensive end, tried to play on a torn ACL, but only lasted 10 minutes before his knee buckled as Creighton ran past him. He ended the game on crutches.

Palardy opened the scoring with a 12-yard field goal at 10:35 of the first quarter with Creighton’s 30-yard toss to Firass El-Fateh the key play. SMU fumbled a punt near the end of the quarter and Anthony Alix made them pay with a late 24-yard field goal.

The X-Men went up 6-3 at 10:27 of the second quarter with Alix hitting from 25 yards. Bryce Fisher’s interception led to the Hardwick major for a 10-6 SMU lead.

The Huskies took advantage of a fumbled punt by the X-Men in the third quarter. On the second play after the turnover, Creighton went on top 19 yards to Joe Doherty for a 17-6 lead at 6:08.

The game was delayed after the Doherty score after Huskies defensive back Quinton Meaders tackled Green near the sidelines. Meaders went down with what the team described as a rib injury and was taken to the hospital.

A Nick Riva interception of Creighton led to a 24-yard field goal by Alix at 11:23. Then SMU receiver Aaron Racioppa’s fumble ended up in the grasp of Dylan Hollohan and he blazed 40 yards with the recovery for a 17-16 score 39 seconds later.

The X-Men gave the momentum back early in the fourth when they were called for roughing on a short Palardy field goal. The Huskies turned it into a one-yard touchdown run for fullback Reed Anderson at 2:45.

Leger rumbled into X-Men territory on the next series, leading to a Palardy field goal from 27 yards at 5:51.

Ryan King and Leroy Fontaine finished with 10.5 tackles each to lead the SMU defence.

The Huskies didn’t know who they were destined to face in the Uteck Bowl when they left the stadium, but left no doubt they wanted a shot at Nill, who recruited some of the current Huskies before departing in 2006, and Glavic, who won the Hec Crighton Trophy in the maroon and white in 2007.

"Everybody knows who we want," said Hardwick.

In the other conference title games, Laval beat Montreal 31-7 and Queen’s toppled Western 43-39. Laval visits Queen’s, with four Nova Scotians on the roster, in the Mitchell Bowl next Saturday.