X-Men clinch first round playoff bye with win over Moncton

Moncton, NB – The U SPORTS No. 9 ranked STFX X-Men defeated the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus 3-0 Friday night in AUS action.

With the win the X-Men improve to 8-2-1 on the season and currently sit in second place in the AUS standings with 25 points, four back of first place Cape Breton (9-0-2). The victory also clinched STFX an ever important first round bye in the upcoming AUS championship as they have locked in second place.

The Capers tied the third place UNB Reds (6-2-3), who now trail the X-Men by four points and can't catch them in the standings. The Reds and X-Men will play in the final regular season game of the AUS schedule tomorrow at 5:15 pm in Fredericton.

In Friday night's game at Moncton, STFX got out to a 1-0 lead thanks to a goal by Charlie Waters in the 29^th minute. He took a pass up the wing from Dyan Vil, found his way inside the top of the 18-yard box where he alluded an Aigles Bleus defender and delivered a hard, high strike past keeper Matteo Blanc.

Freshman midfielder Isaac VanWychen added to the STFX lead four minutes into the second half when he connected on a solid header into the Moncton directly off a Logan Rieck corner kick.

Rieck then scored the X-Men's third goal of the night in the 73^rd minute off a long strike he lofted from just past midfield on a nicely placed ball that tricked Blanc and went in over his head as he tried to backpedal to stop it.

The X-Men outshot the Aigles Bleus 14-7 in the match to earn the victory. Samuel Diltz had the shutout win in the STFX net.  

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Recap courtesy STFX Athletics