The McGill Redmen came to Sackville this Saturday and invaded the Mount Allison football Mounties’ Homecoming with a victory. The Mounties jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead off of a McGill turnover on the Redmen’s second offensive snap of the game. The final deficit made the game look very lopsided. In fact, the first half was very exciting to spectate. Unfortunately, the Mounties were shut out in the second half, which allowed the score of the game to get out of hand. The Mounties scored fourteen of their seventeen points off of Redmen turnovers, but both of those events occurred in the first quarter.
MacAulay Field was packed all around as fans came out to see the Mounties play their home opener. Mt. A came out of the gates quickly. Te Nguyen intercepted the Redmen’s first pass of the game inside the Redmen twenty yard line, and the Mounties quickly capitalized with running back Jordan Botel’s first touchdown of the year. McGill scored thirty-nine seconds later to tie the game up at seven.
The Mounties then recovered from a fumble, and quarterback Alex Field threw a ten yard pass to freshman Rodreke Joseph. This made the score 14-7. But once again, the Redmen retaliated quickly, this time just two minutes later. From that point on, the game was controlled by McGill, as they outscored Mt. A 34-3.
Joseph talked about how the quick start was something to build on for next week.
“The first game of the season we didn’t start off good but this game started out really well and the intensity was there. We have a few things to work on but we will definitely be ready for next game,” he said.
It wasn’t all negative for the Mounties, as their defence played well in the first half, causing three turnovers.
Defensive lineman Jordan Redding agreed:
“We keep getting better every week, we’ll just keep improving against our upcoming opponents,” he said.
The three turnovers allowed quarterback Alex Field and the offense to go toe to toe with the Redmen in the first half.
McGill had 738 yards of total offence compared to Mt. A’s 238. Redmen quarterback Jonathan Collin led the game in passing with 368 yards and two touchdowns. Mounties fans got to see McGill’s explosive running back Luis Guimont-Mota rush for 141 yards and a touchdown.
Mounties quarterback Alex Field got his first start of the season and notched 129 yards through the air. Nguyen and former Tantramar Titan Michael Bohan had interceptions for Mt. A, while Nguyen and Christian Plante recovered fumbles.
At halftime, Mounties legend Éric Lapointe had his number retired. He is third all-time in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) rushing yards with 4,666, and was the only Mountie ever to win the Hec Crighton award for CIS Most Outstanding Player, being selected twice (1996, 1998).
St. FX gained a game on everyone in the Atlantic University Sport conference this week as Acadia and Saint Mary’s lost their interleague match ups. Mt. A plays their next game this Friday night at 7 pm on MacAulay Field against Saint Mary’s. They lost to Saint Mary’s 32-7 in an exhibition game two weeks ago in Halifax.
