Mounties Top Acadia 32-14 and Move Into Tie for 1st Place

The Mount Allison Mounties moved into a tie for 1st place at the half way point of the AUS season after a convincing 32-14 win over Acadia on Saturday afternoon in Wolfville.  The two-time defending AUS champions, who lost for the 1st time in 13 AUS regular season games two weeks ago, used a total team effort for the win.

The Mounties, with the wind at their backs for the first quarter, started quickly with a 5-0 lead after an Acadia team safety and a 28 yard Ryan Lambert field goal less than 5 minutes into the game.  Acadia took their only lead of the game when AUS MVP Brian Jones scored with a 4 yard touchdown reception to give the home side a 7-5 lead in the last minute of the first quarter.

The defending champs answered right back, driving 55 yards on the ensuing possession before Ryan Lambert hit from 17 yards to give the Mounties an 8-7 lead.  Halfway through the 2nd quarter the Mounties made yet another play on special teams, this time with Andrew Klain jumping on an Eli Prochnau fumble and giving the Mounties the ball on the Acadia 21 yard line.  Four plays later Brandon Leyh called his own number and ran it in from 10 yards out to give the Mounties a 15-7 lead.

The Mounties extended their lead to 18-7 four minutes into the 3rd quarter when Lambert made his 3rd field goal of the game and 10th of the season, this time from 35 yards.  The score stayed this way until Eli Prochnau scored on an 11 yard touchdown reception with 11 minutes remaining. 

With the Mounties lead cut to 18-14 and with the game starting to feel similar to Acadia's come back two weeks prior, the Mounties dug in and took control of the game.  First the Mounties defense tightened up, resulting in good field position for the offense.  Leyh and his Mounties drove 51 yards in five plays, capping the drive off with a 9 yard touchdown pass to 3rd year Mountie Dakota Brush with 4 minutes remaining. 

With the score 25-14 the Mounties defense held again and Leyh and the offense went back to work.  On the strength of several good runs by sophomore running back Kiel Ambursley the Mounties drove 61 yards and once again found the end zone.  Ambursley, responsible for 36 of the 61 yards on the drive, scored from 11 yards out to make the score 32-14 with 45 seconds remaining.  The Mounties last touchdown drive was kept alive by a fake field goal where Michael Bohan ran for 12 yards and a first down.

"We found ourselves in a similar situation to two weeks ago and it was great to see our team respond and close out the game this time," offered Mounties Head Coach Kelly Jeffrey. "This week was an important step for our team and we continue to develop."

Subway Player of the Game Kiel Ambursley led the Mounties with 134 yards rushing and 1 TD on 25 attempts.  Quarterback Brandon Leyh, who moved into 2nd place all-time in Mounties history for passing yards, was 19 for 29 for 145 yards with 1 passing and 1 rushing TD.  Dakota Brush, who leads the AUS in receptions had 6 more catches for 53 yards and 1 touchdown.  Fifth year linebacker Te Nguyen had 10.5 tackles for the Mounties while Sophomore Shaun Robinson had 1.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for losses.  The Mounties had 4 sacks on the day.

At 2-2 the Mounties now sit in a tie for 1st place with Acadia and StFX.  Saint Mary's is in last place at 0-4.  The Mounties travel to Antigonish to play StFX next Saturday, October 10th at 2PM.  The game can be seen live on Bell Aliant's TV1 (Channels 1 and 401).