The Saint Mary’s Huskies have the matchup that has been eagerly anticipated for the past 11 months.
The Huskies won their third straight Atlantic University Sport Loney Bowl on Saturday at Huskies Stadium, defeating the St. Francis Xavier X-Men 31-22. On the other side of the country, the Erik Glavic-led Calgary Dinos won the Hardy Cup with a narrow 39-38 win over the Saskatchewan Huskies.
The Huskies host the Dinos in the Uteck Bowl national semifinal at Huskies Stadium, Glavic’s first game back in Halifax since he turned his back on Saint Mary’s in January to transfer to Calgary and rejoin former Huskies head coach Blake Nill.
Glavic is one of the most decorated players in Saint Mary’s history, having won the Hec Crighton award as national player of the year in 2007. He’s up for the honour again this season.
“Everyone wants to play Glav, Glav and the Calgary Dinos,” said Huskies linebacker Leroy Fontaine after the game. “It would be an intense game, that’s all I can say. I don’t want to give anything else away.”
Huskies running back Craig Leger was MVP of the championship game, rushing for 182 yards on 21 carries, while quarterback Jack Creighton threw for 216 yards and hit receivers Carl Hardwick and Joe Doherty with touchdown strikes. Reed Anderson ran in a one-yard touchdown.
The game’s key play came with 12:34 to play in the fourth quarter. After a 50-yard reception from Racioppa took the Huskies to the six-yard line, the X-Men took an 11-yard penalty for roughing kicker Justin Palardy on a field-goal attempt. That put the Huskies on the one-yard line and Anderson punched it in, putting the Huskies up 24-16.
From there, Leger did some of his best work, helping the Huskies kill the clock with a one-possession lead.
“We needed to control the clock and we did,” said Huskies head coach Steve Sumarah. “The O-Line did a great job up front giving him a crease and boy did (Leger) hit it. We needed big plays at the end of the game and thank God, we got them.”
Halifax’s James Green wrapped up a tremendous five-year career with the X-Men, piling up 152 yards on 31 carries in one of his heaviest workloads of the campaign.
