Jordan Botel and the Mount Allison University Mounties will play for a conference title for the first time since 1998.
On Saturday in Sackville, N.B., the Mount Allison football team defeated the Acadia Axemen 19-10 in a semifinal playoff game. With the victory, the Mounties advanced to the Loney Bowl, the Atlantic University Sport championship game. The Loney Bowl will hit the field this coming Saturday in Halifax and will see the Mounties battle the Saint Mary's Huskies.
Botel, a Prince George product who graduated from College Heights secondary in 2007, is Mount Allison's primary running back. In the win against the Axemen -- who were two-time defending AUS champions -- he rumbled for a game-high 90 yards on 24 carries. Botel finished the regular season as the top rusher in the AUS.
Second-seeded Mount Allison took a 4-4 record into the game, while third-ranked Acadia came in at 3-5. The Mounties were ahead 12-10 with 9:26 left on the clock and put the game away when free safety Kwame Adjei intercepted a pass and ran 40 yards for a touchdown with three-and-a-half minutes to go.
The Mounties will head into the Loney Bowl knowing they've had plenty of success against the top-seeded Huskies (5-3), who had a bye to the final. This season, Mount Allison won both its games against St. Mary's, 29-15 on Sept. 20 and 27-24 on Oct. 18.
The winner of the Loney Bowl will advance to the Uteck Bowl against the Quebec champion on Nov. 16. The victorious team will move on to the Vanier Cup national championship game, Nov. 23 in Quebec City.
Thunderbirds grounded in Canada West semi
The UBC Thunderbirds couldn't force the Calgary Dinos into playoff extinction.
In a Friday night semifinal in Calgary, the heavily-favoured Dinos beat the Thunderbirds 42-28 and will now suit up in the Hardy Cup, the championship game in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association.
The T-birds feature Prince George's Brandon Deschamps, a third-year running back. Deschamps, who played his high school football at Kelly Road, ran for 184 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries. His TD, early in the third quarter, came on a 22-yard scamper. Deschamps' longest gain of the night was 63 yards.
UBC started strongly and had a 17-7 lead after the first quarter. But Calgary fought back for an 18-17 half-time lead. The T-birds re-took the lead in the third quarter, 24-21, but the Dinos dominated the fourth and outscored the visitors 21-4.
Calgary powered to an 8-0 record during the regular season, while UBC went 4-4.
The Dinos will host the University of Manitoba Bisons in the Hardy Cup on Saturday. The Bisons won the other Canada West semifinal, 37-36 against the host University of Saskatchewan Huskies. Both teams posted regular season records of 5-3.
The Hardy Cup winner will clash with the Ontario champion in the Mitchell Bowl, set for Nov. 16. That game will serve as a qualifier for the Vanier Cup national championship.
