Axemen upend Dal 32 – 7 in drenched contest
On a wet and windy Wickwire Field Saturday night, the Acadia Axemen developmental team beat the Dalhousie Football Club 32 – 7.
The Axemen rode a running tandem of Derek Wodz and Cory Dumont early on, quickly adding up points. The Tigers, however, found themselves unable to catch up while rotating all three quarterbacks into the play.
Bryce Wade fired up the home side midway through a scoreless first quarter when he intercepted a throw by Axemen quarterback Andrew Healy, but the Tigers were unable to capitalize on the turnover. Dal also had difficulty protecting their quarterback Scott Seamone in the first frame. He was sacked three times.
A horse-collar foul against the Tigers late in the opening quarter placed the Axemen in strong field position and they made it count. Dumont ran the ball from the one-yard line to lead 7 – 0.
The Axemen would get on the board again as the Tigers, stuck in their own end, conceded a safety less than a minute into the quarter, giving Acadia a 9 – 0 edge. Just minutes later, the Axemen caught Dal’s offence once again in the end zone, scoring a further safety to tally another two points to their lead.
With an 11-point edge, the Axemen were far from done as running backWodz, a local product from Sir John A. Macdonald High School, took over scoring duties. Wodz broke free and ran 34 yards for his first touchdown and later added a 10-yard score to give his team a 24 – 0 lead at halftime.
The third quarter saw little action as the only highlight came in the dying seconds when the Tigers were able to move the ball deep into Axemen turf, thanks to a catch downfield by Taylor Williams.
Starting the fourth deep in Axemen territory, the Tigers offence finally scored courtesy of a touchdown catch by Richard Wang. Kicker Alex Harris added the extra point, making it 24 – 7.
Despite the momentum shift, the Tigers could not stop the Axemen offence as Troy Harrison put his team up 25 points late in the game.
In a last-ditch effort to close the deficit, the Tigers blocked an Axemen punt with less than two minutes remaining, setting themselves in scoring position. A deep throw by quarterback Mike Tassone found receiver Mackenzie Goodwin alone in the end zone, but the receiver did not pull the ball in and the chance was wasted.
Acadia head coach Jeff Cummins, fresh off an 8 – 3 defeat in AUS action against the Saint Mary’s Huskies earlier in the day, praised his red shirt players after their convincing 32 – 7 win.
“They’re great players. They work really hard every day, just like any other guys on the team. It’s great to give them a chance to actually suit up and get under the lights and play in a game.”
Acadia’s starting roster was at Wickwire to support their teammates.
“They’ve been running into and hitting the same guys in the same colour for the last six weeks,” said Cummins, “so it’s great they got a chance to play and hit a guy with a different jersey.”
Despite their lower-level opponents, he doesn’t think his team needs any extra motivation to play hard against an Atlantic Football League squad.
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