St. F.X. battles back to beat Acadia in AUS football semifinal

It was a gutsy call but one which proved pivotal for the St. Francis Xavier X-Men in Saturday’s Atlantic university football semifinal.

Trailing Acadia by two with under six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, St. F.X. faced a third and 4 on the Acadia 46-yard line. Going for it, X-Men first-year quarterback Silas Fagnan found sophomore receiver Zakariya Karim on a backside post and scored the decisive touchdown in a 27-22 thriller in Antigonish.

“We know if the free safety plays over a little too much, we have the backside post. Let’s just say he played over too much,” recalled Fagnan, who finished the day with an even 300 yards passing on 18 of 28 attempts, including two touchdown passes to Karim.

“I don’t know what the coach’s call was but mine was we needed to score so we had to go for it. It was huge. Karim has been waiting for it for a long time. I’m just happy he got his chance, and he took a hold of it.”

St. F.X. will host next Saturday’s Loney Bowl conference championship against the Bishop’s Gaiters. The Gaiters, who will make their second consecutive appearance in the Loney Bowl, upset the Mount Allison 23-5 in the other semifinal in Sackville, N.B.

Rookie running back Malcolm Bussey was a monster on the field for X. He had 258 yards on 32 carries and scored an important touchdown with 1:53 left in the second quarter.

Those were the most yards gained by a St. F.X. rusher in a playoff game since James Green had 276 in the 2007 conference championship against Saint Mary’s.

“The guy is a workhorse for how young he is,” Fagnan said of the 19-year-old from Hammonds Plains. “Our team in general is quite young. But he has put the team on his back in moments when we needed him to. We have been able to rely on him without any hesitation. It means a bunch to us that we’re comfortable any time he has the ball.”

St. F.X., which went 6-0 during the regular season, looked to continue that undefeated run by building a 10-0 lead midway through the first quarter behind a Karim 28-yard touchdown reception and a Max Capriotti field goal.

But on Acadia’s first drive following Karim’s first major, Acadia running back Cole Estabrooks found a seam and ran 95 yards to the St. F.X. end zone.

That opened the floodgates for the Axemen, who scored 22 unanswered points, including Cherokee Robinson’s 42-yard dash for a touchdown and a Julien Poirier-McKiggan reception for a score.

The…