New Westminster’s Brandon Leyh helped lead the Mount Allison Mounties to their first Atlantic football title since 1997.
The second-year Mount Allison quarterback completed 15 of 23 passes, including a game-tying touchdown throw, in the Mounties’ 20-17 victory over the No. 1 conference seed Saint Mary’s Huskies to win the Atlantic conference championship Loney Bowl last Saturday.
With less than three minutes left to play and driving into a stiff wind, Leyh hit game MVP Josh Blanchard with a 34-yard touchdown strike in the end zone to tie the contest 17-17.
On the Huskies’ next possession, linebacker Ty Nguyen intercepted Saints pivot Jack Creighton, running the ball back 13 yards to the Huskies’ 41-yard line.
Two plays later, kicker Kyle McLean booted a 22-yard field goal with just 53 seconds remaining to give Mount Allison the lead.
“Even when it looked grim, these guys just kept making plays,” said Mount Allison head coach Kelly Jeffrey, in a Chronicle Heraldstory. “Even in my own heart I was a little bit down when the wind shifted and we didn’t have the lead, but they kept playing.”
The win was the fifth Atlantic Bowl title for the Mounties’ football program.
Leyh, one of just two B.C. players at Mount Allison, finished the game with 245 total yards passing. Leyh led the Atlantic conference with 171.3 passing yards per game. He was second overall with 1,199 total yards through the air.
Mount Allison will be at home this weekend to the defending Canadian Interuniversity Sports champion Laval Rouge et Or in the Uteck Bowl.
The Mounties turned around a 1-4 start to their season, winning their last three regular season games to qualify for the playoffs.
