By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

A redemption season for the Bahamian trio at the Acadia football programme also turns out to have a similar effect for Axemen as the team clinched an early Atlantic University Sport football postseason berth.

On Saturday, the Axemen improved to 5-2 with a 35-17 victory over the St Francis Xavier X-Men at home in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

Arrien McDonald was key in the return game on special teams and in the defensive backfield. McDonald had two kickoff returns for 46 yards and two punt returns for 36 yards. He also added two tackles on defence.

Eugene McMinns returned four punts for 26 yards and Shelton Williams got the start on the offensive line.

The Axemen compiled 511 yards on the ground and in the air and, in doing so, dominated the possession clock with over 38 minutes controlling the ball. The only statistic the Axemen fell short in was penalties, that included nine for 78 yards.

The Axemen will conclude the 2017 regular season at home next weekend against the 5-1 Saint Mary’s Huskies.

Through seven games, McMinns is third in the AUS with 1,166 all-purpose yards and is fourth at 166 yards per game.

After a 2016 season where they won just two games, the Axemen are now just 0.5 game behind the leading St Mary’s Huskies with first place to be decided on the final weekend of regular season play.

Last Thursday it was announced that the first-place Huskies would be stripped of a regular-season win because of an eligibility infraction. SMU’s 38-23 victory over St F.X. on August 25 was reversed and credited to the X-Men as a 1-0 win.

The Axemen’s schedule had many road games at the beginning of the season, but on the back end they are taking advantage of hosting games down the stretch in a run at the playoffs.

“When the schedule came out, we knew it was going to be rough in the beginning and would play towards our favour in the end,” Acadia head coach Jeff Cummins said to the Chronicle Herald.

“But those three of our first four on the road didn’t include a trip to Bishop’s, so that was great. And then we had the bye. And then we play our final three out of four games at home. And the long road trip to Bishop’s is over the Thanksgiving weekend so we had an extra day off from school anyway. When I first looked at the schedule back in the spring I had some questions. But as I started to get into it a little more I realised how much I appreciated it.”