Accused were X-Men players

The two men charged with sexual assaults at St. Francis Xavier University were players on the Antigonish school’s football team.

Jonah Williams, 19, was charged last week with three counts of sexual assault against two different women, and Tyler Ball, 18, was charged Monday with a single count of sexual assault.

The two defensive backs have both been dropped from the football roster on the St. FX website, however their player profile pages were still in place.

Williams was a regular on the team’s starting lineup during the season that recently ended. Ball was not.

Neither the team’s coach, the school’s athletic director nor vice-president Andrew Beckett, who spoke to media on the arrests last week, responded to requests for comment on Monday.

“In regards to your story, we will continue to fully support the RCMP and their investigation,” spokesperson Cindy MacKenzie said in a written response. “We have no new comments at this point.”

Williams and Ball were arrested on the evening of Nov. 22 after a woman reported an incident that occurred on campus during the weekend of Nov. 18.

During the investigation, another woman came forward with allegations of having been sexually assaulted twice by Williams on campus — once in September and once in November.

Williams is scheduled to appear in Antigonish provincial court on Jan. 10 while Ball will face his charges on Jan. 24.

According to an interview last week with Beckett, Williams is banned from campus as a result of the charges and Ball is only allowed on campus to attend classes.