The Montreal Alouettes had a good opportunity in front of them, Friday night at Percival-Molson Stadium, with the possibility of going for the tiebreaker against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The local favorites won the third game of the season between the two teams, a trench battle that ended 23-16.
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With this second win against the “Ti-Cats” (4-10), the Sparrows (6-7) made sure to finish ahead of their rivals in the event of a tie in the East Section standings. It’s also a morale-boosting win, as Danny Maciocia’s squad didn’t win after a week off in 2022.
“If I go with a baseball analogy, I can say that we have a lead of a game and a half, with a game in hand. In the next few weeks, we are aiming for a two-team race, but we still have work to do. It’s a great victory, we’re satisfied,” said the interim head coach after the game.
The Toronto Argonauts (7-5) are still ahead of the Alouettes in the standings, but the two enemy teams will meet twice before the end of the regular season.
Thierry Laforce / QMI Agency
Lewis having fun
The “Als” were able to neutralize the Tiger-Cats several times before the paying zone, and vice versa, so that the touchdowns were not numerous. Receiver Eugene Lewis was the sole author of the majors on the Montreal side. He had two, including the one on nine yards that gave the Alouettes priority as they trailed 16-15.
“Trev threw a whole ball. We’ve been playing this game for the past few weeks. I’ve been doing this since I was in collegiate days, so I was really comfortable,” Lewis said of his run to the corner of the pay zone.
Thierry Laforce / QMI Agency
The attack then went there with a calculated risk by opting for the two-point convert. Reggie White Jr. picked up the relay from Trevor Harris to make it 23-16.
With his seventh touchdown of the season, Lewis reached the 1,000-yard plateau in a second CHL campaign.
“That’s always the standard for a receiver to achieve. Personally, I think I could have gotten there a few games earlier,” he said.
A very long kick
After a first quarter that will not go down in history, Dane Evans started for the Tiger-Cats. The quarterback found several of his loose receivers, including Tim White on 38 yards, to move up the field. Wes Hills completed the offensive push with a four-yard run into the end zone.
Evans couldn’t do as well as last week, when the Tiger-Cats beat the mighty Winnipeg Blue Bombers with five touchdown passes. He still did not have a bad game with 288 aerial yards on 22 passes.
Although he hit the post on a one-point conversion, kicker David Côté was instrumental in scoring three field goals. His longest of the game, 51 yards, was also the longest of his career. It is also the Alouettes’ first field goal over 50 yards since Boris Bede’s on June 14, 2019.
A sad sequence
It was a cold evening at Percival-Molson Stadium and some spectators tried everything to warm up. As the stadium was shrouded in silence due to the injury to Rodney Randall Jr., a fight broke out behind the Tiger-Cats bench. The situation was quickly brought under control by the security agents, and Randall had to leave the meeting on a stretcher, his neck well immobilized.
“I had a stomach ache. I think everyone on the sidelines was not good to see what happened. […] I’ll text later to hear from him,” Maciocia said.
The Alouettes will play their next game next Saturday against the Elks in Edmonton.