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Kadie Smith
The BCLions will look to bounce back after a tough 24-9 loss to the Alouettes Friday night at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium.
It was a hard first quarter for the Lions as the Als went up 14-0 and played a well-executed game, keeping the Lions at bay throughout the game.
The Als opened the scoring at just over seven minutes into the first quarter with an unlikely defensive TD from Chip Cox when Scott Paxson tipped Glenn’s pass intended for Andrew Harris and made a lateral pass to Cox for a 26-yard touchdown.
Then, with just over a minute to go in the quarter, Brandon Whitaker capped off a 71-yard drive by Montreal when he found an opening and took off for a 32-yard touchdown run to give the Als another seven.
Mike Benevides’ team struggled with Montreal’s high-risk style of defence, misreading the blitz and allowing the defence to sneak through holes in the O-Line and smother Kevin Glenn in the pocket.
The Als were all over the pivot, garnering five sacks on him, with four going to John Bowman alone.
The Lions did find some offensive ground in the third quarter. After Mike Benevides stressed to his team this week about remaining calm in games, the Lions hit the field for the second half looking more relaxed and poised and generated some much-needed offence with several strong runs from Stefan Logan, some big plays from Glenn and grabs from Ernest Jackson who finished the game with six catches for 72 yards including a 29-yard snag in double coverage.
For his part, Logan picked up 123 all-purpose yards, 71 on kick returns, and continued to prove himself am invaluable member of the Leos offence.
However, despite the revitalized offence and some big plays, the Lions could not capitalize, and the Als tacked on six more to bring the score to 20-0 in the third quarter care of two Sean Whyte Field goals for 34 and 27 yards respectively.
Paul McCallum got his team on the board five minutes into the fourth with a 24-yard field goal, his eighth consecutive one. The Als would answer right back though, adding four more on another field goal and a rouge to regain their 20-point lead late in the fourth.
After Montreal’s Chip Cox was penalized 15 yards for roughing the passer, Ex NFLer John Beck stepped in to replace a roughed-up Glenn, who finished the game 13 of 25 for 159 yards and two interceptions.
Beck, who made his first CFL regular-season appearance, found Korey Williams for 21 yards on his first attempt to bring the Leos within scoring position. On third and goal, Beck found Courtney Taylor wide open in the end zone with a seven yard pass as the new Lion picked up his first CFL touchdown pass to go along with his first CFL completion.
The Lions then went for the two-point conversion, but Beck couldn’t connect with Korey Williams, and with just over a minute to play, that’s where they would stay.
The Lions start the season 0-2 as they’ll head to Saskatchewan for Week 3 to take on the Roughriders.
By the Numbers:
Adam Bighill lead all defensive players with nine tackles and one special teams tackle.
Dante Marsh tacked on four tackles to his record number. The BC leader now sits at 565 and is 14th all-time in the league. 37 back of the 13th spot.