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The win also helped the Als overcome their unsuccessful streak in BC. Entering the game, Montreal had only one win in Vancouver in its last 14 meetings and had been outscored 491-253 in those matchups.
Montreal relied heavily on its running game in the victory as Sutton led the offence with 111 yards on 14 carries on top of 43 yards in the air on four catches.
Rakeem Cato was 16-for-19 and 154 yards with one touchdown and one interception in the winning effort while Marsh, the Als’ backup pivot, made the most of his brief playing time by finishing a perfect three-for-three in passing for six yards. Marsh also added a successful two-point conversion pass.
Travis Lulay had a 19-2 record when starting at BC Place coming into the game, but was unable to pull off the win and finished the night 18-for-29 with 216 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
The Thursday night contest also saw the top receiver and top rusher in the CFL face off against each other, but both defenses held the players to minimum yards. S.J. Green managed only three catches for 19 yards while Andrew Harris was held to ten yards on eight carries.
The Alouettes put faith in their running game throughout the match and it appeared to work to their benefit. On their first long drive, Montreal picked up 55 rushing yards on eight plays and gambled on third downs twice to advance them up the field. Cato found Nik Lewis for a 16-yard touchdown, but a missed extra point would put the Als down by one.
On the Alouettes next possession, Tyrell Sutton rushed for 54 yards to advance his team to the BC 49-yard line. Boris Bede successfully notched a 25-yard field goal attempt seven plays later to put Montreal up 9-7 with 11:20 remaining in the second quarter.
The Lions had a chance to pull ahead at the end of the quarter, but Richie Leone’s 48-yard field goal attempt went wide and BC went into the locker room down by two.
Montreal continued to rely on its rushing game in the second half. Their second drive of the quarter started with Stefan Logan running for 23 yards, which lead to Bede kicking a season high 50-yard field goal with 3:21 remaining in the quarter to put his team up by five.
But BC was finally able to generate some offence at the end of the third quarter. Lulay found Emmanuel Arceneaux for a 12-yard touchdown catch with zeros left on the clock, but failed to complete the two-point conversion to give the Lions a narrow 13-12 lead entering the final quarter of the game.
The Leos’ first turnover of the night proved to be costly when Lulay’s pass was intercepted by Dominique Ellis to put Montreal at the BC 30-yard line. Montreal capped off the short drive with Marsh rushing one-yard into the end zone for a touchdown to regain the lead. The Als then successfully completed the two-point conversion when Marsh connected with Sutton to extend their lead to 20-13 with 6:35 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Montreal put the nail in the coffin when Bede made his third field goal of the night from 32 yards out with 12 seconds remaining to end the game at 23-13.