MONTREAL — The Montreal Alouettes suffered defeat for the first time in 300 days — and lost their star quarterback in the process.
Cody Fajardo exited with an injury as the Toronto Argonauts snapped Montreal’s unbeaten run with a 37-18 victory Thursday.
Montreal (5-1) lost its first game since falling to Toronto on Sept. 15 last season, ending a club-record 13-game run, including playoffs and the Grey Cup.
Fajardo left at the end of the first quarter after throwing an incomplete pass before heading to the locker room at Molson Stadium holding his hamstring. The Grey Cup MVP was hurried five times, hit twice and sacked twice prior to his early departure.
“He didn’t finish the game and that tells you something,” Als head coach Jason Maas said of Fajardo’s status. “We’ll get that imaged and looked at, and then we’ll have a time frame for his return. Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.”
Caleb Evans took over for the last three quarters, going 12-of-22 for 127 passing yards, two TD passes and two interceptions.
Meanwhile, Toronto (3-2) broke a two-game skid that started with a 30-20 defeat to the Alouettes on June 28 and evened the season series against its East Division rival.
Cameron Dukes compiled 131 passing yards with one TD on 16-for-20 completions after throwing four picks in last week’s 30-23 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
But it was Janarion Grant who sparked the Argos with a 103-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the dying moments of the first half. It was the third-longest kick return in the franchise’s long history.
In a game where neither offence was clicking on all cylinders, Toronto head coach Ryan Dinwiddie called it “the impact play of the game.”
“Their quarterback’s not playing, our quarterback’s not playing that well,” he said. “So the other units got to pick it up and we did.”
Late in the second quarter, the Alouettes brought the score within two points after running back Walter Fletcher sliced and diced through the Argos defence for a 50-yard rush that set up Tyson Philpot for the Canadian wideout’s league-leading fifth TD reception.
But after the Alouettes missed the two-point conversion, Grant pulled off the kick-return TD to put Toronto up 24-15 at halftime and squash Montreal’s momentum.
“I just saw space and opportunity,” Grant said. “So I had to run like it was a racetrack, you feel me?
“And get to it.”
With Fajardo out, the Alouettes barely stood a chance of mounting a comeback.
Montreal had only one first down, 13 offensive plays and 32 net yards with Evans under centre in the second half. The home team also possessed the ball for only eight minutes.
Maas said despite the ugly numbers, he has confidence in his backup should Fajardo miss time.
“I trust our guys and I trust the guys we have behind them to go in there and do the job,” Maas said. “We won games without (Fajardo) last year.”
The sluggish Alouettes were coming off a five-day break after beating the Calgary Stampeders 30-26 on Saturday, but Maas wouldn’t use that as an excuse.
“Is football meant to be played on five days rest? I don’t believe (so). That’s my opinion, but we have to do it,” he said. “Did that contribute to what we did tonight? I don’t want to look at it that way. I like to give the other teams credit. We didn’t do enough to win the night.”
The Saskatchewan Roughriders (4-0), who visit the B.C. Lions on Saturday, are the only remaining undefeated CFL team this season.
Dinwiddie said the Argos weren’t taking any pride in handing the defending champs their first loss of the season.
“Hell no, not at all,” he said. “We just needed to get 1-0, and then get to 3-2 and get back in it.
“Yeah, they’re the best in the league right now, and we didn’t play our best football. They lost their quarterback, I get it. It’s not something to say, ‘Oh, yeah, we beat Cody.'”
Alouettes kicker Jose Maltos, replacing injured starter David Cote, went 1-for-2 on field goals, including a 50-yarder. He also scored a rouge on a missed attempt from 38 yards. Toronto’s Lirim Hajrullahu was 3-for-3.
The game started with a sloppy first quarter before the action picked up midway through the second.
Argos linebacker Wynton McManis kicked it off, intercepting an Evans pass and running it nine yards into the end zone to give Toronto a 10-2 lead at 7:55.
Evans responded with a 22-yard pass into the end zone for Charleston Rambo. The Argos made it 17-9 with 2:15 remaining when Dukes found Damonte Coxie for a 10-yard score.
Philpot then got then Montreal within two before Grant ran the length of the field for a 24-15 lead at the half.
“It was a fast transition, especially where the clock was at that time, right?” Dinwiddie said.
“Big, big play.”
UP NEXT
Alouettes: Host the Saskatchewan Roughriders on July 25 after a bye week.
Argos: Visit the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on July 20.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2024.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
