WINNIPEG — Zach Collaros wasn’t just glad to throw his first touchdown pass of the season, it was his particular target that made it extra satisfying.
Collaros got the ball into the hot hands of rookie Ontaria Wilson for his first CFL touchdown in a 41-37 victory over the Calgary Stampeders on Friday.
“In the quarterback room we’ve been saying we’ve got to find ways to get this guy the ball,” said Collaros. “I haven’t seen many guys being able to adjust to the football in the air like he does.”
Wilson finished with 13 receptions for 201 yards in front of 29,467 fans at Princess Auto Stadium, who were thrilled to see the Bombers (2-4) win back-to-back games at home. Calgary dropped to 2-3 with its second straight loss.
Wilson, who caught his 30-yard TD pass in the end zone while falling, said he expected to get some balls thrown his way and go over the 100-yard receiving mark.
“Just an amazing game,” he said. “Never been over 200. That’s a milestone. It’s really not all of a sudden. Just being able to be consistent every day in practice and just coming in every day to work.”
Collaros completed 27 of 36 pass attempts for 344 yards with two TDs and two interceptions.
Bombers defensive back Deatrick Nichols recorded a 55-interception return for a score in a match that saw Calgary holding a 37-33 at 7:32 of the fourth quarter.
Collaros guided Winnipeg on a nine-play, 102-yard drive that ended with Nic Demski’s 10-yard TD catch and two-point convert grab with 3:25 left.
Stampeders quarterback Jake Maier was sacked for a loss and threw an incompletion to force Calgary to punt. The Bombers chewed up some yards and ran the clock out.
“This one was lost on me,” Maier said. “I gave them six points before the half and we lost by four points, so that’s where I am.
“I need to be accountable for that. I felt like the game might have been different if that didn’t happen.”
Maier was 20-of-31 passing for 316 yards with two TDs and two picks.
Bombers running back Brady Oliveira rushed 15 times for 109 yards. Calgary counterpart Dedrick Mills also carried the ball 15 times for 131 yards.
Backup Winnipeg quarterback Chris Streveler ran three yards for a score. Placekicker Sergio Castillo hit field goals from 31, 57, 28 and 38 yards. He missed one attempt from 55 yards, but made three converts.
The Stampeders got a pair of touchdown runs by backup quarterback Tommy Stevens. Receivers Erik Brooks and Marken Michel also caught TD passes.
Calgary kicker Rene Paredes booted field goals from 38, 41, 22 yards and made four converts.
Stampeders head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson said it was another tough loss for his team, which was defeated 30-26 by Montreal last week after being outscored 15-0 in the fourth quarter.
“I think we’re doing some good things, but we are losing track of some details,” Dickenson said. “Some things just went against us, too. That’s called life. That’s football. But let’s make sure we keep believing in each other, support each other and hopefully move forward.”
The Stampeders led 7-6 after the first quarter, it was tied 23-23 at halftime and Winnipeg led 30-23 heading into the fourth.
There was a lot of action in the first half, with Calgary turning the ball over three times and Winnipeg scoring 13 points off the gifts.
The Stampeders opened the game strong with a five-play, 76-yard drive capped by Stevens’ one-yard TD run.
The teams then exchanged interceptions.
Collaros was picked off by defensive back Tre Roberson, but when Maier lined up after the turnover, he was intercepted on his first throw by Bombers DB Tyrell Ford.
Winnipeg used the turnover for Castillo’s 31-yard field goal to make it 7-3 at 6:16.
Calgary gave up another turnover when running back Peyton Logan was forced to fumble by Nichols. The ball was recovered by Bombers defensive end Lucky Ogbevoen in his CFL debut.
Winnipeg’s new drive ended with a 57-yard Castillo field goal as time expired.
The second quarter featured three field goals from Paredes, one by Castillo, back-to-back Winnipeg touchdowns by Wilson and Nichols and a Calgary TD from Brooks.
Castillo missed a 55-yard attempt on the opening series of the third quarter and Calgary ran it out.
Collaros was intercepted in the end zone by Roberson, but the Stamps were forced to punt and Bombers linebacker Tanner Cadwallader partially blocked it and Nick Hallett recovered the ball.
Oliveira then ran three times for 30 yards, followed by Streveler’s three-yard keeper for the touchdown at 11:40 to give Winnipeg a 30-23 lead.
Calgary regained a 37-33 lead at 7:32 of the fourth after a Stevens’ three-yard TD run around the side and Michel’s five-yard reception for a major.
UP NEXT
Bombers: Travel to Saskatchewan to play the Roughriders on July 19
Stampeders: Host the B.C. Lions on July 21.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 12, 2024.
Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil announced her retirement from swimming Thursday.
The gold medallist in the women’s 100-metre butterfly at Tokyo’s Summer Games in 2021 made the announcement in an Instagram post alongside a photo of her swimming as a child.
“The little girl above would have never dreamed this is where her love of swimming would take her,” Mac Neil wrote. “I am so grateful for all the memories, people, and places I have gotten to experience just through swimming.
“I’m excited to begin the next chapter of my life journey, as I embark on discovering who I am outside of swimming.”
The 24-year-old from London, Ont., earned a complete set of medals in Tokyo after helping relay teams to silver and bronze medals.
Mac Neil’s five gold medals at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, were the most by a Canadian athlete at a single Pan Am Games.
She was fifth in butterfly and was a member of two women’s relay teams that finished fourth at the recent Olympic Games in Paris.
“Anyone who I crossed paths with never, ever told me I couldn’t achieve my goal of going to the Olympics,” Mac Neil wrote. “It’s still surreal to be able to say I’m a two-time Olympian.”
She completed her master’s degree in sport management at Louisiana State University this year.
Born in China and adopted by Dr. Susan McNair and Dr. Edward MacNeil, Mac Neil’s mother wanted her to take swimming lessons for safety reasons because of the family’s backyard pool.
Mac Neil’s 2017 diagnosis of sport-induced asthma — which can be triggered by the swimming staples of heat and chlorine — forced a switch from longer distances to sprints.
Mac Neil became Canada’s first world champion in the women’s 100-metre butterfly two years later.
The nearsighted Mac Neil, who doesn’t wear contacts or prescription goggles, has seen multiple times a meme of her squinting hard at the scoreboard in Tokyo as she tried to decipher her result.
“I like to think it helps because I can’t see where other people are and I’m able to focus on my own race,” Mac Neil said before the Olympic Games in Paris. “That was definitely the case in Tokyo.
“I got that meme sent to me at least three times in January even though it’s been three years since.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.
NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Serbia and Albania are set to co-host the men’s Under-21 European Championship in 2027 in a soccer project that aims to overcome political tensions.
UEFA said Thursday only the Serbia-Albania bid met a deadline this week to file detailed tournament plans. Belgium and Turkey had declared interest earlier in the bidding process scheduled to be decided at a Dec. 16 meeting of the UEFA executive committee.
The Serbian and Albanian soccer federations teamed up in May to plan organization of the 16-team tournament played every two years that needs eight stadiums to host 31 games.
Albania soccer federation leader Armand Duka, who is a UEFA vice president, told The Associated Press in May that “it’s a 100% football project” with “a very good political message that we can get across.”
Weeks later at the men’s European Championship held in Germany, historic tensions between the Balkan countries — which in soccer included a notorious drone incident at a Serbia-Albania game in 2014 — played out at separate games involving their senior teams.
An Albania player was banned for games by UEFA for using a megaphone to join fans in nationalist chants, including targeting Serbia, after a Euro 2024 game against Croatia. Fans of Albania and Croatia earlier joined in anti-Serb chants, leading UEFA to impose fines for discrimination.
UEFA also fined both the Albanian and Serbian federations in separate incidents at Euro 2024 for fans displaying politically motivated banners about neighboring Kosovo.
After historic tensions were heightened by the 1990s Balkans conflicts, in 2008 majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo declared independence for the former Serbian province. Serbia refuses to recognize that independence and considers Kosovo the cradle of its statehood.
An Albanian fans group daubed red paint on the federation offices in May when the cooperation with Serbian soccer for the Under-21 Euros was announced.
“We did have a few negative reactions from fans, mainly, and some interest groups,” Duka said then, “but not from the Albania government.”
UEFA has shown broad support for Serbia and Albania under its president, Aleksander Ceferin, who is from Slovenia.
The next annual congress of UEFA’s 55 national federations is in the Serbian capital Belgrade on April 3, and an executive committee meeting in September 2025 will be held in Tirana, Albania.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia’s mayor has revealed the terms of the deal negotiated with the city’s pro basketball team for a new $1.3 billion arena downtown.
The agreement reached earlier this month calls for the Philadelphia 76ers to finance the entire project, with no city funding involved. There is, however, a provision that would let the NBA team make annual payments in lieu of taxes averaging $6 million per year. The agreement also calls for a $50 million investment in businesses, neighboring communities and the city’s schools to blunt the project’s impact, Mayor Cherelle Parker said during a news conference Wednesday night.
“I truly am proud having made this decision and negotiated an agreement that will definitely ensure that our Sixers are staying home right here in Philadelphia, where they should be,” Parker said.
City officials also released drafts of the nine bills and two resolutions needed to authorize the project, including measures that allow the city to acquire the arena property and change zoning rules. Parker said her administration would hold a series of town halls in the coming months where residents could discuss concerns about the proposal.
Team owners say their planned “76 Place” project would improve a struggling retail corridor near City Hall and capitalize on the city’s public transit. They also have vowed not to renew the lease on their current space, a circa 1996 arena in the city’s South Philadelphia sports complex, when their lease runs out in 2031.
The proposal has drawn significant opposition from activists in the city’s Chinatown area, who fear it would disrupt or displace residents and businesses. They say the city has ignored concerns that the project will increase vehicle traffic in their pedestrian-friendly neighborhood and force vulnerable residents — older people, low-income families and new immigrants — to move out. Parker on Wednesday renewed her pledge to preserve the area, which is just over a block from the proposed arena site.
If ultimately approved by the City Council, demolition work in the area would begin in 2026 with construction starting two years later. Officials hope to open the arena in time for the 76ers’ 2031-32 season.
