Elks beat Lions 28-16 in West Final, will face Alouettes in Grey Cup

The Edmonton Elks are going to the Grey Cup.

Quarterback Cody Fajardo completed 25 of 30 passes for 274 yards and a touchdown and ran for 84 yards and another score as the Elks beat the B.C. Lions 28-16 in the CFL Western Final at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday night, according to the Elks’ game report.

Edmonton will play the Montreal Alouettes in the 113th Grey Cup at McMahon Stadium in Calgary on Sunday, Nov. 15. Kickoff is 5 p.m. Mountain time. Montreal beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 33-23 in the Eastern Final earlier Saturday.

A crowd of 40,182 watched, the Elks’ largest home crowd since 2017. It was Edmonton’s first home playoff game since 2015, the last season the franchise won the Grey Cup.

“The guys found a way to win, when nobody expected us to win this game. Nobody expected us to even be here,” Fajardo said.

How it happened

Kicker Vincent Blanchard made all five of his field goal attempts, from 21, 48, 35, 46 and 27 yards. B.C. kicker Sean Whyte hit three second-quarter field goals, the last on the final play of the half, to give the Lions a 9-6 lead at the break.

Edmonton tied it with Blanchard’s third field goal and went ahead 16-9 late in the third quarter on Fajardo’s five-yard touchdown run. Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke tied the game with an eight-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. Blanchard put Edmonton back in front, and Fajardo found Austin Mack for a 23-yard touchdown with 6:59 left to make it 25-16 before Blanchard closed the scoring.

The Elks held the ball for nearly 35 minutes and won the turnover battle 2-0, though B.C. outgained them 383-371 in net offence. Edmonton outscored the Lions 19-7 in the second half.

“We’re a second half football team,” Elks coach Mark Kilam said. “I want to give a shoutout to Edmonton. I got emotional when we first took the field. That place was unbelievable tonight.”

The Grey Cup matchup

Montreal finished with the CFL’s best record, 14-4. Alouettes quarterback Davis Alexander was named the league’s most outstanding player last week and receiver Tyson Philpot its most outstanding Canadian, The Canadian Press reported. Fajardo, who set career highs this season with 4,788 passing yards and 25 touchdowns, finished third in that voting.

The Lions’ Darnell Sankey, who led the league in tackles, was named the CFL’s most outstanding defensive player on Nov. 3.

Read our Eastern Final report: Alouettes beat Bombers 33-23, head to Grey Cup.