MONTREAL — The Toronto Argonauts beat the Montreal Alouettes on Friday night to start a season 4-0 for the first time since 1983, but you wouldn’t know it based on the coach’s post-game reaction.
“Sloppy game. I mean, it feels like a loss,” said Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie. “I thought it was a team win, guys battled and got in there, but there’s some guys who put themselves ahead of the team.”
Although the Argonauts remain the CFL’s only undefeated team, the game came down to the final minutes, with Toronto ultimately edging Montreal 35-27.
That was too close for comfort for Dinwiddie, who took issue with his team’s 15 penalties for 157 yards.
“A lot of selfless penalties out there,” said Dinwiddie, coaching his first game since signing a multi-year extension in Toronto.
“They were baiting us, which, that’s fine,” he said. “I thought one was a penalty … and they don’t call it but it’s how you respond, right? You can’t respond that way.”
Quarterback Chad Kelly threw three touchdowns, ran for another and completed 21 passes on 25 attempts for 351 yards in his fifth start.
He found open Canadian receiver David Ungerer III for his second touchdown catch, at 37 yards, with just under two minutes left in front of 16,151 spectators on the road at Molson Stadium to give Toronto the late lead.
Running back A.J. Ouellette rushed for 95 yards on 14 carries, and DaVaris Daniels had a game-high 91 receiving yards.
Kelly, who also had an interception trying to throw across his body in the first quarter, says the Argonauts found their rhythm offensively as the game went on.
“We stubbed ourselves in the foot in the first half,” he said. “Second half, we stayed ahead of the sticks. We obviously made plays, converted on second down, we got the running game going, (made) some explosive plays.”
Montreal (2-3) lost for a third-straight game to fall below .500 for the first time this season.
But both quarterback Cody Fajardo and head coach Jason Maas were proud of the team’s effort against the defending Grey Cup champions considering the short week.
While the Alouettes played Sunday in Vancouver against the B.C. Lions and practised once this week, the Argonauts came into the game well-rested after a bye week.
“I was very proud of this team after this loss, regardless of the outcome,” said Maas. “I don’t know if any of them feel great when you lose. But there is something to be said for going out and playing as well as we did tonight, up against it a bit and against a great team like that.
“We got another short week like this coming up not too long from now, and I’m glad our guys know they can go out and compete with the best.”
Fajardo was 26 for 36 for 274 passing yards. He threw three touchdown passes and two interceptions.
Rookie Tyler Snead, playing in just his second CFL game, made his mark by bringing down all three touchdowns for Montreal.
The five-foot-seven receiver says he isn’t playing for his own glory, however.
“It’s exciting, but obviously you wanna win,” he said. “I’m not here for personal accomplishments, I’m here to get W’s in the win column. We just got to bounce back (after the break).”
Receiver Austin Mack added to his league lead in receiving yards with 70 on seven receptions and running back William Stanback, who Maas said is dealing with a minor ankle injury, was more involved than usual this season with 53 yards on 12 carries.
Montreal kicker David Cote went 2-for-2 and Toronto’s Boris Bede went 2-for-3 on field goals, missing his first attempt this season.
Kelly opened the scoring with a one-yard run after completing three passes in a 75-yard drive.
Other than a couple offensive penalties, the Argos had little trouble getting down the field early with Kelly going seven for seven on his first pass attempts.
On his eighth throw, Kelly threw a poor pass while under pressure from an Alouettes blitz that was picked off by safety Marc-Antoine Dequoy.
“Bad decision, right? Can’t throw across the body,” said Dinwiddie. “He got away with it two weeks ago when we played B.C. and then sometimes you get that false sense that you can do that stuff a lot. Can’t do it.
“He’s gonna learn from it, he’s a young kid. He’s in his fifth start, and I think he’s taking the next step.”
The Alouettes scored their first touchdown of the game with three seconds remaining in the half. Fajardo found Snead in the end zone with a 17-yard pass — giving Montreal a 10-7 lead.
The Argonauts started the second half with a bang after Kelly threw 42 yards to Kurleigh Gittens Jr., and continued to move quickly downfield — both with runs from Ouellette and long balls from Kelly.
With the score 20-13 Toronto early in the fourth, Fajardo completed seven passes on one drive, including another touchdown connection with Snead after fighting off two defenders — this time for five yards — to tie the game.
Both teams traded touchdowns in the final five minutes. Kelly connected with Damonte Coxie and Fajardo found Snead for a third time.
Kelly answered by finding Ungerer, who beat cornerback Kabion Ento, in the end zone and the Alouettes got the ball as far as the Argos 32-yard line late, but couldn’t even the core.
UP NEXT
Toronto stays on the road and faces the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Tim Hortons Field next Friday. Montreal has its second bye week of the season before hosting the Calgary Stampeders on July 30.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 14, 2023.
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.
