MONTREAL — Just a few months into his CFL career, Kabion Ento is quickly finding out why the league is known for games coming down to the wire.
The 27-year-old cornerback scored the only touchdown off an interception on Sunday as the Montreal Alouettes held off two late Calgary Stampeders red-zone possessions to win 25-18 at Molson Stadium.
“It’s a crazy league in the CFL,” said Ento. “I’ve been here a short amount of time, but the last three minutes is wild. We knew it was going to be on us (the defence).
“That’s when the game gets fun, when the game is on you and you’re with your brothers.”
The Alouettes emphasized the need to improve their pass rush coming out of a bye week — signing veteran defensive lineman and former Stampeder Shawn Lemon to help the cause — and backed it up.
Montreal’s defence limited Calgary quarterback Jake Maier to 256 yards on 24-of-44 passing and secured two interceptions. Maier, who was also sacked three times, was fortunate it wasn’t more as Montreal’s defence got its hands on a number of passes.
In the end, he couldn’t get the Stampeders in the end zone either.
“Very disappointed that we couldn’t score,” said Calgary coach Dave Dickinson, adding he wasn’t sure his receivers ran the right routes. “We are playing extremely hard, you wish the guys would get rewarded.
“I believe in Jake, I know he believes in himself and the guys believe in him.”
Under constant pressure early, Maier threw for just nine yards in the first quarter before throwing an interception early in the second to Ento, who ran the ball 53 yards to the end zone in front of 18,093 fans.
It’s a type of play Ento knew he was under pressure to make after he was beaten by his man in the final minute last time out against the Toronto Argonauts.
“He had a lot of pressure on him going into this game,” said Alouettes head coach Jason Maas. “And we talked to him and said ‘hey, you’ve been put in a lot of positions to make plays and you haven’t made one yet, so let’s make a play — when it’s there you gotta have confidence you can make it.”
Montreal (3-3) snapped a three-game losing skid to move into second place in the East Division with the win, leapfrogging the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Ottawa Redblacks.
Calgary slipped to 2-5 ahead of a difficult stretch in the CFL season. The Stampeders haven’t had a losing season since 2007.
On offence, it was a battle of the kickers. David Cote went 6-for-7 on field goals and kicked a rouge. Calgary kicker Rene Paredes, who was playing in his 200th career game, was perfect at 6-for-6 to score all 18 Calgary points.
The 12 combined field goals were one short of tying a CFL record.
Alouettes quarterback Cody Fajardo appeared to hurt his hand in the second quarter and also had trouble producing with 158 passing yards on 16-of-29 completions as Montreal failed to add to a league-low eight offensive touchdowns.
The Alouettes did, however, do a better job protecting Fajardo, who was only sacked once, bringing the total from 26 to 27 this season.
And although the Alouettes didn’t get in the end zone, Maas was encouraged by the number of times his team got in position to score.
“To be disappointed on six or seven scoring opportunities in this league, I don’t know if that’s the correct way of looking at it,” he said. “We do need to get better, absolutely. … It just comes down to execution at times and better play calling on my part at times.”
Montreal running back William Stanback had his best showing of the season, producing 86 yards on 15 carries. Calgary’s Reggie Begelton led all players with 102 receiving yards.
After Ento’s interception, Calgary had an opportunity to score a touchdown on its ensuing possession, but Montreal’s defence continued giving Maier trouble, sacking him on second and five to force a 32-yard field goal from Paredes to make it 13-6 Montreal.
Montreal and Calgary traded field goals to end the half. The break went an extra 40 minutes due to lightning strikes near the stadium, forcing a Cirque du Soleil halftime show inside a field house nearby.
Touchdowns proved hard to come by in the second half as both Calgary and Montreal continued to settle for field goals despite getting in the red zone.
With Montreal leading 22-15 with five minutes left, Maier led Calgary to the Alouettes 30-yard line but the Stampeders once again settled for a field goal after two incomplete passes.
Montreal’s defence stood tall again on Calgary’s next offensive possession as defensive back Kordell Rodgers picked off Maier with 1:33 remaining.
“We see it every day in practice, we saw it a lot in camp,” said Maas of Rodgers. “He’s a guy that has a lot of confidence in his abilities, has great technique, doesn’t hesitate out there, and will make plays.”
Despite the time left on the clock, the Stampeders stormed back once more but Montreal’s defence turned away multiple end zone passes to secure the win.
Calgary now embarks on a tough schedule with two games against the unbeaten Toronto Argonauts (6-0) in their next four.
“This group will win a lot of football games, but the longer you wait on that it gets tougher,” said Dickenson. “Next one is Toronto, undefeated. Just show up and play well and see what happens.”
UP NEXT
The Alouettes visit the Tiger-Cats (3-4) on Saturday. Montreal’s next three games come against teams that have lost their starting quarterbacks to injury — Hamilton, Saskatchewan and Ottawa.
The Stampeders play Friday at home against Toronto. Calgary then plays the B.C. Lions, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Argonauts again.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 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.
