The old football cliché is that defence wins championship and it was definitely the difference for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a 19-14 win over the Montreal Alouettes last night.
The Alouettes lead 3-0 after the 1st quarter but the Roughriders went ahead in the 2nd quarter after a 3 yard touchdown from William Powell.
While the green and white offence wasn’t able to find the endzone in the second half, they were able to extend their lead in the 3rd quarter following a pair of field goals from Brett Lauther to make it 13-3.
After trading field goals to begin the fourth quarter, the Alouettes a rouge before Trevor Harris who relieved Matthew Shiltz at Quarterback engineered a scoring drive that was capped off by a 4 yard touchdown pass to Eugene Lewis.
For the second straight game, Duke Williams recovered an onside kick which lead to a late goal field goal from Lauther before the Riders D made one final stand against Harris and the Alouettes to preserve the victory.
Leading the way on the defensive front for Saskatchewan was Jonathon Woodward and Pete Robertson with 2 sacks each. AC Leonard also had a strong game with a sack, a pair of tackles for losses and 8 tackles. Loucheiz Purifoy had a key interception in the first half as the Alouettes were driving inside of the Riders end of the field.
Head Coach Craig Dickenson was proud of the effort from his defence in the win. “The defence deserves a lot of credit, I think that’s one of the things we’ve done well this year is emphasized it and the defence executed it, hats off to those guys.”
Defensive Tackle Anthony Lanier gives credit to the team’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Clinton Spencer for the defence being able to play a strong four quarters. “We call it the Clint factor that we say our bodies is better than theirs, our Clint factor is going to take over, that’s in the weight room, that’s on the field and that’s also mentally from him talking to us about how we should perform as well.”
Powell lead the way for the Riders on offence as he racked up 70 combined yards along with the team’s lone touchdown. Cody Fajardo ended the game going 14 for 25 with 158 yards and gained 48 yards on the ground.
The news wasn’t all good for Saskatchewan as they lost receiver Kyran Moore to an injury which has Dickenson worried “He did something to his knee, we’re hoping it’s something that’s not too bad but it’s concerning, but the doctors will tell us more when we get back.”
With the victory over Montreal, Saskatchewan clinched a playoff spot and remain two points ahead of the Calgary Stampeders for second spot in the West, with the Stamps holding a game in hand over the Riders and owning the tiebreaker after winning two of the three games in the regular season. It’s looking likely that the two teams will meet for the fourth time in December during the Western Semi-Finals with home field advantage still to be decided.
The Riders will begin a home and home set with the Edmonton Elks on Friday in Edmonton. Kickoff is set for 7:45.