PRESEASON: REDBLACKS 18 BLUE BOMBERS 14

OTTAWA — Ottawa Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris did something on Monday night he did very little of last season – share the field.

That’s fine though because the CFL pre-season is all about the process and not the result.

Chris Milo scored a late 51-yard single as Ottawa held on for an 18-14 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a game that saw both teams uses four quarterbacks.

“It’s all about going out an executing in an actual game situation,” Burris said. “We had too many penalties and too many little things that restricted our movement and drives and put us in tough situations to execute. It was good that we consistently moved the ball.”

The win was the Redblacks’ first game of the CFL’s pre-season, while the Bombers fell to 1-1.

Burris started behind centre for Ottawa and the reigning Most Outstanding Player completed 13 of 21 passes for 158 yards and one touchdown before giving way to Trevor Harris late in the first half.

After Harris completed seven of 13 passes for 107 yards he was replaced by Danny O’Brien to start the fourth quarter (3-of-6, 32 yards, one interception) and Brock Jensen finished the game completing his only pass.

Drew Willy played the first half for the Blue Bombers and made 11 passes for 87 yards.

“We did some good things but we put ourselves in some tough situations,” Willy said of his team that now has more than a week to prepare against the season-opening game against the Montreal Alouettes on June 24.

“We’ll have to see the film but we do have a lot of work to do and we have 10 or 11 days here to get ready for a good Montreal team and we look forward to the process.”

Matt Nichols played the third quarter and drove the field before connecting on a five-yard pass to Quincy McDuffie for Winnipeg’s only touchdown of the game.

The extra point attempt was blocked, however, by Jonathan Rose, leaving the score 17-13 in favour of the Redblacks. Nichols finished with six completions in nine attempts for 73 yards before Dominique Davis and Bryan Bennett wrapped things up for the Bombers throwing five combined passes.

Sergio Castillo’s 39-yard single inside three minutes of full time pulled the Bombers to within a field goal at 17-14.

Thanks to the only touchdown of the first half, the Redblacks built a 17-3 lead that was eventually narrowed to 17-6 by Winnipeg at the break.

Burris connected with Brad Sinopoli on a five-yard pass for a TD and followed that with a two-point conversion toss to Ernest Jackson, giving the Redblacks that 17-3 advantage with less than two minutes to play in the half.

On the ensuing drive the Blue Bombers, who recorded just three first downs through the opening two quarters, got a 47-yard field goal from Castillo to cut that lead to 17-6.

It was the second field goal of the half for Castillo, who also hit from 49-yards at 11:41 of the first quarter to tie the game 3-3.

Milo had opened the scoring with a 21-yard field goal two-and-a-half minutes earlier and then gave the Redblacks a 6-3 lead with a 27-yard field goal on the last play of the first quarter.

A 38-yard field goal from Milo four minutes into the second quarter increased the Ottawa lead to 9-3.

On the opening possession of the second half Billy Pavlopoulos’s 55-yard single was the only scoring of the third quarter and it cut the Redblacks lead to 17-7.

The Redblacks play their second and final pre-season game Friday at Hamilton against the Tiger-Cats before opening the regular season eight days later on the road against the Edmonton Eskimos.

(The Canadian Press)