ALOUETTES 15 REDBLACKS 7

OTTAWA (CP) – Sean Whyte’s kicking was enough for Montreal as the Alouettes held off the Ottawa Redblacks for a 15-7 victory on Friday night.

The win was the fourth in the past five games for the Alouettes (5-8), who are in first place in the East Division following a 1-7 start to the season.

Ottawa (1-11), meanwhile, has now dropped nine straight games. However, the Redblacks did give their fans a rare treat in Friday’s loss.

Prior to a touchdown run from Jonathan Williams in the final minute of the second quarter, Ottawa hadn’t scored a touchdown at home since a different Jonathan Williams had an interception return for a touchdown in the opening two minutes against the Calgary Stampeders back on August 24th – a touchdown drought of 33 days.

That was all the scoring the Redblacks had as their offence sputtered after scoring a season-high 32 points during a loss on the road to the Saskatchewan Roughriders last Sunday.

The only offence in the second half, were a pair of punt singles and a field goal from Whyte for Montreal.

Neither quarterback was particularly effective, although Henry Burris completed 25 of 32 passes for 253 yards for Ottawa while Jonathan Crompton was 14 of 29 for 181 yards.

Burris had the Redblacks on the Montreal seven-yard line with two seconds to play, but couldn’t handle the snap and was sacked. Ottawa drew a penalty on the play in any case, ending the game.

The Redblacks had more opportunities in the first half of the game, but after 30 minutes it was the Alouettes who were more opportunistic.

Montreal led 10-7 at the half but that lead was 10-0 until the final minute of the second quarter when the Williams on offence scampered 23 yards to score the Redblacks first offensive touchdown at home in 55 days, or just under 16 quarters of football.

Prior to that the Alouettes got a 14-yard field goal from Whyte and a fumble return for a touchdown from Chip Cox as the built a 10-0 lead following a scoreless opening quarter.

Cox ran the final 50 yards for the TD after Aaron Lavarias recovered the Burris fumble and rumbled the initial 25 or so yards before lateralling the ball to his more nimble teammate.

Jasper Simmons and Abdul Kanneh each intercepted a Crompton pass in the first quarter that led to good field position.

The interception by Simmons gave the Redblacks the ball on the Montreal 36 but nothing became if it despite a first and goal from the one-yard line.

The second interception gave Ottawa the ball on the Montreal 41 but four plays later Burris put the ball on the ground and Montreal took the lead.

Neither team really merited any first half points as they combine for just 106 yards of total offence with 60 of those yards coming from the Redblacks.