SATURDAY SPORTS PAGE: ARGOS WIN, BLUE JAYS LOSE, MESSI DEBUTS

HAMILTON – Chad Kelly threw two touchdown passes and ran for another to lead the Toronto Argonauts past the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 31-15 on Friday night.

Toronto (5-0) remained the CFL’s lone unbeaten team and replicated its modern-day club record of 5-0 established in 1960. The Argos improved to 2-0 this season versus their arch rivals and have won eight of their last nine head-to-head matchups overall.

Rookie quarterback Taylor Powell, in his first CFL start, pulled Hamilton to within 23-15 with a 13-yard TD run at 10:04 of the fourth quarter. That appeared to wake Toronto’s offence up as it countered with a six-play, 73-yard drive that Kelly capped with a one-yard touchdown at 12:57.

Hamilton (2-4) suffered its first loss in three games, to the dismay of the Tim Hortons Field sellout crowd of 24,312. The Ticats were also looking to avenge their 32-14 defeat to Toronto at BMO Field on June 18.

Kelly completed 20-of-27 passes for 306 yards and the two TDs. It was his second straight 300-yard performance.

Powell finished 27-of-41 passing for 281 yards and an interception. He also ran three times for 22 yards.

Former Blue Jay Teoscar Hernandez hit a single into deep right field to bring Jose Caballero home for the game-winning run as the Seattle Mariners topped Toronto 3-2. The ninth-inning run with two outs capped a three-run comeback after the Jays held a 2-0 lead after the top of the seventh.

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Lionel Messi scored a dramatic, game-winning goal in his debut with Inter Miami. Messi’s free kick in stoppage time gave his team a 2-1 victory. Messi was not in the starting lineup but entered in the second half against Cruz Azul in Leagues Cup action at his new home stadium. Team officials said all tickets for the match were sold. Messi signed a two-and-a-half year contract that will pay him between 50 and 60 million dollars (US) annually.

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The Vancouver Bandits weathered a fourth-quarter run from the Edmonton Stingers to hold on for an 84-74 win at Langley Events Centre on Friday. The Bandits snap a five-game losing streak with the victory and take the season series against the Stingers 2-1. The CEBL Championship Weekend hosts were ahead almost wire-to-wire in the game and led by as many as 27 points.

Kassius Robertson’s season-high 27 points led the Scarborough Shooting Stars (10-7) to a 103-93 victory over the Montréal Alliance on Saturday night as they confirmed their spot in the 2023 CEBL playoffs.

The Seattle Kraken re-signed top defenseman Vince Dunn to a four-year, $29.4 million contract Friday, locking up one of their core pieces coming off the best season of his career.

Dunn, 26, had a career-high 14 goals and 64 points in the regular season playing in the top defensive pairing for the Kraken. Teamed with veteran Adam Larsson, Dunn enjoyed the breakout season many expected when he was taken by Seattle during the expansion draft before its inaugural season.

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Longtime NHL executive Brian O’Neill, who helped oversee the league’s first major expansion and was tasked with drafting its first 12-team schedule, has died at age 94. The NHL confirmed O’Neill’s death in a release yesterday. A cause of death was not given. O’Neill was hired by NHL president Clarence Campbell in 1966 as the league’s director of administration. The Montreal native was in charge of drawing up the NHL’s 1967-68 schedule, which added six teams and doubled the size of the league.

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Corey Conners is the lone Canadian teeing off today at the P-G-A’s The Open Championship in England. The Listowel, Ontario native made the cut at 2-over par overall and an even par showing in yesterday’s second round. Abbotsford, BC’s Nick Taylor missed the cut at 4 over. American Brian Harman is the leader at 10-under overall.

(Canadian Press, CEBL PR)