SATURDAY SPORTS PAGE – TICATS TAME REDBLACKS, HUSKIES BOMB RAMS
Photo: Hamilton Tiger-Cats
OTTAWA – The Hamilton Tiger-Cats swept the season series against the Ottawa Redblacks with a 27-24 win at TD Place on Friday night.
The Redblacks (3-9) dropped their sixth straight game and find themselves mired in the CFL East Division basement.
With Ottawa driving towards midfield late in the fourth quarter, quarterback Dustin Crum had the ball knocked out of his hands. Hamilton’s Ted Laurent recovered with 69 seconds left and after a pair of rushing plays, the Tiger-Cats ran out the clock for the win.
Ottawa has lost 16 consecutive home games to East Division rivals. The Redblacks’ last home win against an East team was in November 2018 against Toronto.
Hamilton’s Taylor Powell finished 21 for 32 for 326 yards and three touchdowns. Tim White had seven catches for 180 yards.
Crum went 17 for 26 for 260 yards and one interception. He also rushed for 42 yards and one touchdown.
CANADA WEST FOOTBALL
The annual Huskie Homecoming night proved to delight the sold-out crowd at Griffiths Stadium in Saskatoon on a beautiful Friday night under the lights. The Saskatchewan Huskies made a statement against the provincial rival Regina Rams as they kicked off the U-Prairie Challenge with a dominant 40-6 victory. Veteran receiver Rhett Vavra, gave the 10,000 plus fans in the stands something to talk about after racking up three (3) touchdowns on his own before the end of the first half.
The Huskies went to 2-0 while the Rams fell to 0-2.
Elsewhere Alberta dumped Manitoba 37-16. On Saturday the Calgary Dinos visit the UBC Thunderbirds.
(Huskies Athletics)
MLB
The Toronto Blue Jays have a firmer grip on the last wild-card spot in the American League. Vladimir Guerrero Junior drove in two runs and Toronto hung on for a 5-4 win over Kansas City. The Blue Jays are one-and-a-half games up on Texas after the Rangers dropped a 6-3 decision to Oakland.
Baltimore’s win streak is up to six games after an 11-2 rout of the Boston Red Sox. The first-place Orioles have a four-game lead on Tampa Bay in the East Division standings. The Rays beat the Mariners 7-4. Seattle holds the second A-L wild-card spot and is just one game ahead of Toronto.
WHL
The Regina Pats opened the pre-season with a 1-0 loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings on Friday inside the Brandt Centre.
Kelton Pyne was the main story for the Pats in their pre-season opener, making 28 saves on 29 shots. Brandon’s goaltender Nicolas Jones also stood tall, turning aside all 34 shots that he faced for the shutout.
The Wheat Kings lone goal came from Caleb Hadland short-handed late in the third period.
The Pats travel East for their next pre-season contest in Brandon as they face off with the Wheat Kings on Saturday, September 9. The Pats finish their home pre-season schedule on Wednesday, September 13 against the Saskatoon Blades before ending exhibition play on September 15 in Prince Albert.
(Canadian Press, ReginaPats.com)
I was at the Ottawa – TiCat game. Ottawa’s defensive secondary is the achilleas heal of the team. Time and time again the middle of the field was wide open for huge chunks of yards for the TiCats. If the RedBlacks could have stopped one or two of those 2nd and long plays they could have won easily.
Also I’ll say this again and again. The crowd was engaged, diverse, and ranged in age from 5 to 95. The CFL is not going away, and those haters who go out of their way to dis this league can suck it.
suck it 🤔 . . . . strange use of words for a sport page comment.