SUNDAY SPORTS PAGE: FAJARDO WINS ALS DEBUT, RAPTORS HAVE NEW COACH

MONTREAL – Cody Fajardo said all week that the Montreal Alouettes had receivers who could step up within their inexperienced group. On Saturday, it was Austin Mack.

With receivers Greg Ellingson, Tyson Philpot and Reggie White Jr. all on the six-game injured list, Mackfilled the void by making four receptions for 120 yards as Montreal hung on to beat the Ottawa Redblacks 19-12 in the CFL regular-season opener for both squads.

“We’ve got some young receivers, but the league is going to take notice and (Mack) had an incredible game,” said Fajardo, who threw for 261 yards on 14 of 21pass attempts and ran for a touchdown in his first game as the Alouettes quarterback.

“I feel like he caught everything I threw his way and he’s just going to continue to get better.”

Fajardo and Mack connected on a 61-yard heave on the first pass of the game to set up the quarterback’s one-yard touchdown run and put the 20,865 fans at Percival Molson Stadium on their feet in the first game under new Alouettes owner Pierre Karl Peladeau.

While Montreal was missing key receivers, Ottawa didn’t have its No. 1 quarterback. Nick Arbuckle started under centre for the Redblacks with Jeremiah Masoli ruled out at least the first two games of the season as he continues to recover from a broken leg suffered last season.

Arbuckle struggled, throwing three interceptions and 176 yards on 19 of 35 completions. Kicker Lewis Ward scored all of Ottawa’s points, going 4-for-4 on field goals.

“Overall, I think our defence and special teams played really well and I just don’t think, you know, I left too much out there and didn’t give our offence enough of a chance to score some touchdowns,” said a disappointed Arbuckle post-game. “It makes me sad that I didn’t do well enough to give that win to (the team).”

After Montreal’s hot start, the offence went dry for most of the game and Fajardo was sacked six times – something head coach Jason Maas says is a top priority to fix next time out.

“If your quarterback gets hit like he did all night there’s gonna be concerns, but that’s not something that I think is gonna continue,” said Maas, who won his first game as Alouettes head coach after being hired in December.

“Protecting our quarterback is the first thing we think about every day so we’ll be better at that for sure and that’s on us as coaches to make that happen.”

Montreal kicker David Cote also went 4-for-4, and starting running back William Stanback ran for42 yards on 16 attempts.Defensive back and free-agent signing Ciante Evans had two interceptions in the game.

The Vegas Golden Knights will have a chance to win the Stanley Cup on home ice Tuesday night, following a 3-2 victory over the host Florida Panthers on Saturday night. Chandler Stephenson scored twice for Vegas, while William Karlsson added a single as the Golden Knights grabbed a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven final. Brandon Montour and Aleksander Barkov (BAR-kawv) scored for the Panthers.

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After winning 3 of 4 games against the defending World Series champion Houston Astros, the Toronto Blue Jays have lost two straight to the struggling Minnesota Twins. Carlos Correa hit his second career grand slam on Saturday as the visiting Twins scored 7 runs in the eighth inning to beat the Blue Jays 9-4 on Saturday. The Jays took a 3-1 lead into the eighth but failed to close. The teams finish a three-game series on Sunday.

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C-T Pan of Taiwan will take a 2-stroke lead into Sunday’s final round at the R-B-C Canadian Open and he’ll have a lot of players on his heels, including Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B-C, who set a course record at Oakville Golf and Country Club with a 9-under-par on Saturday to sit eighth overall. Pan is at 14-under. Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy is in a 6-way tie for second as he looks for a third consecutive title. Corey Conners of Listowel, Ontario, is in the 10th spot, 4 shots back of the leader.

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Mason Toye scored twice as C-F Montreal defeated the visiting Minnesota United 4-0 in Major League Soccer action Saturday. Elsewhere, Lorenzo Insigne scored in the 38th-minute for Toronto, but Randall Leal tied it in the 69th minute for visiting Nashville as the teams played to a 1-1 draw. And the Vancouver Whitecaps, fresh off Wednesday’s Canadian Championship win, gave up a goal in the 83rd minute to Luciano Acosta but recovered when Ryan Gauld scored on a penalty in the 89th minute to tie the visiting F-C Cincinnati 1-1.

The Toronto Raptors are hiring Memphis Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic as their new head coach, according to multiple reports. The move comes almost 2 months after the firing of now-Philadelphia 76ers head coach Nick Nurse. The Raptors were the only team remaining in the N-B-A with a head coaching vacancy.

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Deng Adel’s six points in target score time helped the Ottawa BlackJacks (4-2) fend off the Edmonton Stingers (1-3) 91-85 Saturday at the Edmonton Expo Centre.  The former Cleveland Cavalier forward nearly finished with a triple-double, scoring a game-high 20 points to go with 9 rebounds and 8 assists in his second CEBL game of the season. 

Meanwhile a seismic third quarter helped the Vancouver Bandits right the ship and earn an 87-78 win over the Niagara River Lions at the Meridian Centre on Saturday night. Bandits big man Nick Ward played bully ball in the paint against the CEBL’s reigning defensive player of the year E. J. Onu on his way to 25 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

(Canadian Press)