THE CANADIAN PRESS
Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
On a night where, for three quarters, it seemed like nothing was going the Ticats way, it was a crucial penalty on an unreviewable play that brought the momentum back the way of the Black and Gold.
In the dying moments of the third quarter, Argos Head Coach Jim Barker was hit with a delay of game penalty, pushing back what would have been a 38-yard field goal attempt to the 48 yard line. The ensuing attempt resulted in a muffed hold from 48 and Hamilton never looked back.
After a Sandro DeAngelis field goal cut Toronto’s lead to three, Ticats defensive back Jason Shivers came up with a huge play, stripping Argos receiver Ryan Christian of the ball on the ensuing kickoff.
“That was a great special teams play, they had hurt us on kickoff return and obviously it was apparent to everyone in the stadium that we were kicking away from (Argos receiver Chad Owens),” said Head Coach Marcel Bellefeuille.
“Before the play we said ‘hey we’re going to have pin him deep on this one’ and Shivers made a great play on it and turned us over,” he said.
DeAndra’ Cobb showed that the second half of last week’s game was no anomaly, and picked up where he left off by rushing for 99 yards, including a five-yarder for the go-ahead touchdown on 20 carries.
Cobb looked to be in 2009 form, as he ran over, around, and through would-be tacklers all night.
“My mom texted me and said ‘second efforts, I want to see some second efforts tonight,’ so I just tried to run downhill and make people tackle me,” said Cobb.
“They had their chin-straps buckled up for this one tonight, we knew it was going to be one of those dog fights, O-line did a tremendous job tonight and we pulled it off,” he said.
The two teams were locked in a defensive battle for the whole night, trading three field goals each until Cobb’s touchdown plunge.
Hamilton’s defenders came alive in the fourth quarter and finished the game with three sacks, two of which came late in the fourth quarter. The defence put pressure on Toronto pivot Cleo Lemon all night, holding him to a 17 of 30 performance for 204 yards.
“We came together and played the whole 60 minutes and that’s what coach Marshall has been preaching, ‘we have to finish out the game’ and I think we finished out the game tonight,” said middle linebacker Otis Floyd.
The defence answered the challenge of facing the top rusher in the league by holding him to just 81 yards on the ground, not an easy task when facing the hard running style of Cory Boyd.
“We give respect to him because we see what everybody is talking about, he’s a straight downhill, hard runner. But you’ve got to understand, we’re some aggressive linebackers and we love to hit,” said Floyd.
Tonight’s victory sets up what will surely be an equally hard-hitting affair in two weeks at Ivor Wynne Stadium for the Labour Day Classic, which will have second place in the East as the reward for the victor.
