Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
Ticats.ca
Justin Dunk
It was a memorable night for Avon Cobourne.
“We expected to win, it feels good,” the talkative running back said after Hamilton’s 34-26 victory over the defending Grey Cup Champions.
The former Alouette gashed Montreal for a 17-yard run, which got Hamilton out of an early field position hole, on his first touch of the football game and the rest of his Tiger-Cats capitalized on the momentum of their running backs run.
Quinton Porter would put the Cats on the scoreboard, and stake his side to a 7-3 lead in the first quarter, after running in from four yards out on a quarterback bootleg and the Tabbies would never look back.
“I think this is a big step for our team,” Dave Stala, who racked up 107 yards receiving on five catches, said. “Earlier in the week I knew we had to score 25-30 points to win the football game.”
“To beat them early in the season and make a statement means a lot.”
The Steeltown defence held Montreal to just 17 yards of total offence, and three points, in the first quarter, quite a feat considering Calvillo and company are known for their fast starts.
Hamilton managed three sacks, two by Justin Hickman, and one from Renauld Williams, of star Montreal pivot Anthony Calivillo. The ferocious pass rush clawed its way into number 13’s face all night long.
“We just felt like we had to be relentless bringing pressure for 60 minutes,” head coach Marcel Bellefeuille said. “Regardless of who our opponent is.”
Hamilton pestered Calvillo all night long, just like they were pestering Alouette ball carriers and pass catchers. On four separate occasions Ticat defenders knocked the football free, but only once were they able to corral the loose football.
The defence setup the Alouettes and the offence delivered the knock-out blow late in the fourth quarter when Stala found himself wide open in the left flats and took a Kevin Glenn pass 58 yards to pay dirt.
“They were adding and not picking me up when I was blocking, so we decided to run a little screen play,” Stala explained. “It worked perfectly and we got a score out of it to put us up by two scores.”
“You have to have an offensive coordinator with big cajones in order to call that kind of play,” Stala’s pivot added.
Stala, had two touchdowns, a nifty 10-yard major in the second quarter, and the 58-yard touchdown jaunt late in the fourth quarter to seal the Tiger-Cats victory – Hamilton’s third in as many games.
Justin Medlock hit on three of four field goal attempts, while adding two singles and the defence forced Montreal to concede a safety to round off the scoring for Hamilton.
All told, Glenn found six different receivers on the evening, showing the true ‘next man up’ philosophy this team has embraced all season.
“It was about all 12 guys doing their job and being successful doing it,” Glenn said. “Our offence right now is playing pretty well we just have to keep it going.”
Three straight games of 30-plus point efforts from the offence validate Glenn’s statement as the Ticats continue to validate themselves as legit contenders.
