Kyle Myers
Ticats.ca
It may not have been the game winning score, but C.J. Gable’s 17-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter remained the biggest play of the day for the Tiger-Cats.
Trailing by four, facing second-and-five with 1:29 left to go in the fourth quarter, Henry Burris threw a short completion to Gable in the flat, and the rookie tailback did the rest himself. It was nearly identical to a play in the same situation all the way back in week one, when Gable dropped what would have been the game-winning score against the Argonauts.
“He’s a young man that we have a great deal of confidence in,” said Kent Austin of Gable, who was named an East Division All-Star in his first CFL season. “He’s a great pro. Yeah he made a mistake, but we all make mistakes. We know that he will show up every week.”
Gable struggled through much of the game, bottled up by Montreal’s aggressive defence and helped in no part by the brutal weather conditions. Gable finished the game with -6 yards rushing and a fumble, but in the end it’s his last-minute touchdown that everyone will remember.
“That fumble, I don’t know how it came out,” Gable said after the win. “But I knew that I had to make it up, somehow, some way, I had to make up for it.”
But it wasn’t only Gable with things to make up for. Held in check for the better part of four quarters, Hamilton’s offence faced a 97 yard field into the howling wind needing a touchdown to win, and they never faltered.
“(We) decided we were going to spread it out, put it on Hank’s shoulders,” said Austin. “Henry was really on target on that last drive.”
“To be able to come back out there for my team… and be able to dedicate myself to one drive down the field and get the touchdown to put us in the lead was special,” said Burris. “You never saw anybody falter on our side. They maintained their passion, continued to give us opportunities to go out there and win.”
After the go-ahead drive, the Tiger-Cats defence conceded a field goal to send the game to overtime. But on Montreal’s first possession they once again kept the Alouettes out of the end zone, handing the keys back to Hamilton’s offence, with a chance for a game-winning touchdown.
Dan LeFevour converted two third-and-ones as Austin refused to play for the tie, and finished the drive with a two-yard touchdown to seal the win for Hamilton.
“There’s a reason why Dan had the production he did in college,” said Austin. “He’s just a highly competitive, highly focused, very unselfish quarterback.”
“Dan’s the man,” C.J. Gable said with a smile. “Whenever we call on him, he’s there. He’s a team player.”
Despite the differences on the scoreboard from the last time these two teams met in an East Semifinal, Hamilton’s 19–16 win on Sunday was just as memorable, and it sets up a Hamilton–Toronto East Final, a matchup that hasn’t occurred in 27 years.
After a long season at Alumni Stadium in which the elements seemed set against the Tiger-Cats’ success, they leave Guelph with their heads raised high, and a playoff win to show for it.
