CANADIAN PRESS
HAMILTON—Zach Collaros threw a TD pass against his former team to earn the Tiger-Cats a 13-12 win over the Toronto Argonauts in the first-ever game at Tim Hortons Field on Monday.
Collaros appeared in his first game since suffering a concussion July 4 against Edmonton. He also made his first career start against Toronto, the team he had spent the last two seasons with prior to signing with Hamilton this past off-season as a free agent.
But the contest was indeed a defensive battle on a sunny, blustery afternoon, less than 16 hours after the City of Hamilton finally signed off on the facility to allow the game to go ahead as scheduled. Toronto (3-7) remains atop the East Division standings but the Ticats (2-6) moved to within two points.
Toronto had one last shot to pull out the win, taking the ball at its 32-yard line after recovering Moissis Madu’s fumble with 32 seconds remaining, but the Ticats tackled Mike Bradwell on the game’s final play to preserve the win.
Tim Hortons Field certainly impressed despite sections still remaining a construction zone as work continues there. As a result, the seating capacity for Monday’s game was about 18,000 — which included Canadian John Saunders and Chris Berman of ESPN— roughly 6,000 short of capacity once the facility is finally completed.
But that certainly didn’t take away from the party-like atmosphere as fans began their traditional “Argos Suck” chant shortly after the visitors came to the field, then broke out into a loud rendition of “Oskie Wee Wee,” after Hamilton’s Frederic Plesius recovered Trent Guy’s fumble on the opening kickoff to set up Justin Medlock’s 29-yard field goal just 1:25 into the contest.
