B.C. 39 EDMONTON 19
Mike Reilly passed for two touchdowns and Paul McCallum booted six field goals as the B.C. Lions clinched first place in the CFL's West Division on Friday night with a 39-19 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos.
The Lions improved to 12-4 and earned the first-round bye in the playoffs. The Eskimos dropped to 7-9, but remained in a good position to qualify for a playoff berth, either in the West or via crossover to the East.
Courtney Taylor and Nick Moore caught Reilly's touchdown passes, while Tim Brown ran in for another TD. McCallum, who was a perfect six for six on field goals, provided the rest of the B.C. scoring.
Cary Koch scored Edmonton's lone touchdown, while Grant Shaw booted three field goals and added another point on a punt single. Edmonton's remaining points came on a safety.
The score was tied 19-19 early in the fourth quarter, but the Lions then exploded for 20 unanswered points. McCallum's fifth field goal of the game with 4: 40 gone in the fourth quarter gave the Lions the lead for good.
Reilly made his first CFL career start at quarterback for the Lions in place of Travis Lulay, who was nursing a shoulder injury but still dressed.
Reilly completed 19 of 28 passes for 278 yards while Edmonton's Kerry Joseph managed to connect on just six of 24 attempts before being benched late in the game. B.C.'s defence was too much for Joseph, sacking him eight times and intercepting him once.
Meanwhile, B.C. running back Andrew Harris surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the first time in his career, becoming just the ninth Canadian to accomplish the feet. In the process, Harris and Calgary's Jon Cornish became the first Canadian running backs since Edmonton's Normie Kwong and Winnipeg's Gerry James in 1956 to rush for 1,000 yards in the same season.
Reilly, a 27-year-old Kennewick, Washington, native who joined the Lions in July 2010 because he was tired of bouncing around the NFL, got off to a rough start as J.C. Sherritt intercepted his second pass attempt.
Lions receiver Ernest Jackson did not look for the ball on a timing play and Sherritt stepped up to make the pick. However, B.C.'s defence helped Reilly out by pressuring Joseph on Edmonton's first play from scrimmage and then Adam Bighill sacked him on the next play.
As a result, Edmonton had to settle for a 34-yard Shaw field goal.
Reilly made amends on the next series as he connected on a 47-yard pass with Akeem Foster. A few minutes later, with Edmonton penalties helping the Lions gain strong field position, Reilly threw his first CFL touchdown pass - an 11-yard pass to Taylor between two defenders.
Shaw's 69-yard punt single and 24-yard field goal, which came after B.C.'s Ryan Phillips knocked down a pass in the end zone intended for Koch, created a 7-7 tie. But McCallum's 38-yard field goal on the final play of the first quarter put the Lions ahead 10-7.
BOMBERS 44, ARGOS 32
TORONTO - Chad Simpson helped make Buck Pierce's return to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers' offence a triumphant one.
Simpson rushed for 136 yards and a TD as Winnipeg ran for 260 yards and four touchdowns to overpower the Toronto Argonauts 44-32 and keep their slim CFL playoff hopes alive before a Rogers Centre gathering of 23,419.
The five-foot-nine, 216-pound Simpson improved to 1,003 rushing yards in his first season with Winnipeg. Alex Brink, with two, and Will Ford also ran for TDs to complement Pierce in his first game back since suffering a mild concussion on Sept. 29.
